Documents Automation

Overview

Document automation refers to the ability to link data directly into a document such that the document renders according to the value of the data, and can possibly update itself in real time as the data changes.

Document Types

The first choice to make when automating a document is to choose what type of document to automate. There are three primary types that the davinci platform currently supports

• HTML: is the language of the web page. Html documents are documents that are hosted on the web and displayed in a browser.
• Latex: is the document prepartion language/system originally created by Leslie Lamport. Latex documents are prepared in straight ASCII text, which contains all the formatting and rendering information necessary to render the document, which is usually rendered into a pdf file. Because Latex source documents use only standard text, it is easy to make changes to the document and to automate. Latex is the standard document preparation system used by many (if not most) professional publishing companies.

Binding Text to Data

Often times, you may wish to include data in a document, which may include aggregating or summarizing data. Additionally, you may want to create a template where certain portions of the document change by changing a certain set of data elements.

The davinci Dynamic Text framework provides the foundation to being able to bind data to a document. It is used in many contexts including both HTML documents and Latex documents.

Demos