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<p>You have two options when it comes to choosing a document automation system. You can either build the tools you need in-house or buy a specialized, industry-specific solution. The most forward-thinking firms and teams intelligently devote their technical resources to projects that create a unique competitive difference. Internal tool development is frequently a source of distraction.</p>



<p>Is document generation a core part of your product? It can be a core part but is it the unique part (IP) of your product? If not, then maybe it makes sense to buy. Following the best practices, it can be the same if we are talking about document generation. Doc generation can look easy, but you can end up with a massive project inside your product. This is associated with other additional costs, which we will describe in more detail in the next part of the article.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>The fastest moving companies and teams wisely allocate their engineering resources to projects that move the needle in terms of unique competitive differentiation. Building internal tools is often a distraction. The Facebooks of tomorrow would be foolish to build much of the tooling they need to operate their organizations and infrastructure from scratch.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.bvp.com/atlas/developer-laws-2019#7-Developer-platforms-enable-companies-to-focus-on-product-differentiation-and-unique-competitive-advantage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Bessemer Venture Partners: Developer law nr 7</a></p>
</blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Do I need documents generation?</h2>



<p>Document Generation can be useful when multiple documents need to be generated and each document contains a mixture of:</p>



<ul>
<li>Static content – the parts that remain the same in each document.</li>



<li>Dynamic content – content that is customised for the audience or recipient of the generated document.</li>
</ul>



<p>Document generation is the process of creating business-critical documents such as invoices, contracts, sales proposals, and work orders. You can automatically create digital documents using your unique templates and branding, as well as gather data from several CRM systems using pre-defined rules, with the correct document generation tools.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What to consider before making the decision?</h2>



<p>There are some crucial elements to consider before making an informed choice. Total cost, project complexity, potential dangers, and competitive advantages are some of these considerations. Let´s take a look at some of the considerations below.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="683" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-921" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-300x200.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-768x512.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Document-Generation_building-or-buying-the-software-1980x1320.jpg 1980w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Building or buying the software? What to consider before making the decision?</figcaption></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Total cost</h3>



<p>Understand the true costs of building versus buying software, including license models, implementation, and maintenance costs. Companies often find the initial cost of an outsourced document software system is less expensive than developing a similar system in-house. Small and medium-sized businesses, on the other hand, must take into account the cost of implementation as well as continuing maintenance. When these expenses are outsourced, however, they can be more easily controlled since solution providers can recognize problems and reduce risks.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Risk</h3>



<p>Control, performance, and completion – all of which might fail throughout the building process – are all risks that are eliminated when organizations choose to acquire a software package. There are still vendor-related concerns, such as support and dependability.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Scalability</h3>



<p>Purchasing an enormous document software program can be costly to maintain and run, whereas custom solutions can be developed to fit the unique demands of small and medium-sized businesses.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Time to develop</h3>



<p>Developing an internal product requires planning, resource allocation, and preparing for the unknown. Because document generation projects are relatively new, it can be difficult to define the scope. This can lead to significant timeline risk. Building a document software system takes longer and costs more money than purchasing an existing service.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The scope of work might be larger than expected</h2>



<p>The goal of most document generation systems is to deliver a minimal viable product (MVP) as fast as possible. While it is true that with a skilled engineering team, attaining high accuracy on big customers in a timely manner is possible, the last 20% of document variety tends to consume 80% of the time.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="768" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-developers.png" alt="" class="wp-image-919" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-developers.png 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-developers-300x225.png 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-developers-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Document Generation Process handled by developers</figcaption></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>Developer productivity is the fuel of business, the speed of iteration is a key main factor of success. The Build vs Buy decisions are obsolete, they are replaced by Buy and Build: developers select a set of platforms that are easy to use and can be extended. Twilio is a great example of such a platform.</p>



<p><a href="https://alven.co/portfolio/#algolia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Algolia</a> co-founder Julien Lemoine at <a href="https://alven.co/the-debrief-go-to-market-in-dev-tools-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Alven.co</a></p>
</blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What is PDF Generator API?</h2>



<p>If you have not heard about the PDF Generator API, we would like to shortly introduce our main value proposition. PDF Generator API allows you to easily generate transactional PDF documents and reduce the development and support costs by enabling your users to create and manage their document templates using a browser-based drag-and-drop document editor.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="768" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-integration.png" alt="" class="wp-image-920" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-integration.png 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-integration-300x225.png 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/process-handled-by-integration-768x576.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Document Generation Process handled by integration</figcaption></figure>



<p></p>


header


<p>The year 2023 is here; as usual, this is the time to look back and reflect on the past year&#8217;s successes and learnings. </p>



<p>2022 was an excellent year for PDF Generator API &#8211; we strengthened our team with multiple new hires, grew our generation volumes and revenue, and improved our customer-facing brand along with a new website. Here are some highlights from 2022.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New hires</h2>



<p>In 2022, 3 new people joined our team &#8211; Jevgeni joined us as a developer, Radovan as a customer support person at the Brno office, and Annes took the lead in marketing in Estonia. </p>



<p>Even though the Brno team has been ramping up nicely, it was only in 2022 that I finally made my way over there &#8211; good vibes! While establishing an office in Brno for the support team, flexibility in our product and working culture is essential for us at PDF Generator API. That is how Bruno, our lead developer, spent 2022 working from Italy, the Canary Islands, and Austria. We are genuinely location-independent.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="592" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-1024x592.png" alt="" class="wp-image-910" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-1024x592.png 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-300x173.png 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-768x444.png 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-1536x888.png 1536w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-2048x1184.png 2048w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-1200x693.png 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/new-hires-2-1980x1144.png 1980w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Development</h2>



<p>Talking about development &#8211; we kept busy on that front as well. 2022 saw 32 releases. What a number. We introduced our <a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/blog/prerequisite-for-future-success-and-continuous-growth-api-version-4-is-now-live" rel="nofollow">API v4</a> with asynchronous generation and <a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/html-to-pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HTML to PDF</a> service, a bunch of security-enhancing updates and practices (PEN testing, static code analysis, vulnerability scanning, etc.), and quite a few new integrations with low-code platforms (<a href="https://airtable.com/marketplace/blkVfvKHYITm7m8JL/pdf-generator-api">Airtable integration</a>, <a href="https://backendless.com/feature/pdf-generator-api/">Backendless</a>, <a href="https://www.xano.com/snippet/jn7mDmAP/">Xano</a>). Low code is the way of the future, and we are fully committed to being a part of this game. We also continued splitting up the monolith of our service and developing microservices to improve performance and scalability.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Marketing &amp; Growth</h2>



<p>As mentioned &#8211; 2022 saw the launch of our new branding and website, which hopefully reflects our product and general approach a bit better. We were able to accomplish this by ramping up our marketing team. </p>



<p><strong>In 2022 generated about 73M documents and grew our revenue by roughly ~80% YoY.</strong> </p>



<p>Visibility is key, so the team also participated in some prominent industry events in 2022 &#8211; Michal, Erik, and Tanel took part in <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pdf-days-europe-2022-recap-actual-reports/?trackingId=5j24EM9%2BHjxkpd0pBRB%2BNQ%3D%3D" rel="nofollow">PDF Days Europe</a>. Industry events are always a source of inspiration, this event was no exception. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What will 2023 bring?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="975" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pdf_api_isometric-1-1024x975.png" alt="" class="wp-image-911" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pdf_api_isometric-1-1024x975.png 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pdf_api_isometric-1-300x286.png 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pdf_api_isometric-1-768x731.png 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pdf_api_isometric-1-1200x1143.png 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pdf_api_isometric-1.png 1295w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>As we are gearing up for an even busier year, we have even more ambitious plans for 2023. </p>



<ul>
<li>We will launch a new customer portal.</li>



<li>Put time and effort into enhancing document generation and delivery for businesses.</li>



<li>Get our hands dirty in developing an approach for EDI and hybrid documents.</li>



<li>Improve our onboarding processes to help our current and future customers better understand our product.</li>
</ul>



<p>Something to look forward to in 2023!</p>



<p><em>Tanel Tähepõld<br>Founder</em></p>



<p>Read also: <a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/blog/pdf-generator-api-2021-recap-small-company-big-dreams">PDF Generator API 2021 Recap: Small Company, Big Dreams</a></p>


2022-recap-new-hires

2022 Recap – Reaching New Heights 


<p><strong>Poor or non-existent documentation is one of the five </strong><a href="https://nordicapis.com/5-reasons-why-developers-are-not-using-your-api/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>reasons why developers never use your API</strong></a><strong>. So we wanted to make sure that our API documentation is clear, complies with standards, and, most importantly, is automatically updated whenever we update our API specification.</strong></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="427" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-API-Benefits-1-Header-1024x427.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-864" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-API-Benefits-1-Header-1024x427.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-API-Benefits-1-Header-300x125.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-API-Benefits-1-Header-768x320.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-API-Benefits-1-Header-1200x500.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Open-API-Benefits-1-Header.jpg 1440w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">OpenAPI Initiative members:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.openapis.org/membership/members" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://www.openapis.org/membership/members</a></figcaption></figure>



<p id="889f">We already had our API defined in OpenAPI/Swagger 2.0, but it was a static definition and never used to generate the API documentation, not to mention automatic code generation.</p>



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="7aa7">Let’s clarify Swagger vs OpenAPI</h2>



<p id="302d">In the last years, there have been many questions and confusion about the difference between Swagger and OpenAPI, when to use one over the other, and the relationship between OpenAPI and Swagger.</p>



<p id="b868">The OpenAPI is the official name of the specification, and the OpenAPI Initiative manages the development of the specification. Swagger is associated with some of the most well-known and widely used tools for implementing the OpenAPI specification. The Swagger toolset includes a mix of open-source, free, and commercial tools, which can be used at different stages of the API lifecycle. You can read more about their tools from&nbsp;<a href="https://swagger.io/blog/api-strategy/difference-between-swagger-and-openapi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">their official blog.</a></p>



<p></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="5514">The benefits of OpenAPI specification</h2>



<p id="279d">I expect that most of you are familiar with OpenAPI, but to whom it is new, here is a quick introduction from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.openapis.org/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">OpenAPI Initiative page</a>&nbsp;that manages the specification. The OpenAPI specification is an API description format for RESTful APIs. The specification allows defining the entire API structure from available endpoints to parameters and authentication methods. The API specification can be written in YAML or JSON. The complete OpenAPI Specification can be found on GitHub:&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">OpenAPI 3.X Specification</a>.</p>



<p id="677e"><strong>The main benefits of definition driven API development, in my personal opinion, are:</strong></p>



<ul>
<li>better developer experience</li>



<li>faster go to market</li>



<li>increased team independence.</li>



<li>Automated documentation and code generation</li>
</ul>



<p id="3d4e">You can read more about the benefits of definition driven API development&nbsp;<a href="https://swagger.io/blog/api-strategy/benefits-of-openapi-api-development/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here</a>, and I also suggest reading this post about&nbsp;<a href="https://hackernoon.com/is-api-first-development-approach-right-for-your-business-0lr2b58" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">API driven development</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="700" height="443" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_IDNkD1yrq5WapnSg.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-865" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_IDNkD1yrq5WapnSg.jpg 700w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_IDNkD1yrq5WapnSg-300x190.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="471e">Validating your API specifications</h2>



<p id="8eca">Many organisations maintain their API style guides. These documents detail the decisions already made regarding resource naming, capitalisation, versioning, and other elements on how the API needs to look and feel.</p>



<p id="de4b">Although if these style guides are not enforced, we will end up with inconsistent API specifications. While manual reviews are essential, you can also turn to automation to help implement your style guide.</p>



<p id="7eeb">While searching for a way to validate our Open API specification automatically, we found&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/stoplightio/spectral" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Spectral</a>&nbsp;(created by&nbsp;<a href="https://stoplight.io/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Stoplight</a>), an awesome JSON/YAML linter for creating automated style guides. Spectral allows you to describe your API style guide as a set of rules, so you can automatically validate your Open API specification against your API guidelines and make sure that everyone is following them.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="fb00">OpenAPI specification in action</h2>



<p id="a8ac">We have taken advantage of the benefits provided by OpenAPI specification and described our APIs to generate good looking API documentation pages with code examples automatically. In Part 2, we will discuss using Open API specification and some fantastic tools to create code examples and SDKs automatically.</p>



<p id="7e82">You are more than welcome to take a look at our API documentation if you are interested in how does automatically generated documentation look —&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">our API documentation</a>.</p>



<p id="d05c">In addition to that, if you are considering setting up automatically generated API documentation and still have some questions to figure out, don’t hesitate to reach out for advice. We are happy to share our experience in more detail and help in any way we can.</p>



<p id="92f6">Tanel Tähepõld (founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">PDF Generator API</a>)</p>


Open-API-Benefits-1-Header (1)

Benefits of Open API — Introduction and validation (Part 1 of 2)


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="3355">Generating API documentation</h2>



<p id="de91">There are many different tools and services that allow you to display live API documentation from the OpenAPI specification. You can either self-host the API documentation using tools like <a href="https://github.com/Redocly/redoc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ReDoc</a> or <a href="https://swagger.io/tools/swaggerhub/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swagger UI</a> or go with a SaaS which provides hosted documentation. Usually, these services offer not only API documentation capabilities but cover the entire API lifecycle. In that category, we have <a href="https://www.postman.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Postman</a>, <a href="https://stoplight.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stoplight</a>, <a href="https://swagger.io/tools/swaggerhub/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swagger Hub</a>, <a href="https://www.apimatic.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ApiMatic</a>, and a few.</p>



<p id="0405">After trying out different services, we finally chose to self-host the <a href="https://github.com/Redocly/redoc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ReDoc</a>. We liked their three-column design and presenting the endpoint parameters, for example, payloads and responses.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*lhBRRTOqQP2VlWoJ" alt=""/></figure>



<p id="8598">We also loved how easy it was to deploy the documentation with ReDoc. You can use their bundled JavaScript and specify URL to your Open API specifications. The code snippet below is everything you need.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>&lt;!DOCTYPE html
&lt;html&gt;
  &lt;head&gt;
    &lt;title&gt;PDF Generator API Documentation&lt;/title&gt;
    &lt;!-- needed for adaptive design --&gt;
    &lt;meta charset="utf-8"/&gt;
    &lt;meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"&gt;
    &lt;link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Montserrat:300,400,700|Roboto:300,400,700" rel="stylesheet"&gt;
    &lt;style&gt;
      body {
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
      }
    &lt;/style&gt;
  &lt;/head&gt;
  &lt;body&gt;
    &lt;redoc spec-url='https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/api/v3'&gt;&lt;/redoc&gt;
    &lt;script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/redoc@next/bundles/redoc.standalone.js"&gt; &lt;/script&gt;
  &lt;/body&gt;
&lt;/html&gt;&gt;</code></pre>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="2f0d">Generating code-snippets</h2>



<p id="40e2">For us, it was important that developers can try out our API as easy as possible. Therefore we wanted to provide code samples in different programming languages. Creating and maintaining code samples in other languages can be complicated if you don’t have the know-how in the team.</p>



<p id="2f83">After researching the Internet, we found this&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/cdwv/oas3-api-snippet-enricher" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">small node module</a>&nbsp;that uses the&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/ErikWittern/openapi-snippet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">openapi-snippet&nbsp;</a>generator to create code samples and enrich your Open API specification. You can just run the following command, and you will have code samples for each of your API endpoints.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>./node_modules/.bin/snippet-enricher-cli --input=openapi.yaml &gt; openapi-with-examples.json</code></pre>



<p id="5294">And the result is nice looking code samples in your documentation.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/508/0*aPAr_ZcTWgm8Rtcg" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="6c95">Generating HTTP API clients</h2>



<p id="e123">If managing code-snippets is time-consuming, keeping your API clients up to date is a nightmare, especially if you have a small team. So, besides generating code-snippets for each API endpoint, we also wanted to auto-generate HTTP clients for our API.</p>



<p id="993b">This task turned out to be more complicated than we initially thought, but we ended up with the&nbsp;<a href="https://openapi-generator.tech/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">OpenAPI Generator</a>, a fork from&nbsp;<a href="https://swagger.io/tools/swagger-codegen/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Swagger Code Generator</a>. The main advantages of the OpenAPI Generator were better documentation and the easy to use node module. What we found important was specifying a configuration file for each programming language. You can find a set of available configuration options for each language&nbsp;<a href="https://openapi-generator.tech/docs/generators" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>



<p id="867b">We also created a small bash script to help us automate the code generation and fix some issues in the generated README file. We have another script that automatically pushes client updates to GitHub. This means that by running a single bash script, we create HTTP clients for five target languages (Python, Java, JavaScript, PHP and Ruby) and publish updates to GitHub.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>#!/bin/bas
cd $(dirname $0)
OPEN_API_DOC=/path-to-procject/api-docs.yaml
LANG=$1
OUTPUT_DIR=./$LANG
GIT_REPO="$LANG-client"
CONFIG=./config/$LANG.yaml
rm -rf OUTPUT_DIR
npx openapi-generator generate -g $LANG -i $OPEN_API_DOC -o $OUTPUT_DIR -c $CONFIG --git-user-id=$GIT_USER --git-repo-id=$GIT_REPO --git-host=github.com
sed -i 's|\\"|"|g' $OUTPUT_DIR/README.md
sed -i 's|*@dev|master|g' $OUTPUT_DIR/README.mdh</code></pre>



<p id="d3b2">If you wish to know more about Open API Generator, I suggest reading the&nbsp;<a href="https://nordicapis.com/introduction-to-openapi-generator/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Introduction to OpenAPI Generator</a>&nbsp;by Kristopher Sandoval on&nbsp;<a href="https://nordicapis.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Nordic APIs</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="953e">Summary</h2>



<p id="8e9a">The chosen tools were only the best for us, and I suggest that before you start documenting your APIs, you would also do your research with some trials on different tools. You might find some other combination that suits you much better. Selecting the proper tooling will save you much time. The good part is that once you have the specification done, it’s easy to try out different tools and hosting options.</p>



<p id="c7f3">Also, you can check out our API documentation&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>



<p id="58ab">And finally,&nbsp;<a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/about" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">feel free to contact us</a>&nbsp;as we are always open to share our experience and help fellow developers to succeed! —&nbsp;<strong>Tanel Tähepõld, Founder of PDF Generator API</strong></p>


Benefits of Open API 2 Header

Benefits of Open API — How we generate documentation, code-snippets and clients (Part 2 of 2)


<p id="009b">Create personalized invoices, packing slips, labels and more, directly from your e-commerce platform in an easy way</p>



<p id="0692">The potential of e-commerce platforms is gaining momentum, and not only in recent years but especially during the Christmas holidays. In this short informative article, we decided to summarize information about Printout Designer and its use in streamlining the order fulfillment process. This is a scarecrow for several companies, and not only at Christmas time.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*exBAYqZSN7XTb4lQfCvp7A.png" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/950591/united-states-ecommerce-platforms-market-share/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Market share of e-commerce software platforms in the United States from 2018 to 2021</a></figcaption></figure>



<p id="12c6">As can be seen, in recent months, almost 66% of the market share has been split between 3 platforms — Shopify, WooCommerce Checkout, and Wix Stores. Let&#8217;s look at how complicated or easy it is to start with order automation.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Printout Designer — automate your documents</h2>



<p id="1151"><a href="https://printoutdesigner.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Printout Designer</strong>&nbsp;</a>is an application where you can create personalized invoices, packing slips, labels, and basically any document using the&nbsp;<strong>data from</strong>&nbsp;supported&nbsp;<strong>eCommerce platforms</strong>.</p>



<p id="1151"><br>With the&nbsp;<strong>drag&amp;drop template editor</strong>, there is no need to use code when creating or editing the templates. Once the template is ready, you can&nbsp;<strong>print/e-mail/download</strong>&nbsp;the documents manually or use automation rules for e-mailing and printing, which&nbsp;<strong>saves</strong>&nbsp;a lot of the company&#8217;s&nbsp;<strong>time</strong>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="03a3">Here are some pros of&nbsp;<a href="https://printoutdesigner.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">PrintoutDesigner</a>:</h3>



<ul>
<li><strong>Print</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>download,</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>e-mail</strong>&nbsp;hundreds of orders with a couple of clicks</li>



<li><strong>Automatically</strong>&nbsp;e-mail and print invoices and receipts for every order</li>



<li><strong>Easily integrate</strong>&nbsp;with your existing order processing flow</li>



<li><strong>No coding required; just</strong>&nbsp;drag and drop</li>
</ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Printout Designer - Process orders up to 5 times faster" width="580" height="326" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aYtadAaSNhM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<p id="e546">Here is the list of all platforms where the Printout Designer is available on <a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Shopify</strong></a><strong>,&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Ecwid</strong></a><strong>,&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/printout-designer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>BigCommerce</strong></a><strong>,&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://app.printoutdesigner.com/shift4shop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Shift4Shop</strong></a><strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://app.printoutdesigner.com/woocommerce" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>WooCommerce</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="42b3">Shopify</h2>



<p id="2b49">We can now go more into detail, and why don&#8217;t we start with the most prominent e-commerce platform Shopify. In the&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Shopify app store</a>, you can easily look for&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Printout Designer</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*3uYblNn3P0-0I09dspaZXg.png" alt=""/></figure>



<p id="0703">You can also see some of the examples in the Media Library.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*MuUANy3Hl933i5ON" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Some of the reviews on Shopify</strong></h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>This print app saved our business. We found out late that bulk printing is something that is difficult to solve within Shopify. With this app, bulk printing is a breeze and packing slips are completely editable. Very satisfied!&nbsp;</em></p>
<cite><a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer#reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robin, Fournituren.nl</a></cite></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>We use this app to email our new orders to our HPEprint capable printers. This app saves us at least 1 hour per day printing orders. Support for this app is outstanding, they are located in Europe so any question they have they get to overnight and when you get to work the next day, it is available (work days). Highly suggest using Printout Designer to automate your order printing.&nbsp;</em></p>
<cite><a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer#reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Motion Racework</a></cite></blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="4ba5">Ecwid</h2>



<p id="72b5">With the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecwid.com/apps/shipping/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ecwid platform</a>, the process is quite similar to the previous one. You can easily navigate to the link below and start your process automation immediately.</p>



<p>Automate your processes on <a href="https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ecwid —&nbsp;Start here</a>.<a href="https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*heOjZTQrklvmbFhTKx0Gcg.png" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Some of the reviews on Ecwid</strong></h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>This app and the support behind it is AMAZING! There is so much you can do with it and when you want to do something unique, the team behind the app always finds a solution. I cannot recommend this app enough!</em></p>
<cite><a href="https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Linda G.</a></cite></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>Every food delivery company charges high fees to use so we decided to cut them out and create our own Ecwid. We installed this app to help us with receipts , invoice orders for our Hero Shop . We are using a StarMicronics Printer for the orders so I was able to create a 3inch wide receipt ! I did have some initial trouble but tech support responded quickly and kept in contact with me during the whole process to make sure it was fully resolved. I highly recommend this app with ecwid store.</em></p>
<cite><a href="https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Richiem</a></cite></blockquote>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="3151">Big Commerce</h2>



<p id="d783">In the&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">B</a>igCommerce apps section, you can easily look for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/printout-designer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Printout Designer</a>.<a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/printout-designer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/700/1*PMZdGirjNLYyn0LeXVZuhA.png" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Some of the reviews on BigCommerce</strong></h2>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><span style="color: inherit; font-size: revert;"><em>Because we have multiple staff printing packing slips, the feature that the printer icon turning green once that an order has been printed saves us every single day from double-printing orders to be printed. I have very easily included bar codes onto packing slips that are completely written on the fly. Our shipping process is streamlined thanks to this software that we would be lost without.</em></span></p>
</blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p><em>Print designer is a must have app for us, before we started using it we were manually printing out orders, and manually dispatching them from our big commerce admin panel. With print designer all new orders automatically printed in our warehouse, once the order is packed the picker scans the barcode on the packing list and a shipping label is printed and the order is set to shipped in the admin panel, this is saving us a great deal of time and cutting down possible errors. We also have automatic rules in place to email customers order confirmations, invoices and follow up emails, the stationey looks professional and is very easy to set up yourself but if you need any help Print Desiner support response is very quick and they could not be more helpful. Print Designer is a great app that saves time, automates monotonous tasks and presents your customers with professional looking stationery, I would thouroughly recommend it and give it 5 stars out of 5.</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p id="f1c2">That&#8217;s it! You can also follow our website&nbsp;<a href="https://printoutdesigner.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>&nbsp;to see all the information needed and many more. <a href="https://printoutdesigner.com/shift4shop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Shift4shop</strong></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://printoutdesigner.com/woocommerce" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>WooCommerce</strong></a>&nbsp;are also easy to integrate; you can connect your existing account using the form on our website. <strong>Do not hesitate to ask. </strong></p>



<p id="f1c2">As you can see, according to the reviews, support is happy to help.</p>


US Ecommerce Copetition_Printout Designer header

How to process your orders up to 5 times faster


<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="683" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-867" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30-300x200.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30-768x512.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-30.jpg 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">This is it. The dream team. From lert to right: Robert, Michal, Tanel, Erik and Bruno. Picture by Maanus Kullamaa.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="ed45">2021 in numbers</h2>



<p id="b3f1">In 2021&nbsp;<a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">PDF Generator API</a>&nbsp;generated over&nbsp;<strong>90M</strong>&nbsp;(you read right — that is ninety million!) documents on a total of&nbsp;<strong>348 000</strong>&nbsp;different templates. In total, we serviced&nbsp;<strong>128 000</strong>&nbsp;separate workspaces/users. Last but not least, we were also able to grow our business. In 2021 we saw a staggering&nbsp;<strong>68%</strong>&nbsp;increase in our annual recurring revenue.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="666c">The year of new hires</h2>



<p id="d5c3">This could not have been achieved without the help of some recent additions to our team in 2021. Namely —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/veiko-strauss-3b7bab1b/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Veiko</a>&nbsp;joined as visiting CMO to take our marketing efforts to the next level, and in late 2021, we welcomed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari%C3%A1n-dana%C5%A1-9b2bb7227/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Marian</a>&nbsp;to our Brno office to beef up our support team. You might not realise this, but this is a 25% increase in our headcount. We promise you these will not remain our last hires, and you will be hearing more recruitment news in 2022.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="507" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_rt-rCIxsOEO5JG0o-1024x507.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-868" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_rt-rCIxsOEO5JG0o-1024x507.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_rt-rCIxsOEO5JG0o-300x149.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_rt-rCIxsOEO5JG0o-768x380.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_rt-rCIxsOEO5JG0o-1200x594.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_rt-rCIxsOEO5JG0o.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Marian and Michal exchanging some last-minute ideas right before another successful customer meeting at our Brno office.</figcaption></figure>



<p id="ec5c">On a sidenote — 2021 was also the year where we, as a team, had a chance to finally meet up physically, again — it had been too long. You can read more about our adventures in snowy Estonia in this&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6867178953908461568/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">post</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="ac07">Experiments — sometimes lose, always win</h2>



<p id="21ab">Towards the beginning of the year, we decided to put more effort and focus on outbound sales by signing on an external sales team. We ended that experiment about 6 months later with minimal success but gained new insights. We found it difficult to assess whether a company has problems with document generation or not by just looking from the outside. This increased the sales cycle as we put a lot of effort into determining if the lead had problems we could solve. We concluded that we need to focus on making ourselves more visible to our ideal target customer in the place first. Inbound leads are already aware of their problems and are looking for the best solution, making the sales cycle much shorter.</p>



<p id="7820">2021 was also a year we restarted paid ads on Google and&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.shopify.com/printout-designer" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Shopify App Store</a>. Although we are still to make it to breakeven, we have already concluded that, given proper focus, running paid ads might be suitable for use in broader terms. This is also where Veiko — our new marketing wizard, steps into the picture. We started noticing the tide turn as soon as Veiko took over the management of our Ads accounts. Veiko is also the guy behind our recently activated social media initiatives.</p>



<p id="2c7f">As part of our strive to involve more people in our business, we listed our share units on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.funderbeam.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Funderbeam</a>&nbsp;in July. Funderbeam is a blockchain-based global equity funding and trading platform that allows small- and medium-sized businesses to take advantage of the same possibilities as larger companies listing their shares on the stock exchange. The tokens are now freely tradable&nbsp;<a href="https://www.funderbeam.com/market/actlrep/trades" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here</a>. Go check it out.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="594" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_dpfydrYhXmfxHeQT-1024x594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-869" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_dpfydrYhXmfxHeQT-1024x594.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_dpfydrYhXmfxHeQT-300x174.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_dpfydrYhXmfxHeQT-768x445.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_dpfydrYhXmfxHeQT-1200x696.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_dpfydrYhXmfxHeQT.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Us jonning Funderbeam and our overall success generated a fair amount of interest from media. Magazines like&nbsp;<a href="https://director.ee/2021/09/30/endine-bandimees-tanel-tahepold-loi-ettevotte-mis-kasvab-50-aastas/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Director</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.baltictimes.com/actual_reports__serving_both_mom-and-pop_and_brick_and_mortar_businesses___all_moving_into_digital_sales/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">The Baltic Times</a>&nbsp;wrote about us and on the picture you can see Tanel with Indrek Mäe at&nbsp;<a href="https://rikas.geenius.ee/raadiosaade/investoritund/investoritund-rakett-funderbeamilt-korraldab-dokumendimajanduses-revolutsiooni/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Kuku Radio</a>.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="45d2">Tech news? We have plenty.</h2>



<p id="f98b">In 2021 we also made a giant leap forward in getting our infrastructure in place to handle vastly more significant volumes. But who would be a better person to tell us about that than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruno-f-8951011b/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Bruno</a>, our lead developer.</p>



<p id="7ce5">If in 2020 we planted a seed and built up our DevOps team, then in 2021, we started to harvest the results. We reached new levels with a new infrastructure based on newer and better technologies, robust monitoring, more automation, all in a more developer-friendly package. We turned the page, and now we have everything running on Kubernetes, Docker, and other tools that allow us to serve millions of users simultaneously without breaking a sweat. Whether our users need a single document or a library-full, we can handle it hassle-free — improving the experience along the way for everyone.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
<p>“We turned the page, and now we have everything running on Kubernetes, Docker, and other tools that allow us to serve<strong>&nbsp;millions of users</strong>&nbsp;simultaneously without breaking a sweat.” — Bruno</p>
</blockquote>



<p id="bf99">Also, with the new technology stack, we can focus not only on running the daily base operations but also on improving our codebase and including more and more features that we plan to roll out in 2022.</p>



<p id="5bdb">Companies that require on-premises deployment will also benefit from this and find the initial deployment, configuration, and updates much simpler and secure than in the past year, thanks to our Docker images.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="dfb0">The mission of the year: Splitting monolith into microservices</h2>



<p id="277b">One of the basic principles and challenges in software development is to avoid overcomplicating projects or over-engineering right from the start — simplicity is key, and there is more than one way to achieve this. When you are small and have limited needs, a single codebase is key, everything runs seamlessly integrated, and shipping new functionalities are simpler.</p>



<p id="e623">But like in life, there is a moment when you need to grow, and old paradigms don’t suit you anymore. The same principle applies to software development — once you grow your user base and have more demand for the services, you need to scale as you go and the old approach with a monolith is not suitable anymore. This is the time to divide and conquer with the help of microservices, each dedicated to a specific task. To achieve this, we improved our resilience and scalability and now we’re able to deliver new features faster. 2022 is promising to deliver a bunch of new services that will aggregate more value and business opportunities for our users.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="540" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_S976ec15ajsI_Gux-1024x540.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-871" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_S976ec15ajsI_Gux-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_S976ec15ajsI_Gux-300x158.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_S976ec15ajsI_Gux-768x405.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_S976ec15ajsI_Gux-1200x633.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/0_S976ec15ajsI_Gux.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A snippet of&nbsp;<a href="https://redoc.ly/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">ReDoc</a>&nbsp;— a great software that we now use for generating our API Documentation.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="6d11">Low-code app development is here to stay</h2>



<p id="88d8">It’s no surprise that low-code automation has risen to the top of the CIO agenda recently. Low-code platforms allow putting the tools of process innovation in the hands of the people that are close to the problems. The result is heightened productivity and accelerated digital transformation.</p>



<p id="9b6b">We also reacted flexibly to this fact and devoted our efforts to the development of new integrations. The pair of new apps you can now integrate easily with is&nbsp;<a href="https://support.pdfgeneratorapi.com/en/article/how-to-integrate-with-adalo-z4eqqj/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Adalo</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://support.pdfgeneratorapi.com/en/article/how-to-integrate-with-wix-velo-13s8135/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Wix Velo</a>. Adalo is an app-building software that supports building websites and applications without learning how to code. Its goal is to offer a platform to design and host websites and applications that include databases, workflow actions, and integrations. Wix Velo is a full-stack development platform that empowers you to build, manage and deploy professional web apps rapidly. In both examples, you can easily use PDF Generator API to quickly generate PDF documents using the data you already have in the existing app.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="3c54">Plans for 2022</h2>



<p id="258c">As said, we believe that 2022 will see the triumph of low-code and automation platforms. We plan to sit in the first row and help developers solve their document generation needs when creating new applications. The document generation space might sound dull, but businesses cannot operate without documents and printouts. We keep innovating and will launch several new features this year to provide even more value to developers and companies worldwide. So what you can expect from us —&nbsp;<strong>HTML to PDF API, PDF as a template, improved charts and graphs, and more.</strong></p>


image-30

PDF Generator API 2021 Recap: Small Company, Big Dreams 


<p id="8b14">It is time to reveal something big that we have been working on for a while. Today we released our&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/v4/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">API v4</a>&nbsp;to deliver more value and features to our existing and new users.</p>



<p id="c498">Our team has worked on the API v4 initiative for the past year and built the new API layer using the latest technology and best practices. This update allows us to introduce new API endpoints and functionality in the future.</p>



<p id="426d"><strong>So what’s new in API v4, you ask?</strong></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="35dc">Asynchronous document generation</h2>



<p id="0087">We have introduced new endpoints to&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/v4/#tag/Documents/operation/generateDocumentAsync" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">generate documents as background jobs</a>&nbsp;instead of synchronous tasks. In the asynchronous request, you can specify a callback URL, and once the document is ready, we will post the result to your system. This update will allow developers to build even more scalable document generation solutions.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="608" src="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Generator-API_API-v4-Header-1024x608.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-872" srcset="https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Generator-API_API-v4-Header-1024x608.jpg 1024w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Generator-API_API-v4-Header-300x178.jpg 300w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Generator-API_API-v4-Header-768x456.jpg 768w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Generator-API_API-v4-Header-1200x713.jpg 1200w, https://wp.pdfgeneratorapi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Generator-API_API-v4-Header.jpg 1488w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="929c">HTML to PDF conversion</h2>



<p id="4fb5">One of the most significant additions in API v4 is the&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/v4/#tag/Conversion/operation/convertHTML2PDF" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HTML to PDF conversion endpoints</a>, allowing you to convert HTML documents or URLs to PDF documents. This is one of the first of many new services and capabilities we will introduce to API v4 in the near future.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="75ec">Improved request body structure</h2>



<p id="defb">All POST and PUT requests now&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/v4/#tag/Documents/operation/generateDocument" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">include parameters in the request body</a>&nbsp;instead of in the query string. This change allows us to introduce new configuration options in the future. For example, you could specify the component configuration within the request, e.g. change font size, hide components, initiate page breaks etc. This will give developers even more flexibility when creating dynamic documents.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1216/0*Gk7D7Se2DTPL-Ek8" alt=""/></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="3828">Additional endpoints to manage workspaces</h2>



<p id="f9c6">It is now possible to&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/v4/#tag/Workspaces/operation/getWorkspaces" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">manage your workspaces via API</a>. Create, update and delete workspaces directly from your application.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="15df">Additional endpoints to manage documents</h2>



<p id="7d7f">You can now&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.pdfgeneratorapi.com/v4/#tag/Documents/operation/getDocuments" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">fetch a list of generated documents</a>&nbsp;stored in our service. These are documents that you have created with the output=url option. As you know, the URL output is active for 30 days, and then the document is deleted from our storage.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="98f3">What’s next?</h2>



<p id="b4da">These are just the first steps towards a new chapter for&nbsp;<a href="https://pdfgeneratorapi.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">PDF Generator API</a>. We know that PDF is one of the universal document formats and thus the most preferred way to send business documents. Although PDF is human-friendly, it is difficult for machines to read it, which makes PDF not the best option for automated data exchange.</p>



<p id="fbac">We are aware that manually digitalising your PDFs is time-consuming and error-prone. We want to help you and your users automate document generation and digitalisation.</p>



<p id="a80f">To achieve this, we will introduce&nbsp;<strong>Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)</strong>&nbsp;and a hybrid document layer to our documents so that you can generate both human-readable PDF and machine-readable documents with a single API call. If you want to be one of the first to try out new API endpoints, please contact us at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:support@pdfgeneratorapi.com" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">support@pdfgeneratorapi.com</a>&nbsp;to set up a quick call to understand your EDI requirements.</p>



<p id="f4fe"><strong>PDF Generator API allows you easily generate PDF documents from pre-defined PDF templates with JSON data. Enable your users to create PDFs and manage their document templates using a browser-based drag-and-drop PDF editor to reduce development and support costs.</strong></p>


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Prerequisite for future success and continuous growth — API version 4 is now live