Input Excel Data into PDF Output Form

[cp2019]

Hi All,

I have an Alteryx case I'm exploring in where I will need to take basic data for hundreds of individuals (from Excel) and plug it into Alteryx to spit it out appropriately onto a PDF that has mapping forms.

For example, based on the picture below. There would be a need to fill in each of these boxes from what I have in Excel in each column. In Excel, there would be a column for "1. Income Code", "2. Gross Income", "3. Chapter Indicator"....etc.

How would you go about this? I know it can be done within Alteryx and maybe done in various ways, but just wanted to cut through towards the best methodologies. Thank you!

[Luke_C]

Hi @cp2019 

This is possible, take a look at the blog post I linked below. There is a macro attached that uses the python tool to populate the PDFs. In short, you'll need to determine the name of each field in the PDF and make those your column names in Alteryx, then the tool will fill and output the PDFs. 

One note, since I notice you're doing IRS forms you might find that its difficult to get the correct field names. This is because in many cases the forms are actually XFAs that are readable as PDFs. If this is the case I'd suggest filling out the form and exporting the XML. This should help you find the field names you'll need to use in your workflow. 

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/A-quick-tutorial-for-getting-Alteryx-d...

[echuong1]

This is achievable with Python. There is a macro that has been pre-built that incorporates the necessary components. See this article for instructions and sample workflow: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/A-quick-tutorial-for-getting-Alteryx-d... 

You'll need to mark your target output fields in your PDF prior to match your field names.

[cp2019]

This was very helpful so far!

However, I can see the file paths created in the browse tool, but it just looks like the files get created but do not exist.

Is that related to the marking of the PDFs?

[echuong1]

You'll need to update the paths being generated in the formula tools.

If you look at the general workflow messages, do it say the macro has run, thereby generating the output files?

[cp2019]

Yeah it runs without any error, and shows the exact path it would be located at. However, there are no files there at all.

[cp2019]

Do you think this is any correlation to the issue? This is within the Macro portion of the process.

[taylormgruendel]

Hey @cp2019!

Were you able to solve this error? If so, what was your approach?