letter generator

spend less time editing letter templates in ms word.

requirements

• user input for required information

• user can create/save templates

• generate pdf files from user input with some naming convention

• easy to use for non technical user

  • distribute as zip with executables?
  • deploy to cloud, then send pdfs for download?

usage

templating

create .txt files in the templates/ folder general_ty.txt for example

---
bg: /bg_path/bg.png
---

[full_names] 
[first_names]
[company]
[street_address]
[city_address]
[donation_amount]
[donation_date]
[year]
[donation_total]
[donation-1] //used when there are more than 1 donation in the input block and 
[donation-2] //will result to "$[donation_amount] on [donation_date]" 
             //[donation-2] refers to the second donation and so on

[./image_path.jpg|10]
[/another_image_path.jpg|30]


//text styling
*bold text*
`small text`

all between --- are for setup

all valid variables like [full_names] will be replaced with value from the entry file. others will be treated as a path to an image. the |30 for the image path is the custom height (10 by default). everything else will be kept

note: if using the sample templates in the sample folder, you will have to update the paths to the images inside the assets folder.

• navigate to the file in the finder and select it.
• right-click or control-click on it and choose get info.
• in the window that opens, highlight and copy(command + c) the where field.
• paste it between []
• under name and extension replace spaces with underscore _
• copy the new name and extension, paste it at the end of the path
• should look like [/Users/.../file_name.png]

paragraphs should be written in one line

app/server

pick a release release. download a the .zip file, unzip and move to location of your choice.

go to the bin folder inside letter_generator and double click the server binary. copy paste this link on your browser: http://localhost:3000

for convenience, add the server executable file to the dock

input format

format:

template_file_name
full_names // can have multiple names separated by `&` like `first last & first last & first last`
company_name (`-` if none)
street_address
city_address
donation_amount donation_date
donation_amount donation_date //there can be more than 1 donation

template_file_name
firstname|nickname lastname & firstname|nickname lastname 
company_name (`-` if none)
street_address
city_address
donation_amount donation_date

...

entries separated by an empty line

to add a nickname to use instead of the firstname, do firstname|nickname lastname on the [full_names] line. if the firstname or nickname is more than one word, use underscore like John_Paul or Mr._J

click generate and the output folder should open.

cli

write the input file and save it as whatever.txt

the same import format applies

generate pdfs

./path_to_letter_generator_executable ./whatever.txt

output pdfs are placed in a directory named pdf_output/date/

dev

install: go, make, air

go mod download #install deps

make air #run air to watch server files 
make tailwind #run tailwind cli and watch for file changes in server dir

make build #build cli and server binaries
make export_server #build and copy binary and static files to `output/` dir

maroto

• generate pdfs

htmx

• ui