This article explains how to build a portable view template. For more general information on portable view templates, refer to Portable View Templates - Overview. For more information on portable view template tokens, refer to Portable View Templates - Understanding and Accessing Portable View Tokens.
A portable view (PV) is a PDF version of a Kahua record such as a letter, RFI, or contract. The base Kahua environment includes built-in portable views for each app. You can create additional portable views in Microsoft Word and install them in Kahua where they can be used by yourself or others.
To create a new portable view template, you will add text and portable view tokens to a MS Word document. Then in the Configuration app, you will install the document to the application it is to be used for.
Creating a portable view template
To create a new portable view template, complete the following steps:
- Open a MS Word document. You can use an existing file or create a new one. Note that macros or hidden markups in an existing document can cause unexpected results.
- Open Kahua and navigate to the partition where you will install the template. Consider setting up a separate partition to use for testing portable view templates, or use a test environment if you have access to one.
- Navigate to the Configuration app.
- From the applications tab, select the app you will be working with.
- Select the Portable Views tab.
- To access the template tokens for the application, select the Template Tokens tab. Three tabs will appear underneath the Template Tokens tab. For more information on accessing these template tokens, refer to Portable View Templates - Understanding and Accessing Portable View Tokens.
- Copy the tokens as needed to the appropriate locations in your Word document.
- You can apply MS Word formatting text directly to the tokens, for example, applying bold or italic styles, or changing the font or font size.
- Additionally, you can apply specific formatting to the token results (e.g., convert currency values to text), or apply conditions to control what text should appear (e.g., have the text "Response Required" appear if the RFI Response field is empty). For more information, refer to Portable View Templates - Formatting Template Tokens.
- Once the new portable view template is complete, save it to an accessible location.
The next step is to install the template in the appropriate location. Refer to Portable View Templates - Installing a Template.