InviteFlow

Turn a guest list and one template into beautiful, personalized invitations in minutes. Generate hundreds of QR‑ready PDFs—easy to download, share, and print.

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Inspiration

Producing event invites at scale is tedious and error-prone. We wanted a fast, repeatable way for non-technical teams to turn a single template into consistent, branded PDFs with unique access links.

What it does

  • Analyzes a DOCX template to extract placeholders and returns a ready-to-fill CSV structure.
  • Generates one PDF per CSV row using the template and data.
  • Adds a QR code to each PDF that opens a hosted viewer for that document.
  • Merges all PDFs into one file and/or bundles them as a ZIP for easy distribution.
  • Provides a simple web UI and routes to download individual, merged, or zipped documents.

How we built it

  • Foxit API Services are the core engine:
    • AnalyzeDocumentBase64 extracts merge tags from a DOCX template (we send the file as base64 and receive a comma‑separated list of placeholders).
    • GenerateDocumentBase64 produces a PDF for each CSV row by passing documentValues and the template’s base64 string.
    • Documents Upload and Create PDF from Image let us turn a QR PNG into a one‑page PDF; we then use PDF Combine to append that QR page to each invitation.
    • PDF Combine also merges all invite PDFs into one master PDF with TOC/bookmarks.
    • Task polling (GET tasks/{taskId}) ensures we wait for Foxit jobs to complete reliably before proceeding.
  • App glue: Node.js + Express + Multer (uploads) + Axios (Foxit calls) + qrcode (QR image generation).
  • Frontend: Vue 3 + Vite + Vuetify for a clean, responsive workflow.
  • Efficient downloads via streaming and a simple in‑memory store to track batches and document tokens during a session.

How it works (detailed)

1) Analyze a template (POST /analyze-template) - User uploads a .docx template. - Server reads file → base64 → calls Foxit AnalyzeDocumentBase64. - Returns the list of tags and a ready‑to‑fill CSV header to the UI.

2) Generate invitations (POST /generate-documents) - User uploads the same template + a populated CSV. - For each CSV row: - Call Foxit GenerateDocumentBase64 with the template base64 and row values → get back a PDF (base64). - Locally generate a QR PNG that points to a view URL. - Upload the QR image to Foxit (documents/upload) → get a documentId. - Call Foxit Create PDF from Image to turn the QR PNG into a one‑page PDF. - Use Foxit PDF Combine to append the QR page to the invite PDF → final invite documentId. - Save a token → documentId mapping in memory for viewing. - After all rows are processed, use Foxit PDF Combine to merge all final invite PDFs into a single master PDF.

3) Download and share - Individual PDF: GET /download/:documentId streams directly from Foxit. - All invites as ZIP: GET /batches/:batchId/zip fetches each PDF stream from Foxit and zips on the fly. - Merged PDF: response returns a direct Foxit download link for the combined document.

4) View via QR - The QR page appended to each PDF points to /view/:token, which renders a minimal HTML viewer. - The embedded iframe calls /view/:token/file to stream the PDF directly from Foxit.

5) Reliability - Every Foxit async operation returns a taskId; we poll GET /pdf-services/api/tasks/{taskId} until status is COMPLETED/FAILED. - Errors surface cleanly to the UI; temp files are cleaned after use.

Challenges we ran into

  • Coordinating asynchronous Foxit tasks (upload, convert, merge) and robustly polling for completion.
  • Ensuring QR flows worked reliably across environments and local development (CORS/proxy nuances).
  • Managing file sizes and cleanup for uploads and generated artifacts.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • A complete analyze → generate → merge/zip pipeline with a friendly UI.
  • Reliable, streamed downloads for large merged PDFs and ZIPs.
  • Integrated with Foxit Service API successfully.

What we learned

  • Practical template-tag conventions in DOCX and mapping them to CSV data.
  • Foxit PDF Services patterns for document generation, conversion, and merging.
  • UX details that help non-technical users succeed on the first try.

What's next for InviteFlow

  • Stronger authenticity: signed QR links with server-side verification and optional expiry.
  • Persistent storage (DB) for batches, audit logs, and analytics.
  • Template marketplace/gallery with previews and categories.
  • Fine-grained access control and role-based sharing.
  • Richer QR placement (on-page positioning) and optional PDF digital signatures.
  • Performance work for very large datasets and background job processing.

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