certg 4.1

How to use it as a lib

Install certg from PyPI and then…

>>> import certg
>>> certg.process(
    svg_source,
    result_prefix,
    result_distinct,
    replace_info,
    progress_cb=None,
    pdf_optimized=False)

… where all mandatory parameters have the same meaning that if you have them in the YAML config (see below), and progress_cb is a callback to be called after processing each item (useful to report progress).

Some usage examples

Get the code, and run:

bin/certg examples/certificate.yaml

The example_certificate.yaml is included in the project, with the other file it uses: example_certificate.svg.

After successful execution, you will get three .pdf files, the result of the generation.

Here’s other example that inserts different images in the outputs:

bin/certg examples/carnet.yaml

Finally, if you want to check a code that uses certg programatically, replacing several fields and multiple images in the SVG, see this real life code.

What do you need to have installed

The Python’s module yaml and Inkscape in your system. If you want to optimize the resulting PDF, also need Ghostscript installed (gs).

How to really use it, for your specific needs

You need to create two files: the configuration, and the source SVG. Here’s a deep explanation of how it all works, but remember you can get the examples provided and start tweaking them :)

The source SVG is the SVG you want to transform into PDFs, but with some indications for text to be replaced in. These indications are between curly brackets. For example, you may have:

Thanks {{name}} for all your {{type_of_doing}}!

Then, in the configuration file you have a replace_info variable: it’s a list of dictionaries. Each dictionary will produce a generated PDF with the info replaced, and the keys/values in that dictionary will be the info to replace.

Note that you need to provide in the config all the attributes to replace; for example:

name: Foo Bar
type_of_doing: support

Furthermore, in the config you have some mandatory variables you need to fill. Those are:

• svg_source: the filename of the SVG you created

• result_prefix: the prefix of the PDFs’ filenames that will be generated

• result_distinct: the name of the variable in the replacing attributes used as a distinct string for the PDFs.

For example, if you put certs as the prefix and name as the distinct value, you’ll get as output a file named certs-foobar.pdf.

There are some optional variables for different configurations, currently:

• pdf_optimized: it will run Ghoscript (gs, which you need to have installed in the system) to optimize the resulting PDF.