Render Service

The Render Service is a server-side component that renders a Letter or Portfolio/Package, based on a given letter/portfolio template and instance data. It also provides post processing capabilities on these templates, through integration with external web services. This component:

  • Interacts with the server-side Data Dictionary APIs to resolve data dictionary element references with the actual data.

  • Interacts with the Persistence Service APIs to fetch asset metadata such as letter definitions, layouts, text clauses, and images.

  • Evaluates expressions within templates or content, which results in dynamic selection of modules and content.

  • Interacts with external services for post processing on a (Letter/Portfolio) template.

Render single PDF:
Accepts a letter template and external data in XML format to generate a single PDF document. Asset Composer provides an out-of-the-box implementation that connects to the Forms service to render a PDF.

Render PDF Portfolio:
Accepts a portfolio template and external data in XML format to generate a PDF Portfolio/Package. An out-of-the-box implementation generates a DDX at runtime and connects to the Assembler service to render a PDF Portfolio.

This component can be thought of as a delegate to the Forms and Assembler services. This indirection provides a way to customize the actual PDF renderer.

This component includes the following services:

  • LetterRenderService: Renders a single PDF given the Letter Template and external data (XML). It also exposes other parameters for using test data, optionally merging data, rendering as interactive or non-interactive PDF, and so on.

  • PortfolioRenderService: Renders a PDF Portfolio given the Portfolio Template and external data (XML).

  • DataModuleResolver: Returns the resolved content for a DataModule.

  • DownloadService: Downloads the content bytes for an asset.

  • RenderService: Renders a PDF given the XDP and data XML.

  • ServiceLocator: Retrieves a list of services that can be selected as a post process for a Letter/Portfolio template.

  • ServiceInvoker: Runs a post-process service for the Letter or Portfolio template.

// Ethnio survey code removed