Mastering Document Management in Dynamics 365

Generate PDF Documents from HTML

Why HTML to PDF Conversion?

• Flexibility: HTML gives you fine-grained control over document layout, including fonts, images, tables, and styling.
• Platform Independence: PDFs can be viewed and printed consistently across any operating system or device.
• Automation: You can programmatically generate PDFs from HTML within your D365 workflows or web applications.

Solutions for PDF Generation

Let’s take a look at a few options for converting HTML to PDF, each with its own strengths:

Apryse Server SDK

One of the Apryse Server SDK’s capability is to convert Html2Pdf. Please note it is a commercial product which costs money.

Select.HtmlToPdf

Select.HtmlToPdf is a free .NET library that can be used to convert any web page or HTML to PDF. The community edition is free and can generate PDFs up to 5 pages long.

Here is the Select.HtmlToPdf nuget package.

IronPDF

IronPDF is another commercial .NET library that can be used to convert HTML to PDF.

Document Generation within Dynamics 365

D365 OOTB Word Template

• Step 1: Use Word templates to create standardized documents
• Step 2: Export sales records to PDF

DocumentsCorePack

DocumentsCorePack is a commercial solution that can be used to generate documents in Dynamics 365. It comes with Microsoft Word based document template designer and supports more complex data query than the OOTB D365 Word templates, for example, it can link data tables more 2 levels deep. Further more, it is capable of generateing documents in PDF format.

Enhancing PDFs with Annotation

This is another common scenario. Fortunately, The Apryse WEBVIEWER - Web SDK’s PDF Annotation Library can support this ask and it keeps annotations separate from their host document.

Document Storage

For integrating Apryse WEBVIWER with D365, I will recommend Azure blob storage to save your documents.

Electronic Signatures for Documents

The most famous e-signature solution is Adobe Acrobat Sign and Docusign.

Navigating the Apryse Product Structure

XoDo

Xodo is end-user application. It has an independent website.

Apryse

Apryse is a series of products for developers. It consists of a frontend library called WEBVIEWER - Web SDK and a backend library called SERVER SDK.