Participant list as a table

For a meeting invitation or minutes, the user enters the participants in the Forms dialog. In the document they appear as a table with name, initials and role. The number of rows follows the number of participants.

Result

• Forms dialog: list of participants; each entry with first name, last name, initials and the roles chair and minutes.
• Document: table with a header row and one row per participant, followed by a sentence with the count.
• Without participants, the content row of the table is hidden.

Building blocks

Building block	Task in this example	Reference
Forms (content template)	ObjectCollection Participants with schema and result list	Forms
Fields (content template)	WordTableRows field ParticipantRows generates the rows; Text field ParticipantCount counts	Fields, Builder API
Word content template	table with a header row and one content row; bind the content row and the field	Accessing primedocs fields

Data flow

Step 1: Forms with the list of participants

Activate the Forms document function on the content template:

<FormsConfiguration>
  <Elements>
    <ObjectCollection Id="Participants" Label="Teilnehmende">
      <Schema>
        <Text Id="FirstName" Label="Vorname" />
        <Text Id="LastName" Label="Name" />
        <Text Id="Alias" Label="Kürzel" />
        <YesNo Id="IsLead" Label="Sitzungsleitung" />
        <YesNo Id="TakesMinutes" Label="Protokoll" />
      </Schema>
      <Summary>
        <Field Id="FirstName" />
        <Field Id="LastName" />
        <Field Id="Alias" />
      </Summary>
    </ObjectCollection>
  </Elements>
</FormsConfiguration>

The labels are set directly in Label so that the configuration works without preparation. For multilingual templates, use translate-Label with a key from the global translations instead.

Why an ObjectCollection: It holds any number of entries of the same kind. Each entry has the fields of the Schema; Summary determines which of them appear in the list of the dialog.

Step 2: Fields for table rows and count

Activate the Fields document function on the content template:

<FieldsConfiguration>
  <Fields>
    <WordTableRows Name="ParticipantRows">
      <Code><![CDATA[
        function main() {
          const builder = $.wordTableRows.getBuilder();
          const participants = $("Forms.Participants");
          for (const participant of participants) {
            const roles = $.joinNonEmpty(", ",
              participant.IsLead ? "Sitzungsleitung" : "",
              participant.TakesMinutes ? "Protokoll" : "");
            builder.append(
              $.joinNonEmpty(" ", participant.FirstName, participant.LastName),
              participant.Alias,
              roles
            );
          }
          return builder.build();
        }
      ]]></Code>
    </WordTableRows>
    <Text Name="ParticipantCount">
      <Code>
        function main() {
          return $("Forms.Participants").length.toString();
        }
      </Code>
    </Text>
  </Fields>
</FieldsConfiguration>

• $("Forms.Participants") returns an array; for … of walks through every entry. IsLead and TakesMinutes are Boolean.
• Each call of append(…) produces one row. The number of arguments corresponds to the cells of the content row from step 3 and must be the same for every call.
• build() is the last call. Without participants it produces no row, and the content row is hidden.
• ParticipantCount: .length is a number, a Text field must return a String, hence .toString().

Step 3: Table in the Word template

1. In the content template, create a table with two rows: a header row with the column titles name, initials and role, and an empty content row below it. The header row is not bound.
2. Select the whole content row, click «Bind field» and select ParticipantRows. primedocs creates a copy of this row for every entry; its three cells correspond to the three arguments of append(…).
3. Below the table, write a sentence such as «… persons attend the meeting.», place the cursor where the count goes and bind ParticipantCount.

Testing

• Test the template in the template editor. In the Forms dialog, the test-data button also fills the list with sample entries. The table shows one row per entry, the sentence the matching count.
• Roles: Set both roles for one entry. The cell shows both names, separated by a comma.
• Empty list: Remove all entries. The content row is not visible in the generated document; the sentence shows 0.

Variants

Participants from a data source: Give the ObjectCollection a DataProviders block, as in the example Letter with a recipient from an address data source. Field and table stay the same.

Formatted cells: The builder also accepts FormattedText, WordContent and InlineWordContent, for example the name with the last name in bold: $.formattedText.parse("<p>{{first}} <b>{{last}}</b></p>", { first: participant.FirstName, last: participant.LastName }).

Rows in a snippet: If a WordContent snippet contains the table, its content row carries the placeholder primedocs.SnippetTableRowsPlaceholder=<Name>, and the field passes the rows in the mapping of getWordContent. See Placeholders in a WordContent snippet.

List instead of table: A Text field that joins the names with map() and join(", "). See Objects and ObjectCollections in code.

Pitfalls

Symptom	Cause	Solution
The field cannot be bound	Not exactly one complete table row selected	Select the whole content row, not individual cells
Generation error about the number of cells	append(…) was called with a varying number of arguments	Always pass the same number of arguments, empty cells as ""
The table shows only the header row	No participants entered; the content row is hidden	Intended behaviour; otherwise enter entries in the Forms dialog
XML error when saving the configuration	< or & in the code, for example in a comparison a < b	Put the code in <![CDATA[ … ]]>, as in step 2
Error message about the return type of ParticipantCount	.length is a number	.toString() as in step 2

Related pages

• Forms, Fields, Code
• Snippets, Accessing primedocs fields