Since we have released LiveDocx MailMerge API 1.1 many people have suggested interesting new features. We ourselves had some ideas, what to implement in future versions of the web service. This blog post is meant to summarize some of those feature requests and ideas to help you figure out what's coming up in the next LiveDocx version.

Save documents as HTML

TX Text Control 15, the technology LiveDocx is based on, supports embedding images in HTML. Thus, it is possible to introduce HTML as output format into LiveDocx. Whether as quick preview, as platform independent exchange format or for use in web apps, there's a wide variety of possible applications. As usual, you just feed your template and data into the API and it returns a single file, that contains everything, to you. Please note, that only recent browsers display embedded images correctly. If unsure, refer to respective browser's documentation.

Create multiple documents in one run

The new version will accept multiple lines of merge data. The resulting documents will be appended to one another, so that they become a single (possibly long) document. This is quite useful for scenarios such as label printing, creating vouchers or certificates, for instance. But we are pretty sure you, our users, will come up with some ideas how to put this to even better use.

Reduced file sizes

Documents containing images can become quite big. Version 1.2 of the LiveDocx MailMerge API addresses this problem, resulting in significantly reduced file sizes. By the time of this writing, the internal handling and management of image files, especially the compression settings, are thoroughly revised.

The benefits of this are obvious:
smaller documents → faster downloads → overall improved user experience

List of all available fonts

Since templates should ideally contain only fonts, which are installed on the server, and the free LiveDocx server only comes equipped with the Windows standard fonts, it's often desirable to have a list of the available fonts. If a template contains fonts, which are not installed on the server, the fonts a replaced by similar ones. In some rare cases, i.e. when using too exotic fonts, this automatic process does not work, and the generated documents lack some parts. LiveDocx MailMerge API 1.2 will provide a list of the available fonts, to enable its users to check with the server, before creating faulty documents.