Generate multiple PDF reports in python

Question

I can't seem to find any previous questions, tutorials, or youtube videos to help with my issue. The project is creating 500 random personas, exporting that information into a csv then filling in a fillable PDF form. Once I get it up and running I'll be able to hand it over to HR to help them filling out their forms. I'm able to create one report but for the life of me can't figure out how to make the other 499. Every time I try it overwrites the previous result.

My random persona generator:

import random
import sys

sys.stdout = open('roles.csv', 'a')

def role_generator():

    firstnames = open ('first_names.txt').read().splitlines()

    lastnames = open ('last_names.txt').read().splitlines()

    months = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']

    for num in range(500):
        first = random.choice(firstnames)
        last = random.choice(lastnames)
        day = random.randint(1, 29)
        month = random.choice(months)
        year = random.randint(1960, 2001)
        idnumber = random.randint(1234567, 9999999)


        print(f'1, last name, {last}\n2, first name, {first}\n3, id number, {idnumber}\n4, date of birth, {day}-{month}-{year}\n')


role_generator()

My PDF filler:

import os

os.system('pdfforms inspect screening*.pdf')
os.system('pdfforms fill roles.csv '
          'screening.pdf '
          'screening_1.pdf')

I'm very new to programming so please break any answers down Barney style so I can understand. I'm using Python 3.6 on an Ubuntu OS. All the coding you see is what I've pieced together so far from my research.

Thank you!

UPDATE:

At the request of Vitor Baptista, this is how the program saves the csv file:

screening.pdf
1, last name, Hendrickson
2, first name, Jane
3, id number, 8190287
4, date of birth, 6-Feb-1991

From what I gather you need to have the pdf file in the first column and first row of the csv file. Then you need to label where each entry will go in the pdf form. I did this through the inspect command above, which created a JSON file. I then looked through the JSON to see what numerical value each field had so I could label them appropriately in the csv.

Could you add an example of the roles.csv file? Just a 5~10 lines would help. — Vitor Baptista
– Vitor Baptista, Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 17:34
It overwrites the previous file for the obvious reason that you supply the same output file name each time. Add a number or something like that to yhe output name to fix. — Jongware
– Jongware, Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 18:36
@ usr2564301 As mentioned in my question, I'm new to this programming thing, so it's not obvious to me. Could you point out what in my code I need to change? I tried doing something similar to your response in the "My PDF Filler" section when I tried outputting to "screening_1.pdf". So I'm 'obviously' missing the mark. — Jarren Poulsen
– Jarren Poulsen, Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 18:46
@VitorBaptista I just updated my question to fulfill your request. Hopefully this answers your question — Jarren Poulsen
– Jarren Poulsen, Commented Dec 6, 2018 at 18:46

Jarren Poulsen · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-11 19:20:08Z

1

This will probably have some errors considering the paths - but should work somehow:

import random 

def make_filename(first,last,year,month,day):
    # make sure your names do not contain any character thats 
    # impossible in a filename - if so, clean them first or
    # clean the file name after constructing it

    # Potter_Harry_1970_Jan_01.pdf
    return f'{last}_{first}_{year}_{month}_{day:02}.pdf'

def role_generator(): 
    # fixed the file reading to use with open
    # changed the id-generation to not have dupes
    # changed it to yield each single result as tuple (filename, text)
    with open ('first_names.txt') as f :
        firstnames = [x.strip() for x in f.read().splitlines() if x.strip()] 
    with open ('last_names.txt') as f:
        lastnames = [x.strip() for x in f.read().splitlines() if x.strip()]

    months = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 
              'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']
    how_many = 500

    # changed because "idnumber = random.randint(1234567, 9999999)" may produce dupes 
    ids = random.sample(range(1234567, 10000000),k=how_many) # no dupes this way  

    for num in range(how_many):
        first = random.choice(firstnames)
        last = random.choice(lastnames)
        day = random.randint(1, 29)
        month = random.choice(months)
        year = random.randint(1960, 2001)
        idnumber = id.pop() 

        text = f'''screening.pdf
1, last name, {last}
2, first name, {first}
3, id number, {idnumber}
4, date of birth, {day}-{month}-{year}
'''

        yield (make_filename(first,last,year,month,day),text) 

# for each single result do:
for new_name, text in role_generator():
    # write one person as roles.csv
    with open("./roles.csv","w") as f:
        f.write(text)
    # fill one pdf - might need absolute path to template-pdf
    os.system('pdfforms inspect ./screening.pdf')
    # this also might need the absolute path
    os.system('pdfforms fill ./roles.csv')
    # this will rename the one pdf to the new_name also provided - you might
    # need to fix this to fit the paths
    os.rename('/home/PycharmProjects/untitled/filled/screening.pdf', 
              '/home/PycharmProjects/untitled/screening/' + new_name)

This way each single pdf form is generated by one roles.csv and then moved/renamed to be similar to your persons name....

edited Dec 11, 2018 at 19:20

Jarren Poulsen

1512 silver badges13 bronze badges

answered Dec 11, 2018 at 16:53

Patrick Artner

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3 Comments

Jarren Poulsen Over a year ago

You're my freakin hero!! I've worked on this for over a two months!! The only tweak i had to make was adding the pdf file name to the yield line in order for pdfforms to read it. Again, thank you!

Patrick Artner Over a year ago

@JarrenPoulsen the new filenam was already yielded in the tuple? glad it helped though :)

Patrick Artner Over a year ago

Ah -- you modified the csv-text to include the name as 1st value according to pypi.org/project/pdfforms . Feel free to edit the code so it is more correct. with that change the whole rename is superflous.

Jarren Poulsen · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-10 17:52:30Z

Ok, I figured it out and then some. It's most likely not the best way to do it, but for now it works:

I didn't change anything to the random persona generator so it still looks like this:

import random
import sys

sys.stdout = open('roles.csv', 'a')

def role_generator():

    firstnames = open ('first_names.txt').read().splitlines()

    lastnames = open ('last_names.txt').read().splitlines()

    months = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']

    for num in range(500):
        first = random.choice(firstnames)
        last = random.choice(lastnames)
        day = random.randint(1, 29)
        month = random.choice(months)
        year = random.randint(1960, 2001)
        idnumber = random.randint(1234567, 9999999)


        print(f'1, last name, {last}\n2, first name, {first}\n3, id number, {idnumber}\n4, date of birth, {day}-{month}-{year}\n')


role_generator()

I added a terminal command to the PDF Filler:

def rolegenerator():

    os.system('pdfforms inspect screening.pdf')
    os.system('pdfforms fill roles.csv')
    os.system('cp /home/PycharmProjects/untitled/filled/screening.pdf /home/PycharmProjects/untitled/screening/screening.pdf')

You need to make sure you have pdfforms installed on your system. I'm using Pycharm for my projects so I just installed it through that program. PDFForms will "inspect" your pdf (make sure it's a fillable form) and create a "test" folder in your project directory. Take a look at your "test" pdf to figure out how each field is labeled. You'll need those numbers for when you create your csv file in the random persona generator (look at the print line and compare it to the csv example above).

The next command will fill in your pdf form with the csv document you have in the command line. In my case it's "roles.csv". This will create a "filled" directory and have a filled in PDF for ya to use.

I then decided to copy the filled in pdf to another directory called "screening" which is the third command.

I used the following code to save each file with a separate name:

def save_file():
    path = "/home/PycharmProjects/untitled/screening/screening.pdf/"
    newPath = "/home/PycharmProjects/untitled/screening"
    i = 1
    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):

        for name in files:
            base, extension = os.path.splitext(name)
            if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(newPath, base + extension)):
                oldfile = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(root), name)
                newfile = os.path.join(newPath, base + extension)
                os.rename(oldfile, newfile)
            else:
                oldfile = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(root), name)
                newfile = os.path.join(newPath, base + '_' + str(i) + extension)
                i += 1
                os.rename(oldfile, newfile)

save_file()

This part has some issues still. It renames all the files in the directory each time; but I can still generate 500 random files. I wanted the files to be labeled according to the person the information pertains to, but I couldn't figure that out. I got this part from Incrementing number in file name when file exists. I don't have the references for the other solutions...sorry.

For the last part I added a loop with a time delay. I don't know why, but adding the time delay allowed the program to work smoother without crashing. probably since it processing so much it give the system time to catch up:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    for i in range(10):
        role_creator()
        time.sleep(.5)
        rolegenerator()
        time.sleep(.5)
        save_file()
        time.sleep(.5)

Again, it's probably not the best solution but it works.

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