How To Add BlockDB Product

Modified on Wed, May 9, 2018 at 1:41 PM

1. In ePower, go to Products/Company Products.
2. Select the correct company from the dropdown.
3. Click 'Add New Product' Link.
4. Enter the product name in the field next to Product
5. Enter SKU number
6. Select PDFLib Blocks as Product Type
7. For Online data entry, keep the Block Type as default. For Database upload (Excel or csv..) select Database Upload as Block type.
8. Click Save
9. Click on the Select button next to Block File to upload the blocked pdf file
10. Click Update
11. Click the Catalogue button to associate this product to an entry in the Products Catalogue. You can build a catalogue by going to Products/Catalogue Strcture (from the main menu).
12. Normally, this would be enough to create a product that can be ordered online. However, certain things need to be checked, the most important is Fonts, you need to make sure that the fonts are available on the server and PDFLib will be able to read them. It is, of course, recommended to upload the fonts before uploading the blocked file.

To add a font to your online library:
1. Go to Manage/Manage Producers.
2. Click the Fonts button
3. Upload fonts, one file for TrueType and two files(pfm and pfb) for Type1. You can also upload all fonts as one compressed file.

In some cases, the application will not be able to read ceratin fonts. For these cases, go back to the Products list, locate the product and click the icon represting the blocks. Click the Fonts button then locate the block with the problem font. Edit that line using the Pencil icon, change the type to Load (if it is not already selected) then add the font name and font file separated by colon :
You can add more than one font this way separated by comma this time:
example:
Font Name 1: Font File 1, Font Name 2: Font File 2, Font Name 3: Font File 3

Arial:Arial.ttf,Times New Roman:times.ttf,Goudy:goudy.pfb

This will force load these fonts before creating the PDF.

When uploading the spread sheet the headers in the excel must match the block names. If your customers are uploading you should add a structure file to the product that has the headers or has the headers and an example row. To do this go to the main product setup page- Product Image and Files section - Input Structure