Print multiple CRM content PDF files at once

Question

My client is using CRM Content to store PDF documents. I have created a VF page to present content in a tabular form with a 'print' link to circumvent some of the awkwardness of the standard SFDC content interface. This works well for downloading individual documents quickly. However, the client wants to be able to select multiple PDF documents and have them all downloaded as a single document that can be printed in one action. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I'm not aware of a native APEX and Visualforce option for completing this, but the paid Conga Composer and Conductor products can help you do what you're looking for.

Conga Composer

Conga Composer is an advanced Mail Merge engine for Salesforce and can merge multiple documents (up to 10) into one PDF for download. You're page would need to gather the IDs of the related documents and pass them to a conga composer point merge URL which would then merge the documents and initiate a download of the combined files. In the example below you're page would need to figure out the template ids and pass them into the TemplateId param.

Example Merge URL

https://www.appextremes.com/apps/Conga/PointMerge.aspx?sessionId=00DXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&serverUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fcs13.salesforce.com%2Fservices%2FSoap%2Fu%2F8.0%2F00DW00000073T8i&id=a1NW000000162D2&TemplateId=06950000000Crmp

Conga Conductor

Conga Conductor allows you to do automate composer actions such as doing bulk merges. It would allow you to bulk download all the records and possibly merging them into one. The pricing on this can be prohibitive in some cases.