Generate Document
render_documentRead-onlyIdempotent
Generate a document by merging a Carbone template with JSON data. Two modes: (1) pass templateId to use a previously uploaded template; (2) pass template (file path, URL, or base64) to upload and render in a single request without storing a template. Supports output format conversion, multilingual rendering, currency conversion, batch generation, and advanced PDF options (watermark, password, PDF/A). Async mode: pass webhookUrl to render asynchronously — Carbone will POST the renderId to your URL when the document is ready. Async mode is required when using batch generation (batchSplitBy).
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| data | No | JSON data merged into the template — an object, or a top-level array (accessed with {d[i].field}). Access fields with {d.fieldName} tags. Nested objects: {d.customer.name}. Array loops: {d.items[i].description} … {d.items[i+1]}. Conditionals: {d.status == "active" ? "Yes" : "No"}. Optional — if omitted, defaults to an empty object {} so the template is simply converted (tags resolve to empty). Useful to convert a stored template by templateId without data injection. Instead of inlining a large dataset, you may pass a STRING reference to the JSON: an HTTPS URL or a base64-encoded JSON string (local file paths are not accepted over HTTP) — it is read and parsed server-side. | |
| enum | No | Enumeration map used with the :convEnum(TYPE) formatter to translate code values into human-readable labels. Define one key per enum type; each value is an object mapping code → label. Example: { "STATUS": { "1": "Active", "2": "Inactive", "3": "Pending" }, "ROLE": { "A": "Admin", "U": "User" } }. Template usage: {d.status:convEnum(STATUS)}, {d.role:convEnum(ROLE)}. May instead be passed by reference as a string — an HTTPS URL or a base64-encoded JSON string (local file paths are not accepted over HTTP). Documentation: https://carbone.io/documentation.html#convenum-type- | |
| lang | No | Locale of the generated document. Affects three things: (1) {t(key)} translation tags — selects the matching translation from the translations map. (2) :formatN number formatter — applies locale-specific thousand/decimal separators. (3) :formatC currency formatter — applies locale-specific currency symbols and formatting. Format: BCP-47 lowercase, e.g. "fr-fr", "en-us", "de-de", "es-es", "pt-br", "zh-cn", "ja-jp". Full list: https://github.com/carboneio/carbone/blob/master/formatters/_locale.js | |
| keepTags | No | If true, SKIP templating entirely and leave every Carbone tag in the document exactly as written — {d.customer} comes out as the literal text "{d.customer}", formatters included. Use it to proof a stored template in another format (e.g. render templateId to PDF to check the tag layout), or to convert a template between formats while it stays a template. Mutually exclusive with data — passing both is rejected, because data would have nothing to fill. Note the difference from omitting data: no data renders the template with an EMPTY dataset, so every tag resolves to an empty string; keepTags leaves the tags themselves in place. Requires Carbone 5.9.0+ (carbone-version: 5). | |
| template | No | Inline template for one-shot render without storing a template first. Two input forms are accepted: (1) HTTPS URL — the file is downloaded automatically, e.g. "https://example.com/file.pptx". (2) Base64-encoded string — the raw file content encoded as base64. Local file paths are NOT accepted — this server is reached over HTTP, so a path would resolve on the server's disk rather than yours and is rejected. Upload the bytes as base64, or host the file at a URL. The template is uploaded and rendered in a single API request — no Template ID is returned. Use this for ephemeral renders; use upload_template + templateId when you need to reuse the template. Supported formats: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, ODG, HTML, XHTML, IDML, XML, Markdown (MD), PDF, and more. Mutually exclusive with templateId — provide exactly one, never both. | |
| timezone | No | IANA timezone used to convert dates in the rendered document. Default: "Europe/Paris". Applied when templates use the :formatD formatter, e.g. {d.date:formatD(YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm)}. Common values: "UTC", "America/New_York", "America/Los_Angeles", "Europe/London", "Europe/Paris", "Europe/Berlin", "Asia/Tokyo", "Asia/Shanghai", "Australia/Sydney". Full list (TZ identifier column): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones | |
| convertTo | No | Output format. If omitted, the output matches the template format. Documents : "pdf", "docx", "xlsx", "pptx", "odt", "ods", "odp", "odg", "rtf", "epub". Web/text : "html", "xhtml", "txt", "csv", "md", "xml", "idml". Images : "png", "jpg", "jpeg", "webp", "svg", "tiff", "bmp", "gif". Archive : "zip" (use with batchSplitBy for batch output). Simple usage: "pdf". Advanced usage: { "formatName": "pdf", "formatOptions": { ... } } for PDF-specific options. | |
| converter | No | Converter engine. Only relevant when convertTo is "pdf" (or an image rasterised from a document). "L" — LibreOffice (default): best all-round engine for DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP. "O" — OnlyOffice: highest fidelity for Microsoft Office formats (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX). "C" — Chromium: best for HTML/CSS/JS templates — full browser rendering. "I" — Carbone ICE (Instant Converter Engine, Carbone 5.14.0+): DOCX → PDF ONLY, no third-party converter — up to 60x faster than LibreOffice on a 1000-page DOCX (3x on a one-page document). Any other input or output format is REJECTED — use another converter for those. PDF options: only Watermarks are applied. EncryptFile, DocumentOpenPassword, RestrictPermissions and the other security options are SILENTLY IGNORED — the PDF comes back readable by anyone, with no error — so NEVER pick "I" when the request needs a password or restricted permissions; use "L" for those. Also unsupported: WEBP and EMF/WMF images, table of contents, SmartArt, complex charts, footnotes/endnotes, comments, tracked changes, form fields, equations, bookmarks and links; a missing font falls back to Noto Sans. If omitted, LibreOffice is used by default. | |
| complement | No | Extra data object accessible in templates with {c.field} tags (as opposed to {d.field} for main data). Useful for static or shared values that should not be mixed into the main dataset: company info, logo URLs, footer text, configuration constants. Example: { "company": "Acme Corp", "address": "123 Main St", "vatNumber": "FR12345" }. Like data, may instead be passed by reference as a string — an HTTPS URL or a base64-encoded JSON string (local file paths are not accepted over HTTP). | |
| outputPath | No | NOT AVAILABLE on this server, which is reached over HTTP: the generated document would be written to the server's disk instead of yours, so passing outputPath is rejected. Use asAttachment to receive the bytes, or returnLink for a one-time download URL. Ignored for async/webhook renders (no document is returned inline). | |
| reportName | No | Filename (WITHOUT extension) for the generated document, returned in the Content-Disposition header. Carbone automatically appends the extension that matches convertTo, so do not include one — passing "invoice.pdf" yields "invoice.pdf.pdf". Supports Carbone tags resolved against the data at render time. Examples: "invoice" (static), "{d.type}-{d.id}" (dynamic), "{d.client}-{d.date:formatD(YYYY-MM)}". | |
| returnLink | No | If true, generate the document and return a public download URL instead of the file contents. The link is SHORT-LIVED and ONE-TIME — Carbone deletes the file after the first download — so it is meant for the end user to download once (do not fetch it programmatically). Works in stdio and HTTP. Mutually exclusive with outputPath, asAttachment, and webhookUrl (async). | |
| templateId | No | The ID of a previously uploaded template to render. Two ID formats are accepted: (1) Template ID (64-bit) — stable identifier shared across versions; Carbone automatically uses the deployed version. (2) Version ID (SHA-256) — pins rendering to a specific version regardless of deployment status. Both are returned by upload_template. Mutually exclusive with template — provide exactly one, never both. | |
| webhookUrl | No | Webhook URL to enable asynchronous rendering. When provided, Carbone returns immediately and POSTs { "success": true, "data": { "renderId": "..." } } to this URL when the document is ready. The default render timeout is extended to 5 minutes on Carbone Cloud (vs 60 s for synchronous requests). Download the document with GET /render/:renderId once the webhook is received. Required when using batchSplitBy (batch generation is always asynchronous). Example: "https://your-server.com/carbone-webhook". | |
| batchOutput | No | How the batch result is packaged. Defaults to "zip". "zip" — every generated document is bundled into a single ZIP archive (use batchReportName to name each entry). "pdf" — all documents are CONCATENATED into one continuous PDF instead of being zipped; this requires convertTo to be "pdf" as well. Must be used together with batchSplitBy. | |
| hardRefresh | No | If true, Carbone recomputes pagination and refreshes the table of contents after rendering. Requires convertTo to be defined. Use this for DOCX/ODT templates that contain a TOC field or cross-references that need updating after data injection. | |
| variableStr | No | Carbone alias expressions evaluated once before rendering, available everywhere in the template. Used to pre-compute reusable values or shorten repetitive paths. Syntax: "{#aliasName = expression}". Example: "{#fullName = d.firstName + \" \" + d.lastName}{#total = d.price * d.qty}". Aliases are then used in the template as {#fullName}, {#total}. Documentation: https://carbone.io/documentation.html#alias | |
| asAttachment | No | If true, return the document as a downloadable file attachment (a base64 EmbeddedResource), for any format. Default delivery: text and png/jpg/gif/webp are returned inline; other binary outputs (PDF, Office, …) are saved to a temp file in stdio mode (path returned), or returned as an attachment in HTTP mode. Ignored when outputPath or returnLink is set. | |
| batchSplitBy | No | JSON path to the array in your data that drives batch generation. One document is generated per element of the array. Two forms: "d" when data itself IS the array (one report per top-level element), or "d.arrayName" to split on a child array. Example: "d.invoices" — produces one PDF per item in data.invoices. Example: "d.employees" — produces one contract per employee. Carbone Cloud allows 1 to 100 objects per batch (on-premise follows the nbReportMaxPerBatch setting). Batch is ALWAYS asynchronous — webhookUrl is required. Pair with batchOutput to choose ZIP or a single concatenated PDF, and batchReportName to name each document. | |
| translations | No | Translation map for multilingual documents. Requires "lang" to be set to select the active locale. Top-level keys are BCP-47 locale codes; values are key → translated-string maps. Template usage: {t(greeting)} is replaced by the matching string for the active locale. Example: { "fr-fr": { "greeting": "Bonjour", "total": "Total" }, "en-us": { "greeting": "Hello", "total": "Total" } }. These dictionaries get large, so you may instead pass a string reference — an HTTPS URL or a base64-encoded JSON string (local file paths are not accepted over HTTP). Documentation: https://carbone.io/documentation.html#translations | |
| currencyRates | No | Exchange rate table used by :formatC for currency conversion. Keys are ISO 4217 currency codes; values are rates relative to a common base. The base currency should have rate 1. Example: { "EUR": 1, "USD": 1.08, "GBP": 0.86, "JPY": 160.5 }. May instead be passed by reference as a string — an HTTPS URL or a base64-encoded JSON string (local file paths are not accepted over HTTP). | |
| currencySource | No | ISO 4217 currency code of the monetary amounts in the JSON data. Used by the :formatC formatter as the conversion source. Must be set together with currencyTarget and currencyRates. Example: "EUR" if all prices in your data are in euros. | |
| currencyTarget | No | ISO 4217 currency code of the output document. The :formatC formatter converts amounts from currencySource to this currency using currencyRates. Must be set together with currencySource and currencyRates. Example: "USD" to display prices in US dollars. Documentation: https://carbone.io/documentation.html#formatc-precisionorformat- | |
| webhookHeaders | No | Custom headers Carbone will include when POSTing to your webhookUrl. Pass plain header names as keys — the prefix "carbone-webhook-header-" is added automatically before sending to Carbone, and Carbone forwards the original header names to your webhook endpoint. Example: { "authorization": "my-secret", "custom-id": "12345", "custom-name": "Jane Doe" } — Carbone will call your URL with headers: authorization: my-secret, custom-id: 12345, custom-name: Jane Doe. Requires webhookUrl to be set. | |
| batchReportName | No | Filename pattern for each individual document inside the batch ZIP. Supports Carbone tags. Tags are resolved against the item's data (relative path) or the full dataset (absolute path). Examples: "invoice-{d.id}.pdf", "{d.client.name}-{d.date}.docx". Carbone sanitises the result — path separators, "..", Windows-forbidden and control characters each become an underscore — and appends an index to duplicates ("report_1.pdf", "report_2.pdf"), so a pattern that resolves to the same name for several items will not silently drop documents. Only meaningful with batchOutput: "zip"; a concatenated "pdf" batch is a single file. Must be used together with batchSplitBy. | |
| egressAuthorization | No | Value for the Authorization header Carbone adds to its OUTBOUND (egress) requests while rendering — fetching external images ({d.imageUrl}), external PDFs (:appendFile / :attachFile), and calling webhooks. For example "Bearer abc123" or "my-secret" makes Carbone send `authorization: <value>` to those hosts. Only the authorization header can be customised; max 512 characters. For webhook calls specifically, webhookHeaders.authorization (if set) overrides this value. |