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Generate hardware PDF catalogs from Google Sheets with PDFShift, Gmail, and Google Drive

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Created by: Yogyata Mantri || yogyatamantri
Yogyata Mantri

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Last update 12 hours ago

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Quick overview

This workflow exposes a webhook that searches a Google Sheets hardware catalog by keyword and maximum price, renders the matching results into an HTML catalog, converts it to a PDF via PDFShift, returns the HTML to the requester, emails the PDF with Gmail, and archives it in Google Drive.

How it works

  1. Receives a webhook request with search, maxPrice, and optional email query parameters.
  2. Reads the full hardware product list from a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
  3. Filters products by name/category keyword match and price threshold, calculates summary metrics, and generates a styled HTML catalog (sanitizing the email input and using a default if missing).
  4. Sends the HTML to the PDFShift API to convert it into a PDF file.
  5. Uploads the generated PDF to a specified Google Drive folder as a dated backup.
  6. Emails the PDF as an attachment using Gmail with the search summary in the message.
  7. Responds to the webhook request with the generated HTML (served as text/html).

Setup

  1. Create and connect Google Sheets OAuth2 credentials and set the correct spreadsheet ID and sheet tab for your hardware catalog.
  2. Add a PDFShift API key and replace the hard-coded Authorization header value in the HTTP request to PDFShift.
  3. Create and connect Gmail OAuth2 credentials, and set the recipient logic (use the webhook email parameter or update the static sendTo address).
  4. Create and connect Google Drive OAuth2 credentials, and select the target Drive and folder ID where PDF backups should be stored.
  5. Copy the webhook URL from n8n and call it with search/maxPrice/email query parameters from your browser, Postman, or source system.

Requirements

  • Prerequisites & Requirements
  • To run this workflow smoothly, ensure you have the following credentials and setups configured:
  • n8n Instance:* Version 1.0.0 or higher.
  • Google Sheets Account:* Authenticated connection to access the master product inventory spreadsheet.
  • PDFShift API Key:* Free or active account key from pdfshift.io added as X-API-Key header in the HTTP Request node for HTML-to-PDF conversion.
  • Gmail OAuth2 Credentials:* Connected Google/Gmail account with send scope enabled for auto-delivering PDF catalogs.
  • Google Drive Credentials (Optional):* OAuth2 connection if you wish to auto-archive PDF backup files in cloud storage.

Customization

  • Workflow Customization Options
  • You can easily adapt this template to fit your specific business logic and branding needs:
  • Custom Email Templates:
    • Open Node 3 (Code in JavaScript) to modify HTML/CSS for custom catalog layouts, color schemes, or company branding (logos, fonts, header/footer styling).
  • Adjust Filter Criteria:
    • Update the filtering array logic in Node 3 to add more product filters (e.g., brand name, in-stock status, or category tags).
  • Alternative PDF Engines:
    • Replace Node 4 (PDFShift) with other HTML-to-PDF APIs like DocRaptor, HTML2PDF, or Gotenberg by adjusting the endpoint URL and API payload headers.
  • Change Storage & Delivery Channels:
    • Swap Node 5 (Gmail) or Node 7 (Google Drive) with Slack, Microsoft Teams, AWS S3, or Dropbox to deliver/store catalogs on your preferred platforms.
  • Local Currency & Date Formatting:
    • Modify the currency symbol ($) and locale date formatting in the JavaScript node to align with your local region and currency standards.