What is the template development service?

We designed the Better PDF Exporter and Better Excel Exporter (both Jira apps by Midori) to meet practically any business needs. Thanks to their low-level approach, their output and behavior is extremely customizable by developing document templates (PDF), report templates (Excel) and scripts.

Most customers implement their custom templates alone, as detailed documentation, tutorials and recipes are available in our website. Since the apps are built on top of standard technologies (like Velocity templates or the Groovy programming language), tons of useful resources can also be found in the web.

For those, who don't want to develop templates themselves, Midori provides professional services to develop custom templates and scripts.

When to use it?

  1. When your organization does not have the time and other resources (ex: technical skills) to develop custom templates.
  2. When you want to focus on your core business, and it is more efficient to hire external experts to develop your templates.
  3. When you want to use our technical skills instead of developing those in-house. No-one knows Midori apps better than we do (the team that actually builds them).
  4. When you are unsure if something is do-able at all. No-one knows the possibilities better than we do, and no-one is more efficient in implementing them than we are.

Would a custom PDF or Excel export enhance your Jira?

Ask us right now →

Template Development project examples

Here are some projects that we delivered recently, to give you an idea what we do and how.

Automatic business document generation

Industry: Energy (Australia)

Why? This company is tracking various business related issue types in Jira, and they wanted to generate and email standard PDF documents like "Technical Deviation Request and Query Browse Form". They wanted to do that both manually (one click) and automatically (at issue transitions).

What? We developed a family of fairly complex PDF templates, that allow generating different document types in different contexts (depending on the project and issue type). We also helped them to implement workflow automation using the PDF API exposed by Better PDF Exporter for Jira.

Results: Our customer succeeded in 100% automating their business document generation.

"Chargeback Form" template development

Industry: E-commerce (USA)

Why? This online retailer is tracking chargebacks with Jira (due to items not received, technical problems around the transaction processing, etc.). They wanted to generate all official documents for their customers and banks directly from Jira.

What? We developed a single PDF template, that allows rendering Chargeback Forms from a highly customized Jira issue type.

Results: They eliminated a lot of error prone manual work, and replaced a custom application with Jira and Better PDF Exporter for Jira.

"Portfolio Status Report" template review

Industry: Manufacturing (Germany)

Why? Our customer implemented a large complicated report template alone (using the online product documentation). The report processes a large number of issues in multiple projects, then aggregates and visualizes performance metrics from the data for decision makers. They hired us to review and improve their reporting code.

What? We reviewed the document template and the Groovy scripts, and suggested several modifications and optimizations.

Results: Our guidance helped to make the template easier (cheaper) to maintain and enhance, faster to render, and more tolerant against invalid data.

How does the template development service work?

To define your requirements, please provide us the following input:

  1. A sample that demonstrates the required output.
    Create a Word document (or a PDF) manually, that demonstrates the layout, general look, header, footer and any important detail.
  2. For each field to be exported specify:
    • Custom field type (text, user picker, date picker, etc.). If it is a custom field provided by an app, then tell us your app version.
    • Can this contain NULL or empty values?
    • Show some example values.
    Ultimately we'd expect a table like this from you:
    FIELD NAME     FIELD TYPE     NULLABLE?    EXAMPLES
    "Approver"     User Picker    No           "Chris Black", "Bill Monroe"
    "Reasoning"    Text           Yes          "Improves efficiency.", "Saves cost."
    

Based on this information, we compile an estimation for you. It includes:

  • the work breakdown (as a task list)
  • time- and cost estimations (per task)
  • delivery dates

After you accepted the estimation, we start working on the project. We contact you immediately if we are unsure about some detail. We deliver you the results according to the accepted schedule.

At completion time, we make sure that the deliverables are successfully put into production. We also verify whether the project delivers the expected value.

Service rates

Our services are billed on an hourly basis. We carefully document our time, our clients receive invoices for all billable hours with detailed information on the work completed.

ServicePrice in USD
Off-site (remote) development and consulting$75 / hour

For long term project involvements, we can create a custom package with discounted rates to meet your needs — just ask us!

Minimum service charge is 4 hours.
All prices exclusive of VAT.
Prices are subject to change without prior notice.

Payment schedule

Midori must receive an up-front payment of 20% of the total - before any project can be started. (This is essentially the customer's financial commitment to the project.)

For smaller projects, the remaining 80% is to be paid after the project was successfully completed and the deliverables were put into production. For longer projects with multiple milestones, the payment schedule is aligned to the delivery schedule (milestones).