I’m working on automating certificate generation and need some guidance. I have a blank Adobe certificate template that needs to be populated with student information. The data I need includes first name, last name, and course completion details. All this information is stored in our HubSpot CRM system. I want to use Tray.io as the integration platform to connect HubSpot with the certificate generation process. Is it feasible to set up this kind of automated workflow? Has anyone successfully implemented something similar where you pull contact data from HubSpot and use it to fill out PDF templates? I’m particularly interested in whether Tray.io has the right connectors and capabilities to handle both the HubSpot data extraction and the PDF manipulation required for this task.
Built this exact workflow for our training department with Tray.io and HubSpot about eight months ago. You need proper field mapping between your HubSpot properties and PDF form fields in your Adobe template. We use a webhook trigger from HubSpot when enrollment hits “Completed” - fires the Tray workflow instantly. For PDF generation, we went with Tray’s built-in PDF services instead of Adobe’s API. Way more cost effective for our volume. Watch out for one thing - your certificate template field names must match your HubSpot properties exactly or you’ll get blank fields. We also backup to Google Drive before emailing certificates. That’s saved us multiple times when people lose theirs. Whole process takes about 30 seconds from completion to delivered certificate.
Yes, integrating Tray.io for automating certificate generation is definitely achievable. I set up a similar system last year for our team. The HubSpot connectors in Tray.io efficiently extract both standard and custom fields from contact records. When dealing with PDF templates, you can utilize the Adobe PDF Services connector or consider alternatives like PDFShift. One critical aspect is ensuring that your HubSpot data aligns with the placeholders in your certificate template. It’s vital that your Adobe template includes fillable fields with consistent naming conventions. Be cautious of special characters in names, as they can cause issues—implementing data sanitization steps can help. The workflow typically comprises: a course completion event in HubSpot initiates the flow → collects the necessary contact details → generates the PDF → and finally, either saves it back to HubSpot or sends it via email. We’ve been generating around 200 certificates a month, and everything has been operating smoothly.
We hit this exact issue when setting up automated course certificates with Tray.io last winter. HubSpot to PDF generation works great, but definitely test with small batches first. Our biggest headache was timezone differences - students got certificates with wrong timestamps until we added timezone conversion. Also, HubSpot’s contact merge will break your automation if people have duplicate records. We added a deduplication check early on to fix that. For your Adobe template, save it as a proper form with fillable fields, not just text placeholders. We tried text overlays first but positioning got wonky with different name lengths. Fillable forms are way more reliable.
definitely doable, but pdf formatting can be tricky. we started with zapier but switched to tray.io for better error handling. test ur template with weird characters first - apostrophes and hyphens broke our certificates. also, hubspot creates duplicate contacts sometimes, so add a filter or you’ll end up with multiple certs for the same person.
Set up something similar with Tray.io about six months back, but used DocuSign’s API instead of Adobe PDF Services since we already had that running. Biggest pain point? Getting the course completion data mapped right. Make sure your HubSpot properties for course names and completion dates are clean before you start building anything. We learned the hard way to add a validation step upfront - saves you from dealing with broken PDFs from incomplete contact records. We trigger ours when deal stage hits “Course Completed” instead of doing it manually. Works much smoother. One heads up - Tray.io’s rate limits will bite you if you’re generating tons of certificates at once. We had to build a queue system for bulk processing. But once you get it dialed in, it’s pretty solid.