SharePoint Online HTML Conversion - User credentials

The Muhimbi Document Converter for SharePoint Online comes with a ’ Web Page to PDF’ facility. This allows SharePoint Online pages such as Wikis and List Items to be converted to PDF, either using the SharePoint User interface, or via automated workflows.

In order to convert SharePoint Online URLs, the Document Converter will need to fetch the page first, which requires authentication. As it is not possible to automatically take the username and password from the current user (imagine the security implications of that), credentials will need to be specified in the workflow action or - better and more secure - entered centrally on a secure screen accessible only by administrators.

Prerequisites

Before entering these credentials, please make sure the following prerequisites are in place.

  1. The Document Converter for SharePoint Online is installed in the Site Collection as per these instructions.

  2. The App privileges are elevated as described here.

  3. The ’ Muhimbi Document Converter - Convert Web Page’ App Feature is enabled, as described at the bottom of the same article.

  4. The user carrying out the steps below is a Site Collection Administrator.

  5. The user carrying out these steps is a ‘known-user’. In other words, logged in with the account used to register the trial, or registered by Muhimbi Support at the time the subscription was activated. If the menu links are not displayed on the left-hand side of the Document Converter’s SharePoint screens then please as the subscription owner to contact our support desk.

Entering credentials

With the prerequisites in place, navigate to Muhimbi’s HTML Conversion screen as follows:

  1. Navigate to ‘Site Contents’.

  2. Click on Muhimbi Document Converter for SharePoint Online.

  3. The Product Information page for this product is now displayed. Providing you are registered as a known user you will see a ‘HTML Conversion’ option on the left hand-side of the screen. If this option is not displayed then please see the Troubleshooting section at the end of this article.

  4. Click the HTML Conversion Link.

The screen allows multiple sets of credentials to be entered.

  • Default credentials: The default credentials are mandatory and are automatically used when using the Convert page to PDF option in the Personal Actions menu.

  • Optional credentials: Two sets of additional credentials including a descriptive alias. This can be useful in cases where certain content can only be accessed using a particular account.

The credentials stored using this screen need to be entered only once and are accessible from all sub-sites in the site collection.

Applying credentials

Once the credentials have been entered, they can be used as follows:

  • Personal Actions: With the appropriate App Feature enabled, an option is added to the Personal Actions menu, Convert page to PDF. Clicking this action will convert the current page using the Default Credentials and download it in PDF format. ( At the time of writing this functionality is only available in Classic view due to limitations in SharePoint Online’s Modern View)

  • SharePoint Designer Workflows: Our Convert HTML to PDF workflow action will automatically use the Default Credentials when it is set to the SharePoint Online authentication type. It is also possible to manually specify a username and password, or use one of the optional sets of credentials by entering the Alias name surrounded by curly braces, e.g. {SomeAlias}.

Please note that, as it is based on a different platform, our Microsoft Flow and Logic Apps actions cannot pick up these credentials. In order to carry out HTML to PDF Conversion on those platforms, the credentials must be specified manually.

Questions / troubleshooting

  1. The HTML Conversion link is not displayed: If you don’t see this option then please contact the person looking after your Muhimbi Subscription or email our support desk.

  2. Do these credentials need to be specified for every sub-site? No, this information is stored centrally for all sites in the site collection.

  3. Does this information need to be re-entered after reinstalling / upgrading? There is no need to re-enter this information as it survives after uninstalling the software.

  4. Our accounts are secured using Multi Factor Authentication, will that work? For these kind of situations please create an App password for the HTML Conversion account.

  5. The generated PDF looks different from what is displayed on screen. By default the page being converted is optimised for print / PDF output. If you prefer it to look exactly like displayed on screen, including user interface elements, then set the Media Type to Screen on the HTML Conversion configuration screen.