What a generated letter represents
A generated letter is the concrete output of the system. It captures the template, the employee, the chosen values, the approver, approval time, and the reference number used to identify the result later.
How letters are created
- Through approval: the most common route, where a pending request becomes an approved letter.
- Directly from admin: administrators can create letters without going through the employee request flow.
What letter generation tries to do for you
- Resolve some model-derived placeholders automatically
- Store final values used during generation
- Track who approved the letter and when
- Expose missing-value indicators before printing
- Keep printable access by language
Why missing-value visibility matters
A letter can look structurally complete in the database while still being semantically incomplete. Missing placeholder values are therefore surfaced as a first-class concern. This is especially important when templates evolve or when some values are expected from requesters.
Print behavior
The codebase supports two print routes:
/letters/{letter}/print/letters/{language_code}/{letter}/print
The employee print action uses the language-specific route. That means multilingual printing is not just a content concern in the editor; it is part of the live output flow.
Letter edge cases
- Template changed after the letter was generated: do not assume historic letters should silently mirror the newest template content.
- Language selected for print is unavailable: this usually means the template was never authored in that language.
- Reference format changed later: old letters keep their identity; new numbering logic mainly affects future output.
- Auto-resolved data looks wrong: review the underlying employee or company record before blaming the template itself.
What makes a generated letter “production ready”
- No unresolved required placeholders remain.
- The reference number matches the company standard.
- The language selected for print has complete content and readable user data.
- The company branding and layout match the intended audience.
- The approval metadata is accurate.
Records and compliance mindset
Even when the letter content feels simple, the generated letter record is often the most important operational artifact in the system. It is the stable evidence of what was approved, for whom, and under what configuration at the time of generation.