EDAS can generate PDF visa letters for authors of papers or abstracts that have been accepted, as well non-author attendees who register through EDAS. The visa letter is defined as a template in Conference:Templates, using a very restricted subset of XML, somewhat similar to XHTML, or Markdown markup, including full HTML. For the XML version, images, such as logos, must be uploaded via Conference:Web pages, using the "Upload assets" function or the signature, logo and banner images can be used. All images must be either PNG or JPEG files, not PDF or Word.
The {signature} variable, included in the src parameter of the img tag, retrieves the signature file uploaded via Conference:Files. The {logo} and {banner} variables can be used in a similar fashion.
In order to enable visa letters, chairs must configure the visa contact information at Conference:Configure, Visa letters, and set up the "Visa confirmation letter" template in Conference:Templates. (The template without signature is meant for IEEE staff.)
Authors can then go to their paper page and generate a customized visa letter for each of their papers. The visa letter is returned to the author as a PDF file. The visa letter is not emailed to authors.
In the visa letter configuration, the conference can indicate that only authors who have paid their registration can download the visa letter, or only authors marked as presenters for the paper.
XHTML
The <p> and <img> tags can take x and y arguments to position the element on the page. The coordinates are measured in inches, starting at the upper left hand corner.
The size of text elements and the name of the font are used, once set, for subsequent text, until changed. For UTF-8 (internationalized text with non-Latin characters), use the font "DejaVu" only.
| Tag | Explanation |
|---|---|
| <body>text</body> | Body of visa letter |
| <p align="J" x="..." y="..." size="..." font="...">text</p> | Paragraph, with character font size size (pt) and font, aligned align (J for justified, C for center or L for left; L is default). Only use integers for the font size, not, say, '9px'. |
| <b>text</b> | Bold text |
| <i>text</i> | Italic text |
| <center x="..." y="..." font="..." size="...">text</center> | Centered text |
| <img src="URL" width="..." height="..." x="..." y="..." /> | Image (x, y, width and height are in inches; optional) |
| <br/> | Line break |
An example letter in restricted XHTML format.
Markdown
Markdown example. To resize images, you can use the HTML tag <img src="{signature}" width="600" /> with the width measured in pixels. You may have to experiment with the width value to have the image span the appropriate width or height.
Special note for IEEE ComSoc conferences
IEEE ComSoc will provide us with a visa letter template. The details of the letter change occasionally, and the signature and contact information differ. Thus, chairs of conferences sponsored in whole or in part by IEEE ComSoc should contact ComSoc HQ staff. We have been advised by IEEE ComSoc staff to proceed with generating visa letter templates only with their approval.