How do I loop over a list of items in a PDFMonkey builder template?

Select the element you want to repeat, open the Logic panel, and toggle on Repetition. Enter the path to an array in your data (e.g. “invoice.products”) as the Collection and choose an Item name. The builder repeats the element once for each item in the array.

Can I use both visibility conditions and repetition on the same element?

No. The builder only allows one at a time on a given element. To repeat elements and conditionally show some of them, nest a child element with a Visibility Condition inside a parent Container that has Repetition enabled.

Conditions and Loops

The builder’s Logic panel lets you control when elements appear and how they repeat. You can make any element conditional — visible only when a data condition is met — or repeat it once for each item in a collection. These two features cover the most common dynamic content patterns: showing or hiding sections based on context, and generating rows from a list of items.

The Logic panel

Select any element in the canvas (except the document root), then switch to the Settings tab in the right panel. The Logic section appears below the Element Info section, with two toggles: Visibility Condition and Repetition.

A small indigo dot appears next to the “Logic” heading when either feature is active on the selected element.

Visibility conditions

Toggle on Visibility Condition to make an element appear only when a condition is true. An input field appears where you enter a JavaScript expression evaluated against your document’s test data.

The Logic panel with a visibility condition active, showing the green “visible” status

Writing conditions

The condition is a JavaScript expression that has access to your test data. Some examples:

Condition	What it does
`customer.isPremium`	Shows the element when the customer is premium
`items.length > 0`	Shows the element when the items array is not empty
`order.status === 'paid'`	Shows the element when the order status is “paid”
`total >= 1000`	Shows the element when the total is 1,000 or more

Live evaluation

The Logic panel evaluates your condition against the current test data in real time and shows the result:

Green (“Element is currently visible”) — the condition evaluates to a truthy value with your current test data, so the element appears in the preview.
Red (“Element is currently hidden”) — the condition evaluates to a falsy value, so the element is hidden in the preview.

The Logic panel showing the red “hidden” status when the condition evaluates to false

If the condition contains a syntax error, a red error banner appears at the bottom of the builder.

A link to Edit test data appears below the status indicator, letting you quickly adjust your test data to try different scenarios.

Repetition

Toggle on Repetition to repeat an element once for each item in a collection from your test data. Two input fields appear:

Collection — the path to an array in your test data (for example, invoice.products or users)
Item name — the variable name for the current item in the loop (auto-suggested by singularizing the collection name)

The Logic panel with Repetition active, showing the collection and item fields with available variables

How it works

When you enter a collection path like lineItems, the builder automatically suggests an item name of lineItem (the singular form). You can change this to any name you prefer.

The panel then shows a summary of what the loop does and lists the available variables:

Variable	Description
The item variable (e.g., `lineItem`)	The current item from the collection
The index variable (e.g., `lineItemIndex`)	The zero-based position of the current item

The panel also shows helper expressions you can copy for common checks:

First item check: lineItemIndex === 0
Last item check: lineItemIndex === lineItems.length - 1

Using loop variables in child elements

Child elements of a repeated element can reference the item and index variables. For example, if you repeat a container over lineItems with the item name lineItem, a Text block inside that container can display lineItem.name or lineItem.price using the variable browser.

Visibility and repetition are mutually exclusive

You cannot enable both Visibility Condition and Repetition on the same element. The builder enforces this — when one toggle is active, the other is disabled. This is because combining both on a single HTML element produces ambiguous behavior.

Workaround:

If you need to repeat elements and also conditionally show some of them, nest two elements. Put a Container with Repetition enabled, and inside it place a child element with a Visibility Condition. The container repeats for each item, and the child inside it appears or hides based on the condition.

Combining with situational styling

Repeated elements work well with situational styling. Once an element repeats over a collection, you can apply different styles for odd and even items, highlight the first or last item, or show a fallback when the collection is empty. See the Situational Styling page for details.

Frequently asked questions

How do I conditionally show or hide an element in PDFMonkey’s builder?: Select the element, open the Settings tab, and toggle on Visibility Condition in the Logic section. Enter a JavaScript expression evaluated against your document data—for example, “customer.isPremium” or “items.length > 0”. The element only appears when the condition is truthy.
How do I loop over a list of items in a PDFMonkey builder template?: Select the element you want to repeat, open the Logic panel, and toggle on Repetition. Enter the path to an array in your data (e.g. “invoice.products”) as the Collection and choose an Item name. The builder repeats the element once for each item in the array.
Can I use both visibility conditions and repetition on the same element?: No. The builder only allows one at a time on a given element. To repeat elements and conditionally show some of them, nest a child element with a Visibility Condition inside a parent Container that has Repetition enabled.