This Guide contains a complete end-to-end certification management system built with n8n.It automates the entire lifecycle of a digital certificate — from creation, to PDF generation, to verification via API or a user-friendly HTML page.

See all my workflows on Github paoloronco/n8n-templates
Video: YouTube – Certificate Creator & Validator

See the workflow on n8n Creators hub: [coming soon]

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🔥 What This Workflow Does

🎓 1. Certificate Creation

Automatically generates a fully personalized certificate when a new request is received:

• Accepts candidate data via a POST webhook (/certifications)
• Reads: name, surname, course, e-mail
• Produces a unique Certification ID using a custom generation algorithm

🗂 2. Data Storage

Stores each issued certificate in an n8n Data Table, including:

• Candidate First Name
• Candidate Last Name
• Certification ID

This creates a persistent, searchable certification registry.

🧾 3. PDF Certificate Generation

Builds a professional certified PDF using PDF Generator API:

• Fully customizable HTML template
• Inserts candidate data, course name, certification ID, and date
• Outputs the final document as document.pdf

✉️ 4. Email Delivery

Automatically sends the generated certificate to the candidate:

• Uses Gmail OAuth2
• Includes the PDF as an attachment
• Sends a clean, customizable confirmation message

🔍 5. Certificate Verification

Provides a secure verification system through:

• TO public API endpoint (/certificationscheck)
• Response includes:
• Validation status
• Candidate name + surname (if valid)

🌐 6. Verification Mini-Website

Includes a ready-to-use HTML page for certificate lookup:

• User enters Certification ID
• Page queries your certificationscheck endpoint
• Displays whether the certificate is valid
• Shows the candidate's name if found
• Fully customizable (branding, style, messages)

Files included in the repo:Certification_Check.html

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In short, this workflow automates:✔ Certificate generation✔ Certificate storage✔ Certificate validation✔ PDF production✔ Email distribution✔ Public verification interface

Together, these features form a complete, production-ready certified management platform powered by n8n.

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🛠 Requirements

Before using this workflow, you must have:

1. n8n instance(Cloud or self-hosted)
2. n8n Data Table with ID fields:

• Name (string)
• Surname (string)
• Certification ID (string)

1. PDF Generator API accountCredentials set in n8n as pdfGeneratorApi.
2. Gmail OAuth2 credentialsConfigured in n8n as gmailOAuth2.
3. Ability to call HTTP POST endpoints from your website, backend, forms, etc.

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🚀 Installation

1. Import workflow

In n8n:

• Go to Workflows → Import
• Paste the JSON provided in this repository

2. Configure Data Table

Update the following nodes to point to your Data Table:

• Insert_Certificaton
• Find_Certification_By_ID
• Find_Certification_By_ID1

Make sure the Data Table has the fields:

Field	Type
Name	string
Surname	string
Certification ID	string

3. Configure Credentials

In the workflow:

• Node Generate_PDF → set PDF Generator API credentials
• Node Email_Certification → set Gmail OAuth2 credentials

4. Activate Workflow

Click Activate in n8n.

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🔧 How the Workflow Works

🔹 1. Webhook: Certificate Creation (/certifications)

The workflow starts with:

POST https://YOUR-N8N-DOMAIN.com/webhook/certification Headers: name: John surname: Doe course: Advanced n8n email: [email protected]

The webhook passes these headers to the next nodes.

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🔹 2. Generate_Certification_ID (Code Node)

JavaScript used:

const uniqueId = Date.now().toString(36).toUpperCase() + Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 8).toUpperCase(); return [{ id: uniqueId }];

Produces something like:LQ4Z5H8R2A1F

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🔹 3. Check if ID already exists

The workflow uses:

• Find_Certification_By_ID
• Certification_ID_Exists

If the ID already exists, it loops back and generates a new one.

If the ID is unique, the workflow continues.

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🔹 4. Insert certification in Data Table

Saves:

• Name
• Surname
• Unique ID

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🔹 5. Generate PDF Certificates

Using the PDF Generator API, the workflow builds a certificate from an HTML template.

The default HTML provided in the workflow is just an example and can be fully customized.You can freely change:

• Layout and structure (containers, sections, alignment)
• Colors, fonts, borders, and background
• Logos, images, and branding elements
• Text content (titles, subtitles, messages)
• Additional placeholders/fields

By default, the example template includes:

• Candidate name
• Course title
• Unique Certification ID
• Current date

After the HTML is rendered, this node generates a PDF file and outputs it as binary.document.pdf, which is then attached to the email in the next step.

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🔹 6. Send Certificate via Gmail

The workflow sends an email with:

Subject: Your certification is ready!Attachment: the generated document.pdf

The recipient is the email provided to the webhook.

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🔍 Certificate Verification (/certificationscheck)

The workflow provides two different ways to verify the authenticity of a certificate:

✅ 1. Manual API Request

You can verify a certificate by sending a manual HTTP request:    

POST /certificationscheck Headers: id: CERTIFICATION-ID-HERE

API Logic:

1. Find_Certification_By_ID1 searches the Data Table for the ID
2. Certification_Exists checks if a match exists
3. Returns JSON:

If found:

{ "ok": "true", "name": "John", "surname": "Doe" }

If NOT found:

{ "ok": "false" }

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🌐 Using This on Your Website

The repository also includes a ready-to-use verification webpage:Certification_Check.html

Use the correct endpoint URL

Inside the HTML page, the verification request uses:

fetch("https://YOUR-N8N-DOMAIN.com/webhook/certificationscheck",

Replace YOUR-N8N-DOMAIN.com with the actual domain where your n8n instance is hosted.

This mini site allows users to:

• Enter a Certification ID into a text field
• Trigger a verification request with a single click
• See the result immediately on-screen
• View the certificate holder's name and surname if the ID is valid

The page communicates with your /certificationscheck endpoint using JavaScript fetch() and behaves exactly like the manual API request — but in a clean, simple interface.

What you can customize

• Logo and header text
• Colors, fonts, and CSS
• Button styles and layout
• Messages for valid/invalid IDs
• Language and UI text
• The endpoint URL (if your n8n instance changes)

This makes it easy to embed certificate verification directly into your website, LMS, or customer portal.

HTML Templates:

• HTML Certificate Template

• HTML Certificate Validator