HyPDF | Your Swiss Army knife for PDF

Table of content

Using with Ruby/Rails Using with other languages

API Reference

htmltopdf jobstatus pdfinfo editmeta pdftotext pdfextract pdfunite readform fillform encryptpdf decryptpdf

Test mode Uploading to AWS S3 Asynchronous creation

Documentation

HyPDF is a service that provides the full set of tools for working with PDF documents.

With HyPDF you can:

Create beautiful and complex PDF documents using familiar HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Read and edit meta-information for any PDF file.
Transform PDF files to the plain text.
Extract certain pages from whole PDF file.
Merge two PDF files into one.
Fill forms in the existed PDF.

Moreover, HyPDF can upload created PDFs to your own AWS S3 bucket for you.

HyPDF is accessible via a simple API and has supported client library for Ruby, though it can be used by any language with support for making HTTP requests.

If you're using Heroku you can install HyPDF as an add-on.

Using with Ruby/Rails

Ruby/Rails applications will need to add the following entry into their Gemfile specifying the HyPDF client library.

gem 'hypdf', '~> 1.0.19'

Update application dependencies with bundler.

$ bundle install

Call htmltopdf method with your HTML/URL and optional parameters and get your document directly. Tip: use test option during the development.

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.htmltopdf(
  '<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>',
  user: YOUR_HYPDF_USER,
  password: YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD,
  # ... other options ...
)

# send PDF to user
send_data(
  @hypdf_response[:pdf],
  filename: "pdf_with_#{@hypdf_response[:pages]}_pages.pdf",
  type: 'application/pdf'
)

# or write to file
File.open('file_name.pdf', 'wb') do |f|
  f.write(@hypdf_response[:pdf])
end

Using with other languages

HyPDF is accessible via a HTTP API described in API reference section.

The simplest CURL example:

$ curl --data 'content=<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>&user=YOUR_HYPDF_USER&password=YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD' https://www.hypdf.com/htmltopdf > test.pdf

Python example (using flask and requests):

      
import requests
from flask import Flask
from flask import request
app = Flask(__name__)

# Make request to the HyPDF and upload the created file to the AWS S3 in an asynchronous style.
@app.route("/")
def index():
  params = {'user': 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', 'password': 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', 'test': 'true', 'content': '<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>', 'bucket': 'hypdf_test', 'key': 'hypdf_test.pdf', 'public': 'true', 'callback': 'http://yoursite.com/pdf_complete'}
  r = requests.post('https://www.hypdf.com/htmltopdf', data=params)
  return r.json()['job_id']

# Get response from the HyPDF
@app.route("/pdf_complete", methods=['POST'])
def print_pdf_data():
  print 'job_id: ' + request.headers['hypdf-job-id']
  print 'number of pages: ' + request.headers['hypdf-pages']
  print 'url: ' + request.form['url']
  return 'ok'

if __name__ == "__main__":
  app.run()

Node.js example (using request):

      
var request = require('request'),
  fs = require("fs");

// Create PDF and upload it to AWS S3
request.post(
  'https://www.hypdf.com/htmltopdf',
  {
      json: {
          user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
          password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
          content: '<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>',
          margin_left: '0.5in',
          bucket: 'YOUR_BUCKET_NAME',
          key: 'some_file_name.pdf',
          public: true
      }
  },
  function (error, response, body) {
      if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
          console.log('Public URL: ', body.url);
          console.log('Number of pages: ', response.headers['hypdf-pages']);
      }
  }
);

Also there are unofficial Node.js and Java wrappers for the HyPDF API.

API Reference

htmltopdf

This is documentation for Chromium-based rendering engine, if you're using QtWebkit-based engine see this documentation page.

Create PDF file from provided HTML or URL.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.htmltopdf(
  '<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>',
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  # ... other options ...
)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA, pages: 1, page_size: "792 x 612 pts (letter)", pdf_version: 1.4}

In other languages just make HTTP request with these parameters:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/htmltopdf'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'application/json'
Parameters: {content: 'YOUR_HTML', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Value type	Description
test	Boolean	Enable test mode. Defaults to false
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	Boolean	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file. Defaults to false
preview	Boolean	Generate preview image for uploaded file. Defaults to false
callback	String	Create PDF in the background and post results to this URL.
landscape	Boolean	Landscape paper orientation. Defaults to false
scale	Float	Scale of the webpage rendering. Defaults to 1. Scale amount must be between 0.1 and 2
delay	Float	Wait some extra seconds before printing the page. Defaults to 0
format	String	Standart paper sizes "letter", "legal", "tabloid", "ledger", "A0", "A1", "A2", "A3, "A4", "A5", "A6"
paper_width	Float	Paper width in inches. Defaults to 8.5 inches
paper_height	Float	Paper height in inches. Defaults to 11 inches
margin_top	Float	Top margin in inches. Defaults 0.4 inches (1cm)
margin_bottom	Float	Bottom margin in inches. Defaults to 0.4 inches (1cm)
margin_left	Float	Left margin in inches. Defaults to 0.4 inches (1cm)
margin_right	Float	Right margin in inches. Defaults to 0.4 inches (1cm)
header_template	String	HTML template for the document header. Should be valid HTML markup
footer_template	String	HTML template for the document footer. Should be valid HTML markup

In footer/header templates you can use "pageNumber", "totalPages", and "date" classes to inject printing values into them:

      
<div style='font-size:12px;'>Page <span class='pageNumber'></span> of <span class='totalPages'></span></div>

Important note: headers and footers don’t inherit styles from the rest of the page and can’t use external resources. If you need to use images you can convert them to Data URI format with any converter.

jobstatus

This method allows to check background job status.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.jobstatus(
  'ae19dafbb8d4880929d89af6', # your job ID
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
)
# => {"job_id"=>"ae19dafbb8d4880929d89af6", "status"=>"working"}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/jobstatus'
Method: 'GET'
Content-Type: 'application/json'
Parameters: {job_id: 'JOB_ID', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'}
Result: 'json'

Possible statuses: waiting, working, complete, failed.

pdfinfo

Read meta-information of the document.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.pdfinfo(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'

)
# => {"Title"=>"Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec", "Author"=>"Aaron Sumner", "Creator"=>"LaTeX with hyperref package", "Producer"=>"xdvipdfmx (0.7.8)", "CreationDate"=>"Fri Aug  2 05", "32"=>"50 2013", "Tagged"=>"no", "Pages"=>"150", "Encrypted"=>"no", "Page size"=>"612 x 792 pts (letter)", "Optimized"=>"no", "PDF version"=>"1.5"}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/pdfinfo'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'}
Result: 'json'

editmeta

Edit metadata of the document.

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.editmeta(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  'Author' => 'Plato',
  'Title' => 'Apology'

)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/editmeta'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', Author: 'Plato', ...}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
test	true, false	Use test mode.
Title	String	Document title.
Subject	String	Document subject.
Author	String	Document author.
Creator	String	Document creator.
Producer	String	Document producer.
Copyright	String	Document copyrights information.
Keywords	String	Document keywords.
CreateDate	String	Document creation date in ISO 8601 format, e.g. "2015-06-25T14:09:25Z".
ModifyDate	String	Document modification date in ISO 8601 format, e.g. "2015-06-25T14:09:25Z".
all	String	Update all tags at once.
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	true, false	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file.

If your document has the Dublin Core metadata you can edit it with special “xmp-dc:”-prefix, for example: “xmp-dc:Creator”, “xmp-dc:Subject”, “xmp-dc:all”.

pdftotext

Extract text content from the document.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.pdftotext(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  first_page: 2,
  last_page: 5,
  # ... other options ...

)
# => {text: "Everyday Rails Testing with RSpec\nA practical approach to test-driven..."}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/pdftotext'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', ...}
Result: 'json'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
first_page	Integer	First page to convert.
last_page	Integer	Last page to convert.
no_page_break	true	If present, don't insert page breaks between pages.
crop_x	Integer	x-coordinate of the crop area top left corner.
crop_y	Integer	y-coordinate of the crop area top left corner.
crop_width	Integer	Width of crop area in pixels.
crop_height	Integer	Height of crop area in pixels.

pdfextract

Extract certain pages from the document.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.pdfextract(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  first_page: 2,
  last_page: 5,
  # ... other options ...

)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/pdfextract'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', ...}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
first_page	Integer	First page to extract.
last_page	Integer	Last page to extract.
test	true, false	Use test mode.
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	true, false	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file.

pdfunite

Merge a few documents into one.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.pdfunite(
  '/path/to/file1.pdf', # or instance of File class
  '/path/to/file2.pdf', # or instance of File class
  '/path/to/file3.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  # ... other options ...

)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/pdfunite'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file_1: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', file_2: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', file_3: ..., user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
test	true, false	Use test mode.
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	true, false	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file.

readform

Read form fields' names and values from PDF.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.readform(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'

)
# => {"field_name"=>"Field value"}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/readform'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD'}
Result: 'json'

fillform

Fill form fields in the existed PDF with provided values. If you don't know form fields' names use readform method.

NOTE: If field names contain brackets, dots and other non-word symbol you need to encode them to URL-encoded format

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.fillform(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  field_name: 'New field value',
  # ... other options ...

)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/fillform'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', field_name: 'New field value'}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
test	true, false	Use test mode.
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	true, false	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file.

encryptpdf

Encrypt PDF with provided password.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.encryptpdf(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  pdf_password: 'SOME_PASSWORD',
  # ... other options ...

)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/encryptpdf'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', pdf_password: 'some_password'}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	true, false	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file.

decryptpdf

Remove password from encrypted PDF.

Ruby:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.decryptpdf(
  '/path/to/file.pdf', # or instance of File class
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  pdf_password: 'PDF_PASSWORD',
  # ... other options ...

)
# => {pdf: BINARY_PDF_DATA}

Other languages:

      
URL: 'https://www.hypdf.com/decryptpdf'
Method: 'POST'
Content-Type: 'multipart/form-data'
Parameters: {file: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA', user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER', password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD', pdf_password: 'pdf_password'}
Result: 'BINARY_PDF_DATA'

Optional parameters:

Option name	Possible value	Description
bucket	String	Upload created PDF to this AWS S3 bucket.
key	String	File name.
public	true, false	Grant everyone read access to uploaded file.

Test mode

During the development you may want to use the test mode. In this case HyPDF do not count against your daily document quota.

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.pdfunite(
  '/path/to/file1.pdf',
  '/path/to/file2.pdf',
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  test: true
)

Uploading to AWS S3

HyPDF can upload created files to your AWS S3 bucket, but before you need to give permission HyPDF to do it.

Visit your AWS Security Credentials page
Copy Canonical User ID from “Account Identifiers” section
Add it to your HyPDF account via add-on dashboard
Log into AWS Console
Choose S3 service
Select the bucket and click on "Permissions" link
On "Permissions" panel click on "Bucket policy" button
Paste the following policy into the dialog that appears (Replace YOUR_BUCKET_NAME with the name of the bucket you are adding this permission to)

Policy:

      
{
"Version": "2008-10-17",
"Statement": [
  {
    "Sid": "AddCannedAcl",
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": {
      "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::495273932038:root"
    },
    "Action": [
      "s3:GetBucketAcl",
      "s3:PutObjectAcl",
      "s3:PutObject"
    ],
    "Resource": [
      "arn:aws:s3:::YOUR_BUCKET_NAME/*",
      "arn:aws:s3:::YOUR_BUCKET_NAME"
    ]
  }
]
}

After that you can use the bucket option in HyPDF methods:

      
@hypdf_response = HyPDF.htmltopdf(
  '<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>',
  user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
  password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
  # ... other options ...
  bucket: 'YOUR_BUCKET_NAME',
  key: 'some_file_name.pdf', # optional
  public: true # optional, generate public readable URL
)
# => { url: "https://s3.amazonaws.com/YOUR_BUCKET_NAME/some_file_name.pdf", pages: 1, page_size: "792 x 612 pts (letter)", pdf_version: 1.4, bucket: "YOUR_BUCKET_NAME", key: "some_file_name.pdf"}

Asynchronous creation

You don’t need to wait and block your application until the document is created, HyPDF can handle your files in asynchronous style. Just provide callback URL that will be called when PDF will be ready.

      
def create
  @hypdf_response = HyPDF.htmltopdf(
      '<html><body><h1>Title</h1></body></html>',
      user: 'YOUR_HYPDF_USER',
      password: 'YOUR_HYPDF_PASSWORD',
      # ... other options ...
      callback: 'http://www.your-application.com/save_pdf_url',
      bucket: 'YOUR_BUCKET_NAME',
      key: 'some_file_name.pdf',
      public: true
  )

  # You can check job status in any time
  puts HyPDF.jobstatus(@hypdf_response[:job_id])
end

# POST /save_pdf_url
def save_pdf_url
  if params[:error]
      puts params[:message]
  else
      # PDF url
      puts params[:url]
      # Job ID
      puts request.headers['hypdf-job-id']
      # Number of pages
      puts request.headers['hypdf-pages']
  end
end

Questions?

All HyPDF support and runtime issues or product feedback are welcome at support@hypdf.com. Also feel free to subscribe to our Twitter account.