Document Parser

Document Parser can automatically parse PDF, JPG, and PNG documents to extract fields, tables, values, and barcodes from invoices, statements, orders, and other PDF and scanned documents.

Built-in document parser templates

General Invoice Template can parse invoices (English only) to invoice id, invoice date, extract total, tax, and line items. Set the templateId parameter to 1 to use this template.

How to classify incoming documents before parsing them?

Use the /pdf/classifier endpoint (see below) to automatically sort/detect the class of the document based on AI or on custom keywords-based rules.

For example, you can easily define rules to find which vendor provided the document to find which template to apply accordingly. See Document Classifier for more details.

Additional Information and Tools

• Document Parser Template Editor

• Document Parser Template Objects Guide

Available Methods

• /pdf/documentparser

• /pdf/documentparser/templates

• /pdf/documentparser/templates/:id

/pdf/documentparser

This API method extracts data from documents based on a document parser extraction template. With this API method, you can extract data from custom areas by searching form fields, tables, multiple pages, and more.

• Method: POST

• Endpoint: /v1/pdf/documentparser

Attributes

Note

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request, for example:

{
    "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf"
}

Attribute	Description	Required
url	URL to the source file. 1	yes
httpusername	HTTP auth user name if required to access source url.	no
httppassword	HTTP auth password if required to access source url.	no
templateId	Set ID of document parser template to be used. View and manage your templates at Document Parser.	no
template	You can pass the code of the document parser template to be used directly.	no
inline	Set to true to return results inside the response. Otherwise, the endpoint will return a link to the output file generated. Note: only applies if async mode is true.	no
outputFormat	Default is JSON. You can override the default output format to CSV or XML to generate CSV or XML output accordingly.	no
password	Password of PDF file, the input must be in string format.	no
async	Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint to check the status of the process and retrieve the output while you can proceed with other tasks.	no
name	File name for the generated output, the input must be in string format.	no
expiration	Set the expiration time for the output link in minutes (default is 60 i.e 60 minutes or 1 hour), After this specified duration, any generated output file(s) will be automatically deleted from PDF.co Temporary Files Storage. The maximum duration for link expiration varies based on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf templates, documents) consider using PDF.co Built-In Files Storage.	no
profiles	Use this parameter to set additional configurations for fine-tuning and extra options. Explore the Profiles section for more.	no

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Payload

{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-parser/sample-invoice.pdf",
    "outputFormat": "JSON",
    "templateId": "1",
    "async": false,
    "inline": "true",
    "password": "",
    "profiles": ""
}

Response 2

{
    "body": {
        "objects": [
            {
                "name": "companyName",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": "Amazon Web Services, Inc",
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "companyName2",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": "Amazon Web Services, Inc",
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "invoiceId",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": "123456789",
                "pageIndex": 0,
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "dateIssued",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": "2018-04-03T00:00:00",
                "pageIndex": 0,
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "dateDue",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": "2018-04-03T00:00:00",
                "pageIndex": 0,
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "bankAccount",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": "123456789012",
                "pageIndex": 0,
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "total",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": 6.58,
                "pageIndex": 0,
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "subTotal",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": ""
            },
            {
                "name": "tax",
                "objectType": "field",
                "value": 1.01,
                "pageIndex": 0,
                "rectangle": [
                    0,
                    0,
                    0,
                    0
                ]
            },
            {
                "objectType": "table",
                "name": "table",
                "rows": []
            }
        ],
        "templateName": "Generic Invoice [en]",
        "templateVersion": "4",
        "timestamp": "2020-08-21T19:23:31"
    },
    "pageCount": 1,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "sample-invoice.json",
    "remainingCredits": 60803
}

CURL

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/documentparser' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: {{x-api-key}}' \
--data-raw '{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-parser/sample-invoice.pdf",
    "outputFormat": "JSON",
    "templateId": "1",
    "async": false,
    "inline": "true",
    "password": "",
    "profiles": ""
}'

---

/pdf/documentparser/templates

Returns all Document Parser data extraction templates for the current user.

Use the PDF.co dashbaord to manage your Document Parser Templates.

• Method: GET

• Endpoint: /v1/pdf/documentparser/templates

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Body payload

No body parameters accepted.

Response 2

{
    "templates": [
        {
            "id": 40,
            "type": "user",
            "title": "Untitled",
            "description": "Untitled"
        },
        {
            "id": 1,
            "type": "system",
            "title": "Invoice Parser",
            "description": "Parses invoices and extracts invoice number, company name, due date, amount, tax"
        }
    ],
    "remainingCredits": 94229
}

CURL

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/documentparser/templates' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: {{x-api-key}}'

---

/pdf/documentparser/templates/:id

Returns detailed information for document parser template by template’s id.

Use the PDF.co dashbaord to manage your Document Parser Templates.

• Method: GET

• Endpoint: /v1/pdf/documentparser/templates/:id

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Body payload

No body parameters accepted.

CURL

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/documentparser/templates/1' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: {{x-api-key}}' \
--data-raw ''

---

Code samples

• JavaScript samples

• Python samples

• C# samples

• Java samples

• PHP samples

• Google Apps Script samples

• Powershell samples

• Salesforce samples

• VB.NET samples

• cURL samples

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Template samples

Find templates to use with Document Parser here:

• Template samples

Footnotes

1

Supports links from Google Drive, Dropbox, and PDF.co Built-In Files Storage. To upload files via the API check out the File Upload section. Note: If you experience intermittent Too Many Requests or Access Denied errors, please try to add cache: to enable built-in URL caching. (e.g cache:https://example.com/file1.pdf) For data security, you have the option to encrypt output files and decrypt input files. Learn more about user-controlled data encryption.

2(1,2)

Main response codes as follows:

Code	Description
200	Success
400	Bad request. Typically happens because of bad input parameters, or because the input URLs can’t be reached, possibly due to access restrictions like needing a login or password.
401	Unauthorized
402	Not enough credits
445	Timeout error. To process large documents or files please use asynchronous mode (set the async parameter to true) and then check status using the /job/check endpoint. If a file contains many pages then specify a page range using the pages parameter. The number of pages of the document can be obtained using the /pdf/info endpoint.

Note

For more see the complete list of available response codes.

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