Document Classifier

Auto classification Of Incoming Documents

Use /pdf/classifier endpoint (see below) to automatically sort / detect the class of the document based on keywords-based rules. For example, you can define rules to find which vendor provided the document to find which template to apply accordingly.

Tip

To quickly create and test classification rules, download and install ByteScout PDF Multitool. Run it and check PDF Classifier at the left sidebar. Test rules and export them as a JSON request for PDF.co PDF Classifier.

Available Methods

[POST] /pdf/classifier

[POST] /pdf/classifier

Description: Document Classifier can automatically find class of input PDF, JPG, PNG document by analyzing its content using the built-in AI or custom defined classification rules.

IMPORTANT: the best way to develop, test and maintain classification rules is to use Classifier Tester Tool from ByteScout PDF Multitool desktop app for Windows, you can download it from this page. Use this tool to quickly edit and test rules on single PDFs and on folders.

Tools and Guides

See Also:

Attributes

Hint: attributes should be inside JSON for POST request:

{
    "url": "url-input-link"
}

Attributes
url required URL to the source file. Supports links from Google Drive, Dropbox and from built-in PDF.co files storage. For uploading files via API please check Files Upload section. If you are randomly getting `Too Many Requests` or `Access Denied` error for your input url, please try to add `cache:` to enable built-in url caching. You can also encrypt data for output files and decrypt data input files with user-controlled data encryption (uses strong `AES` encryption with your own keys). Click here to learn more.
httpusername optional http auth user name if required to access source `url`.
httppassword optional http auth password if required to access source `url`.
rulescsv optional. Define custom classification rules in CSV format. Rules are in CSV format where each row contains: `class name`, `logic` (`AND` or `OR` (default)), and keywords separated separated by the comma. Each row is separated by `\n` symbol. You can use regular expressions for keywords with this syntax: `/keyword or regexp/i` where `i` is the case-insensitive flag. Please note that all `\` symbols should add prefix `\` because of JSON format, so `\d` becomes `\\d` and so on. Custom Rules Example 1 for `rulescsv` (for more examples please check the classifier guide) `Amazon AWS,OR,Amazon Web Services Invoice,Amazon CloudFront\nDigital Ocean,OR,DigitalOcean,DOInvoice\nACME,OR,ACME Inc.,1540 Long Street` Custom Rules Example 2 (with regular expressions, for more examples please check the classifier guide) `Medical Report,AND,/Instructing Party\|Medical Report\|Date Of Injury\|Med Agency Ref/i\r\nInjured Claimant,OR,Injured Claimant,Injured Patient ID`
rulescsvurl optional Instead of inline CSV you can use this parameter and set the url to csv file with classification rules. This is useful if you have a separate developer working on csv rules. Sample link to a Dropbox: `https://www.dropbox.com/s/12345abcdef/document_sorting_rules.csv?dl=0` Sample content of `document_sorting_rules.csv` with `Medical Report` and `Injured Claimant` classes: `Medical Report,AND,/Instructing Party\|Medical Report\|Date Of Injury\|Med Agency Ref/i\r\nInjured Claimant,OR,Injured Claimant,Injured Patient ID`
caseSensitive optional (default to `true`). Defines if keywords in rules are case sensitive or not.
inline optional Set to `true` to return results inside the response. Otherwise endpoint will return a link to output file generated.
password optional Password of PDF file. Must be a String.
async optional Runs processing asynchronously. Returns `JobId` that you may use with `/job/check` to check state of the background job (possible states: `working`, `failed`, `aborted` and `success`). Must be one of: `true`, `false`.
name optional File name for generated output. Must be a String.
expiration optional Output link expiration in minutes. Default is `60` (i.e. 60 minutes or 1 hour). After this delay generated output file(s) (if any) will be auto-removed from PDF.co temporary files storage. Max allowed expiration period depends on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf, documents), please use PDF.co built-in Files Storage instead.
async optional Runs processing asynchronously. Returns `JobId` that you may use with `/job/check` to check state of the background job (possible states: `working`, `failed`, `aborted` and `success`). Must be one of: `true`, `false`.
profiles optional Must be a String. Use this parameter to set additional configuration for fine tuning and extra options. Explore PDF.co knowledgebase for profile examples.

Method: POST
URL: /v1/pdf/classifier

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Body payload

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

Example responses

/pdf/classifier

{
    "body": {
        "classes": [
            {
                "class": "invoice"
            },
            {
                "class": "finance"
            },
            {
                "class": "documents"
            }
        ]
    },
    "pageCount": 1,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "credits": 42,
    "duration": 353,
    "remainingCredits": 98019328
}

Code Snippet

CURL

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