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Convert PDF To Text From URL Asynchronously - C#

PDF To TEXT sample in C# demonstrating ‘Convert PDF To Text From URL Asynchronously’

Program.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Threading;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

// Cloud API asynchronous "PDF To Text" job example.
// Allows to avoid timeout errors when processing huge or scanned PDF documents.

namespace ByteScoutWebApiExample
{
	class Program
	{
		// The authentication key (API Key).
		// Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
		const String API_KEY = "***********************************";
		
		// Direct URL of source PDF file.
        // You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/bytescout/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/
		const string SourceFileUrl = "https://bytescout-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-to-text/long-processed-document.pdf";
		// Comma-separated list of page indices (or ranges) to process. Leave empty for all pages. Example: '0,2-5,7-'.
		const string Pages = "";
		// PDF document password. Leave empty for unprotected documents.
		const string Password = "";
		// Destination TXT file name
		const string DestinationFile = @".\result.txt";
		// (!) Make asynchronous job
		const bool Async = true;


		static void Main(string[] args)
		{
			// Create standard .NET web client instance
			WebClient webClient = new WebClient();

			// Set API Key
			webClient.Headers.Add("x-api-key", API_KEY);

			// URL for `PDF To Text` API call
			string url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text";

			// Prepare requests params as JSON
			Dictionary<string, object> parameters = new Dictionary<string, object>();
			parameters.Add("name", Path.GetFileName(DestinationFile));
			parameters.Add("password", Password);
			parameters.Add("pages", Pages);
			parameters.Add("url", SourceFileUrl);
			parameters.Add("async", Async);

			// Convert dictionary of params to JSON
			string jsonPayload = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(parameters);

			try
			{
				// Execute POST request with JSON payload
				string response = webClient.UploadString(url, jsonPayload);

				// Parse JSON response
				JObject json = JObject.Parse(response);

				if (json["error"].ToObject<bool>() == false)
				{
					// Asynchronous job ID
					string jobId = json["jobId"].ToString();
					// URL of generated TXT file that will be available after the job completion
					string resultFileUrl = json["url"].ToString();

					// Check the job status in a loop. 
					// If you don't want to pause the main thread you can rework the code 
					// to use a separate thread for the status checking and completion.
					do
					{
						string status = CheckJobStatus(jobId); // Possible statuses: "working", "failed", "aborted", "success".

						// Display timestamp and status (for demo purposes)
						Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString() + ": " + status);

						if (status == "success")
						{
							// Download TXT file
							webClient.DownloadFile(resultFileUrl, DestinationFile);

							Console.WriteLine("Generated TXT file saved as \"{0}\" file.", DestinationFile);
							break;
						}
						else if (status == "working")
						{
							// Pause for a few seconds
							Thread.Sleep(3000);
						}
						else 
						{
							Console.WriteLine(status);
							break;
						}
					}
					while (true);
				}
				else
				{
					Console.WriteLine(json["message"].ToString());
				}
			}
			catch (WebException e)
			{
				Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
			}

			webClient.Dispose();

			Console.WriteLine();
			Console.WriteLine("Press any key...");
			Console.ReadKey();
		}

		static string CheckJobStatus(string jobId)
		{
			using (WebClient webClient = new WebClient())
			{
				// Set API Key
                webClient.Headers.Add("x-api-key", API_KEY);
				
				string url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/job/check?jobid=" + jobId;

				string response = webClient.DownloadString(url);
				JObject json = JObject.Parse(response);

				return Convert.ToString(json["status"]);
			}
		}
	}
}

PDF.co Web API: the Web API with a set of tools for documents manipulation, data conversion, data extraction, splitting and merging of documents. Includes image recognition, built-in OCR, barcode generation and barcode decoders to decode bar codes from scans, pictures and pdf.

Get your PDF.co API key here!

Download Source Code (.zip)

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