How to convert HTML String to PDF using ConvertAPI (without a physical file)

Previously I was using http://do.convertapi.com/Web2Pdf to convert HTML String to PDF using a simple GET request (not POST) using Java. The entire content was passed using curl parameter.

However, that API seems to have stopped working recently. I'm trying to port over to https://v2.convertapi.com/web/to/pdf but I cannot find a sample to do the same using the new API either with GET or POST.

Can someone provide an example to make a GET or POST request using Java?

UPDATE: I have managed to make it work.

private static final String WEB2PDF_API_URL = "https://v2.convertapi.com/html/to/pdf";
private static final String WEB2PDF_SECRET = "secret-here";

String htmlContent = "valid HTML content here";

URL apiUrl = new URL(WEB2PDF_API_URL + "?secret=" + WEB2PDF_SECRET + "&download= attachment&PageOrientation=landscape&MarginLeft=0&MarginRight=0&MarginTop=0&MarginBottom=0");
HttpURLConnection connection = null;

ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = null;

connection = (HttpURLConnection) apiUrl.openConnection();
connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=\"data.html\"");
connection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/octet-stream");
connection.setRequestMethod("POST");
connection.setConnectTimeout(60000);
connection.setReadTimeout(60000);
connection.setDoOutput(true);

/* write request */
OutputStreamWriter writer = new OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream());
writer.write(htmlContent);
writer.flush();
writer.close();

/* read response */
String responseMessage = connection.getResponseMessage();
logger.info("responseMessage: " + responseMessage);

int statusCode = connection.getResponseCode();
logger.info("statusCode: " + statusCode);

if (statusCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
    logger.info("HTTP status code OK");
    // parse output

    InputStream is = connection.getInputStream();

    buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

    int nRead;
    byte[] data = new byte[16384];

    while ((nRead = is.read(data, 0, data.length)) != -1) {
        buffer.write(data, 0, nRead);
    }

    buffer.flush();

    byte[] attachmentData = buffer.toByteArray();

    Multipart content = new MimeMultipart();

    ...

    MimeBodyPart attachment = new MimeBodyPart();
    InputStream attachmentDataStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(attachmentData);
    attachment.setFileName("filename-" + Long.toHexString(Double.doubleToLongBits(Math.random())) + ".pdf");
    attachment.setContent(attachmentDataStream, "application/pdf");
    content.addBodyPart(attachment);
    ...
}

Solution

You can easily push HTML string as file. I do not have JAVA example but the C# demo will give you right path.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;

class MainClass {
  public static void Main (string[] args) {
    var url = new Uri("https://v2.convertapi.com/html/to/pdf?download=attachment&secret=<YourSecret>");
    var htmlString = "<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><meta charset=utf-8><title>ConvertAPI test</title></head><body>This page is generated from HTML string.</body></html>";
    var content = new StringContent(htmlString, Encoding.UTF8, "application/octet-stream");
    content.Headers.Add("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=\"data.html\"");
    using (var resultFile = File.OpenWrite(@"C:\Path\to\result\file.pdf"))
    {
        new HttpClient().PostAsync(url, content).Result.Content.CopyToAsync(resultFile).Wait();
    }
  }
}