Access the FormVu Microservice using Java

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Prerequisites
3. Code Example
4. Return result to a callback url
5. Configuration Options
6. Upload by URL
7. Using Authentication
8. Further details

Introduction

The following tutorial shows you how to convert PDF forms to HTML using a hosted FormVu cloud API, such as:

• the IDRsolutions trial and cloud subscription service
• your own self-hosted FormVu microservice

Whilst the above services can be accessed with plain old HTTP requests, this tutorial uses our open source Java IDRCloudClient which provides a simple Java wrapper around the REST API.

Prerequisites

Before you begin you will need to ensure you have an up-to-date version of the JDK(version 8 or above) installed. You can find more on this on Java’s website.

Code Example

Here is a basic code example to convert PDF forms to HTML. Configuration options and advanced features can be found below.

import java.util.Map;

public final class ExampleUsage {

    public static void main(final String[] args) {

        final IDRCloudClient client = new IDRCloudClient("https://cloud.idrsolutions.com/cloud/" + IDRCloudClient.FORMVU);

        
        final HashMap<String, String> params = new HashMap<>();
        params.put("token", "token"); //Required only when connecting to the IDRsolutions trial and cloud subscription service
        params.put("input", IDRCloudClient.UPLOAD);
        params.put("file", "path/to/file.pdf");
        
        try {
            final Map<String, String> results = client.convert(params);

            System.out.println("   ---------   ");
            System.out.println(results.get("previewUrl"));

            IDRCloudClient.downloadResults(results, "path/to/outputDir", "example");
        } catch (final ClientException | InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
} 

Return result to a callback url

The FormVu Microservice accepts a callback url to send the status of a conversion on completion. Using a callback url removes the need to poll the service to determine when the conversion is complete.
The callback url can be provided to the params map as shown below.

final HashMap<String, String> params = new HashMap<>();
params.put("token", "token"); //Required only when connecting to the IDRsolutions trial and cloud subscription service
params.put("input", IDRCloudClient.UPLOAD);
params.put("file", "path/to/file.pdf");
params.put("callbackUrl", "http://listener.url"); 

Configuration Options

The FormVu API accepts a stringified JSON object containing key value pair configuration options to customise your conversion. The settings should be added to the parameters array. A full list of the configuration options to convert PDF forms to HTML can be found here.

params.put("settings", "{\"key\":\"value\",\"key\":\"value\"}");

Upload by URL

As well as uploading a local file you can also provide a URL which the FormVu Microservice will download and then perform the conversion. To do this you should replace the input and file values in the parameters variable with the following.

params.put("input", IDRCloudClient.DOWNLOAD);
params.put("url", "http://exampleURL/exampleFile.pdf");

Using Authentication

If the FormVu Microservice requires authentication, you will need to provide a username and password. These are provided by passing two variables named username and password to the convert method as shown below.

params.put("username","yourUsername");
params.put("password","yourPassword");

Further details

IDRCloudClient on GitHub FormVu Microservice API
FormVu Microservice Use