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Quickstart for Adobe Document Generation API (Java)

To get started using Adobe Document Generation API, let's walk through a simple scenario - using a Word document as a template for dynamic receipt generation in PDF. In this guide, we will walk you through the complete process for creating a program that will accomplish this task.

Prerequisites

To complete this guide, you will need:

  • Java - Java 8 or higher is required.
  • Maven
  • An Adobe ID. If you do not have one, the credential setup will walk you through creating one.
  • A way to edit code. No specific editor is required for this guide.

Step One: Getting credentials

1) To begin, open your browser to https://documentservices.adobe.com/dc-integration-creation-app-cdn/main.html?api=document-generation-api. If you are not already logged in to Adobe.com, you will need to sign in or create a new user. Using a personal email account is recommend and not a federated ID.

Sign in

2) After registering or logging in, you will then be asked to name your new credentials. Use the name, "New Project".

3) Change the "Choose language" setting to "Java".

4) Also note the checkbox by, "Create personalized code sample." This will include a large set of samples along with your credentials. These can be helpful for learning more later.

5) Click the checkbox saying you agree to the developer terms and then click "Create credentials."

Project setup

6) After your credentials are created, they are automatically downloaded:

alt

Step Two: Setting up the project

1) In your Downloads folder, find the ZIP file with your credentials: PDFServicesSDK-JavaSamples.zip. If you unzip that archive, you will find a README file, your private key, and a folder of samples:

alt

2) We need two things from this download. The private.key file (as shown in the screenshot above, and the pdfservices-api-credentials.json file found in the samples directory:

alt

3) Take these two files and place them in a new directory.

4) In this directory, create a new file named pom.xml and copy the following contents:

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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2

3<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
4         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
5         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
6  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
7

8  <groupId>com.adobe.documentservices</groupId>
9  <artifactId>pdfservices-sdk-documentgeneration-guide</artifactId>
10  <version>1</version>
11

12  <name>PDF Services Java SDK Samples</name>
13

14  <properties>
15    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
16    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
17    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
18    <pdfservices.sdk.version>3.3.0</pdfservices.sdk.version>
19  </properties>
20

21  <dependencies>
22

23    <dependency>
24      <groupId>com.adobe.documentservices</groupId>
25      <artifactId>pdfservices-sdk</artifactId>
26      <version>${pdfservices.sdk.version}</version>
27    </dependency>
28

29    <!--        log4j2 dependency to showcase the use of log4j2 with slf4j API-->
30    <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.slf4j/slf4j-log4j12 -->
31    <dependency>
32      <groupId>org.apache.logging.log4j</groupId>
33      <artifactId>log4j-slf4j-impl</artifactId>
34      <version>2.17.1</version>
35    </dependency>
36  </dependencies>
37

38  <build>
39    <plugins>
40      <plugin>
41        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
42        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
43        <version>3.8.0</version>
44        <configuration>
45          <source>${maven.compiler.source}</source>
46          <target>${maven.compiler.target}</target>
47        </configuration>
48      </plugin>
49      <plugin>
50        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
51        <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
52        <version>3.2.4</version>
53        <configuration>
54          <filters>
55            <filter>
56              <artifact>*:*</artifact>
57              <excludes>
58                <exclude>META-INF/*.SF</exclude>
59                <exclude>META-INF/*.DSA</exclude>
60                <exclude>META-INF/*.RSA</exclude>
61              </excludes>
62            </filter>
63          </filters>
64        </configuration>
65        <executions>
66          <execution>
67            <phase>package</phase>
68            <goals>
69              <goal>shade</goal>
70            </goals>
71          </execution>
72        </executions>
73      </plugin>
74      <plugin>
75        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
76        <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
77        <version>3.0.2</version>
78        <configuration>
79          <archive>
80            <manifest>
81              <addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
82              <classpathPrefix>lib/</classpathPrefix>
83              <mainClass>GeneratePDF</mainClass>
84            </manifest>
85          </archive>
86        </configuration>
87      </plugin>
88      <plugin>
89        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
90        <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
91        <version>1.5.0</version>
92        <executions>
93          <execution>
94            <goals>
95              <goal>java</goal>
96            </goals>
97          </execution>
98        </executions>
99      </plugin>
100    </plugins>
101  </build>
102</project>

This file will define what dependencies we need and how the application will be built.

Our application will take a Word document, receiptTemplate.docx (downloadable from here), and combine it with data in a JSON file, receipt.json (downloadable from here), to be sent to the Acrobat Services API and generate a receipt PDF.

5) In your editor, open the directory where you previously copied the credentials, and create a new directory, src/main/java. In that directory, create GeneratePDF.java.

Now you're ready to begin coding.

Step Three: Creating the application

1) Let's start by looking at the Word template. If you open the document in Microsoft Word, you'll notice multiple tokens throughout the document (called out by the use of {{ and }}).

Example of tokens

When the Document Generation API is used, these tokens are replaced with the JSON data sent to the API. These tokens support simple replacements, for example, {{Customer.Name}} will be replaced by a customer's name passed in JSON. You can also have dynamic tables. In the Word template, the table uses invoice items as a way to dynamically render whatever items were ordered. Conditions can also be used to hide or show content as you can see two conditions at the end of the document. Finally, basic math can be also be dynamically applied, as seen in the "Grand Total".

2) Next, let's look at our sample data: 

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1{
2  "author": "Gary Lee",
3  "Company": {
4    "Name": "Projected",
5    "Address": "19718 Mandrake Way",
6    "PhoneNumber": "+1-100000098"
7  },
8  "Invoice": {
9    "Date": "January 15, 2021",
10    "Number": 123,
11    "Items": [
12      {
13        "item": "Gloves",
14        "description": "Microwave gloves",
15        "UnitPrice": 5,
16        "Quantity": 2,
17        "Total": 10
18      },
19      {
20        "item": "Bowls",
21        "description": "Microwave bowls",
22        "UnitPrice": 10,
23        "Quantity": 2,
24        "Total": 20
25      }
26    ]
27  },
28  "Customer": {
29    "Name": "Collins Candy",
30    "Address": "315 Dunning Way",
31    "PhoneNumber": "+1-200000046",
32    "Email": "cc@abcdef.co.dw"
33  },
34  "Tax": 5,
35  "Shipping": 5,
36  "clause": {
37    "overseas": "The shipment might take 5-10 more than informed."
38  },
39  "paymentMethod": "Cash"
40}

Notice how the tokens in the Word document match up with values in our JSON. While our example will use a hard coded set of data in a file, production applications can get their data from anywhere. Now let's get into our code.

3) We'll begin by including our required dependencies:

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1import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.ExecutionContext;
2import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.auth.Credentials;
3import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.exception.SdkException;
4import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.exception.ServiceApiException;
5import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.exception.ServiceUsageException;
6import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.io.FileRef;
7

8import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.pdfops.DocumentMergeOperation;
9import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.pdfops.options.documentmerge.DocumentMergeOptions;
10import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.pdfops.options.documentmerge.OutputFormat;
11

12import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
13

14import java.io.IOException;
15import java.nio.file.Files;
16import java.nio.file.Path;
17import java.nio.file.Paths;
18

19import org.json.JSONObject;

4) Now let's define our main class:

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1public class GeneratePDF {
2

3    private static final org.slf4j.Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(GeneratePDF.class);
4

5    public static void main(String[] args) {
6

7    }
8

9}

5) Inside our class, we'll begin by defining our input Word, JSON and output filenames. If the output file already exists, it will be deleted:

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1String input_file = "./receiptTemplate.docx";
2

3String output_file = "./generatedReceipt.pdf";
4Files.deleteIfExists(Paths.get(output_file));
5

6Path jsonPath = Paths.get("./receipt.json");
7

8String json = new String(Files.readAllBytes(jsonPath));
9JSONObject jsonDataForMerge = new JSONObject(json);

These lines are hard coded but in a real application would typically be dynamic.

6) Next, we can create our credentials and use them:

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1// Initial setup, create credentials instance.
2Credentials credentials = Credentials.serviceAccountCredentialsBuilder()
3        .fromFile("pdfservices-api-credentials.json")
4        .build();
5

6// Create an ExecutionContext using credentials.
7ExecutionContext executionContext = ExecutionContext.create(credentials);

7) Now, let's create the operation:

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1DocumentMergeOptions documentMergeOptions = new DocumentMergeOptions(jsonDataForMerge, OutputFormat.PDF);
2

3DocumentMergeOperation documentMergeOperation = DocumentMergeOperation.createNew(documentMergeOptions);
4

5// Provide an input FileRef for the operation
6FileRef source = FileRef.createFromLocalFile(input_file);
7documentMergeOperation.setInput(source);

This set of code defines what we're doing (a document merge operation, the SDK's way of describing Document Generation), points to our local JSON file and specifies the output is a PDF. It also points to the Word file used as a template.

8) The next code block executes the operation:

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1// Execute the operation
2FileRef result = documentMergeOperation.execute(executionContext);
3

4// Save the result at the specified location
5result.saveAs(output_file);

This code runs the Document Generation process and then stores the result PDF document to the file system.

Example running in the command line

Here's the complete application (src/main/java/GeneratePDF.java):

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1import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.ExecutionContext;
2import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.auth.Credentials;
3import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.exception.SdkException;
4import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.exception.ServiceApiException;
5import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.exception.ServiceUsageException;
6import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.io.FileRef;
7

8import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.pdfops.DocumentMergeOperation;
9import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.pdfops.options.documentmerge.DocumentMergeOptions;
10import com.adobe.pdfservices.operation.pdfops.options.documentmerge.OutputFormat;
11

12import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
13

14import java.io.IOException;
15import java.nio.file.Files;
16import java.nio.file.Path;
17import java.nio.file.Paths;
18

19import org.json.JSONObject;
20

21public class GeneratePDF {
22

23    private static final org.slf4j.Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(GeneratePDF.class);
24

25    public static void main(String[] args) {
26

27        try {
28

29            String input_file = "./receiptTemplate.docx";
30

31            String output_file = "./generatedReceipt.pdf";
32            Files.deleteIfExists(Paths.get(output_file));
33

34            Path jsonPath = Paths.get("./receipt.json");
35

36            String json = new String(Files.readAllBytes(jsonPath));
37            JSONObject jsonDataForMerge = new JSONObject(json);
38

39            System.out.println("About to generate a PDF based on " + input_file + "\n");
40

41            // Initial setup, create credentials instance.
42            Credentials credentials = Credentials.serviceAccountCredentialsBuilder()
43                    .fromFile("pdfservices-api-credentials.json")
44                    .build();
45

46            // Create an ExecutionContext using credentials.
47            ExecutionContext executionContext = ExecutionContext.create(credentials);
48

49            DocumentMergeOptions documentMergeOptions = new DocumentMergeOptions(jsonDataForMerge, OutputFormat.PDF);
50 
51            DocumentMergeOperation documentMergeOperation = DocumentMergeOperation.createNew(documentMergeOptions);
52 
53            // Provide an input FileRef for the operation
54            FileRef source = FileRef.createFromLocalFile(input_file);
55            documentMergeOperation.setInput(source);
56

57            // Execute the operation
58            FileRef result = documentMergeOperation.execute(executionContext);
59

60            // Save the result at the specified location
61            result.saveAs(output_file);
62

63            System.out.println("All Done");
64            
65        } catch (ServiceApiException | IOException | SdkException | ServiceUsageException e) {
66            LOGGER.error("Exception encountered while executing operation", e);
67        }
68    }
69}

Next Steps

Now that you've successfully performed your first operation, review the documentation for many other examples and reach out on our forums with any questions. Also remember the samples you downloaded while creating your credentials also have many demos.

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