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Question

PDF representations after pdf upload

  • May 22, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 28 views
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HI all,

I have a little problem with new BoxView API. I am writing new api in our api to support new BoxView API. 
In order to do that I mapped type of the file uploaded to calling certain BoxView api endpoints.
I am trying to get PDF representation url for a PDF file that I uploaded and processed successfully with Box Upload API.  
When I call :

https://api.box.com/2.0/files/***number removed for privacy***550?fields=representations

for specified PDF file I get image representations png, jpg, and also "extracted_text" representation.
There is no pdf one available.
Am I missing something here?

Any help is welcome  🙂

 

Thanks

Luka

    5 replies

    C
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    Hello BuyerDeck!

     

    We currently don't generate PDF representations for files that are originally PDFs. If you want to download the PDF, try requesting the 'authenticated_download_url' field (which isn't currently documented). Try fetching both 'representations' and 'authenticated_download_url' together: https://api.box.com/2.0/files/FILE_ID?fields=representations,authenticated_download_url

    Best,

    Tony

    C
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    Hey Tony,

    Thanks for quick reply and a solution. I hope these APIs are tested even though undocumented 😄
    we are moving from working solution BoxView v1 to this and it's like 5th feature that has been hidden from the documentation 🙂
    Thanks for your help, this answers my questions for now and I'll be able to implement it quickly.

    Regards,
    Luka

    C
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    Rest assured, the API is fully tested - Preview in the main web application is built using it! What other undocumented features did you have to use?

    C
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    This August thumbnail representation documentation was actually hidden and shared by link here on developer forum once I asked the question, this is second one.

    C
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    I ran into this problem the same way as you had.  Back then, I was quite new to sorting out things with API, so the very one thing  I got to know from my attempts is PDF is a real piece of work. Actually, I got used to working with them, but via way too simple applications that make the whole process of editing and signing them easy, like this one: https://form-cd-401s.pdffiller.com/ As well as some number of forms there is free to use. But what I figured out so far is that I need to learn more thing about Box API for sure

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