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The Preflight Web API is a REST API that allows you to verify that users' print files are compatible with your printing equipment. You can define preflight rules and check if print files match those rules by using HTTP requests. The Preflight Web API allows you to:
After you have deployed the Preflight Tool, you can navigate to <your-instance-url>/swagger and explore the interactive Web API in your browser. You can also download a code sample demonstrating how to validate print files.
This Web API doesn't require authentication. In the following examples, we use the appUrl variable that represents a folder on your server where you deployed this tool, for example, http://example.com/pt/.
To validate that print files are compatible with your printing equipment, you must first upload them to your server. This endpoint allows for uploading a print file.
[POST]
~/api/files/upload
You can pass and upload a file as follows:
<input type="file" id="file" onchange="upload(event)"/>
...
const upload = async (event) => {
const file = event.target.files[0];
const formData = new FormData();
formData.append('file', file);
const response = await fetch(appUrl + "api/files/upload?dpi=200", {
method: "POST",
body: formData
});
console.log(await response.json());
}
As a result, you get the GUID that your print file obtained after saving it on the server.
Status Code: 200 OK
Content:
[
"425a3537-2e59-450d-bbc2-484fcd3d63bd.pdf"
]
To download a file from the server, you can get a file stream by the file's GUID.
[GET]
~/api/files/get/{GUID}
GUID - a file identifier with an extension.
<embed src="http://example.com/pt/api/files/get/425a3537-2e59-450d-bbc2-484fcd3d63bd.pdf" type="application/pdf" width="800px" height="800px" />
In the following section, you can learn how to use this endpoint to perform the preflight check.
If the result is successful, this method returns the content of the file in a file stream.
Status Code: 200 OK Content-type: application/octet-stream
You can pass an array of preflight rules and a URL that link to a print file to check whether this file matches the rules. In the current implementation, you can check the following rules through this Web API:
[POST]
"~/api/rules/check"
To validate your print file, you can pass its name, resolution, and required rules in the request body in the following format.
{
"file": "http://example.com/pt/api/files/get/425a3537-2e59-450d-bbc2-484fcd3d63bd.pdf",
"dpi": 200,
"rules": [
{
"type": "embeddedfonts"
}
]
}
// The link to the print file.
const file = appUrl + "api/files/get/425a3537-2e59-450d-bbc2-484fcd3d63bd.pdf";
// Resolution of the print file.
const dpi = 300;
// The required color space and page orientation.
const rules = [
{
"type": "colorspace",
"params": {
"allowedColorSpaces": ["cmyk"]
}
},
{
"type": "sameorientation"
}
];
// Check the file.
const check = async () => {
const response = await fetch(appUrl + "api/rules/check", {
method: "post",
body: JSON.stringify({ dpi, file, rules }),
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}
});
const result = await response.json();
// Output the resulting array, where each element is an array of preflight results for a page.
console.log(result);
}
This endpoint returns an array, where each element corresponds to a page in the print file. These elements contain validation results. The result of validation of a one-page PDF file may look as follows:
Status Code: 200 OK
Content:
[
[
{
name: "colorspace",
result: false,
expected: ["cmyk"],
actual: ["rgb"]
},
{
name: "sameorientation",
result: true,
expected: ["horizontal"],
actual: []
}
]
]
You can get the version, build date, build configuration, and application name by using this endpoint. You may need these details when contacting our support team.
[GET, HEAD]
~/api/info
const info = async () => {
const response = await fetch(appUrl + "api/info");
console.log(await response.json());
};
Status Code: 200 OK
Content:
{
version: "1.7.2",
buildDate: "9/9/2020",
configuration: "Release",
appName: "Preflight"
}