Integrate pdfRest with Make Automation & Google Drive Storage

Low-code Automation with Make.com and pdfRest

Make.com (formerly Integromat) is a convenient web application for streamlining the creation of automated workflows. Its web interface supports low/no-code incorporation of a wide variety of services. While pdfRest is not currently listed within their available services, pdfRest is callable via the built-in HTTP module, allowing for easy integration within Make scenarios.

To get started, take a minute and sign up for a free Starter account with pdfRest to generate a dedicated API Key, which will be required for sending calls to the service.

Tutorial: Getting Started with Make, pdfRest, & Google Drive Integration

Objective

This tutorial will demonstrate how to:

1. Create a scenario that watches a Google Drive folder for new files.
2. Upload the files to the pdfRest API.
3. Process the uploaded files by compressing them with pdfRest.
4. Retrieve the processed files and upload them to a different Google Drive folder.

Step 1: Connect pdfRest to Google Drive

Begin by creating a new Scenario, either by clicking + Create scenario (in the upper-right corner) or by opening the Scenario Builder in Scenarios.

Before calling pdfRest, you will need to access your input file from an app such as Google Drive or OneDrive. This example will use Google Drive to watch a folder for newly created files. See Make’s documentation for directions on how to configure access to your particular file source.

In the new scenario view, click the + button in the center to begin adding apps.

Use the search field to locate and select the Google Drive app.

View the available actions in the Google Drive app, either by clicking on Google Drive or by clicking Show more. Locate and select Watch Files in a Folder.

Set Connection to your configured connection to Google Drive. In Select the Folder to be Watched, set the folder you wish to contain your input document(s).

Set Limit to the maximum number of files to be processed per each scenario run. (This example sets an arbitrarily large value of 99.)

Click Save. You will be prompted to set the initial file creation time to check for.

Click Save to set the current time as the starting time and return to the Scenario view.

Before adding the next Module, upload a PDF file to your watched folder. Then, run the scenario by clicking the Run once button. This will enable you to view and select the output fields from this module when configuring the next module.

Before calling pdfRest, any files detected during the first step must be made accessible. Click the + next to your first Module to add another Google Drive app, this time with the Get a Share Link action.

Use the same Connection setting from the previous module.

In File ID, clicking the text field should reveal a context menu. Click File ID from the previous Google Drive Module to populate the field.

Set Role to Reader, and set Type to Anyone. This will allow the next module to access new files detected by the first module.

Click Save to confirm settings and return to the Scenario overview.

Step 2: Upload from Google Drive to pdfRest

The next step is to upload the input file using the /upload API endpoint in pdfRest.

Click + to add a new App, then find the built-in HTTP App. (You may have to search for "http" first.)

From the HTTP App, select the Make an API Key Auth request action.

In Credentials, click Add to add your pdfRest API key. The API key must be placed In the header and named Api-Key.

Click Create. This will ensure that the API key is added into the request header.

Ensure that your keychain is selected in Credentials. Next, enter https://api.pdfrest.com/upload into the URL field. Set the HTTP request Method to POST.

Set Body type to Multipart/form-data.

In Fields, add a new item. Set Field type on the new item to text and the Key to url. Clicking the Value field should reveal a context menu containing response items from Google Drive. Scroll down to find and select webContentLink.

Set Parse response to Yes. This will enable the following Module to read and use the value of the response obtained by this module.

Click Save to add the app to the Scenario and return to the Scenario view.

With both Apps added, add a new file to your watched folder and then click Run once to run the Scenario. A green checkmark on all Modules means that the Scenario ran successfully.

Step 3: Compress PDF Files on Google Drive with pdfRest

The next step is to process the newly uploaded PDFs using the pdfRest API. This will use the /compressed-pdf API endpoint.

Click + to add another HTTP App with the Make an API Key Auth request action.

Set the URLto the endpoint of the pdfRest tool you wish to use, in this Scenario we are using https://api.pdfrest.com/compressed-pdf to optimize the size of the document. This example will use the Compress PDF API Tool to optimize the file size of the document.

Ensure that Credentials is set to the keychain you created earlier. Set Method to POST, and set Body type to Multipart/form-data.

To set the input file, create a Body Parameter named id with a Field Type of Text. Set its value to the id field retrieved from the previous HTTP App.

Add additional Text Field Types for any additional parameters in your request. For example, the Compress PDF API requires the compression_level parameter as shown below.

Further down, set Parse response to Yes.

Click Save to confirm settings.

Run your scenario once more by uploading a file and clicking Run once to ensure that everything is working and to obtain the field names of the response from the File Processing Module.

Step 4: Send Compressed PDF Files to Google Drive

To retrieve the newly compressed file, add a third HTTP App, this time with the Get a file action.

In URL, set the value to the outputUrl from the previous HTTP App's response.

Click Save to add this Module. Run the Scenario once more with a new file to ensure that all requests run successfully.

From here, you may send the downloaded file to the location of your choice. A good example would be to use the Upload a File Action from the ** Google Drive** App to send the processed file to a specific Drive folder.

Set New Drive Location and New Folder Location to indicate where to save the compressed file(s).

In File, use the value returned from the Get a file action of the HTTP App.

Click Save to confirm.

Upload one or more files to the Google Drive folder and run the Scenario with Run once. If successful, all modules will display a green checkmark.

Your processed file should now be available in your destination folder.

Of course, you can customize the end step to pass pdfRest output files anywhere you need to send them for the next steps in their journey.

If you have any trouble getting this set up or would like more information about how pdfRest can solve your PDF processing challenges, please let us know how we can help!

Conclusion

By following this guide, you've successfully created a powerful, automated workflow that integrates Make, Google Drive, pdfRest, and your documents. The pdfRest API Toolkit includes dozens of other endpoints for document signing, conversion, securing, and more - all of which can be integrated with Make and your document workflows.

Now that you've mastered the basics, what will you build next? Get started by signing up for a free pdfRest Starter account and explore the full range of what's possible with the pdfRest API.