Accessing comments/annotations via API

[David Cornwell]

Hi,

I'm new to the Document Services API and am trying to work out if the following is possible.  I would like to be able to access the comments/annotations of a PDF file via an API.  

The following documentation is for the REST query that should extract the contents of the file, but I'm unclear whether this will include annotations or not.  From the reading I've done, it looks like the annotations/comments are not available.

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/document-services/index.html#post-extractPDF

Can anyone kindly advise if I'm looking in the right area, or how else I can do this using REST API?  I'm unable to install any Python/Java etc, which is often the solution I've seen when googling.

Thank you in advance.

Regards, David.

[Joel_Geraci]

Currently, Extract API only extracts the text on the page. It does not extract annotations, form field data, or any other PDF "widgets".

However, we are always looking to improve the product. What would extracting comments let you do? How would you expect it to work? Your input would be appreciated.

[David Cornwell]

Thank you for the info, Joel.

We were looking to be able to monitor for annotations (comments) being added to documents, and notifying / passing through those comments to users in another system (Adobe Workfront). 

I see that there are a number of desktop oriented products which allow you to extract annotations from PDFs so presumably there's a way we could try and read the file ourself to get them out, but it might be useful if the API allowed for it.  Keen to hear your suggestions if there's a better way?  

Thanks you.

[Joel_Geraci]

Oh... Perfect!

Take a look at our Embed API. It has an API to manage annotations including callbacks for when annotations are added to a PDF.

[David Cornwell]

Thank you very much for the further info!  I've had a read, and I'm not clear on how we can configure where the callbacks are sent to.  I.e. I can setup an endpoint URL to listen for the callback requests from Adobe, but I can't see where this is configured in the Embed API.  

[Raymond Camden]

I believe you would need to look at the Annotation API docs here; https://opensource.adobe.com/pdfembed-sdk-docs/howtos_comments.html#annotations-api-overview

Let me know if this doesn't help.

[David Cornwell]

Thank you Raymond. I've had a look at this but it seems to be oriented to embedding a PDF in a product and then using a (I think) javascript API to get annotations in and out. 

I was hoping to find a way to get annotations out of PDFs hosted in the Document Cloud without needing to embed it.  Ideally, having some kind of webhook trigger which sends updates to an HTTP endpoint when annotations are added to a document. Are there any ways to do this? 

In essence I'm hoping for more of a back-end integration than a front-end one, which I think the embed API is.

[Raymond Camden]

So how are annotations being added, if not via the Embed API?

[David Cornwell]

I'm relatively new to the Document Cloud, but I'd think that users might upload a PDF that has already had annotations added via a local PC/Mac?  Or the annotations are edited through a web interface...either Adobe product or embedded by someone else.  

I guess my point is, that I'm hoping to be able to read all annotations out of a document on-demand, and/or have some kind of webhook sent when an annotation is added.  Does that make sense?

[arjenh17459035]

Hi,

How did this topic end? I am currently lookig form something simillar.

Customer uses Document cloud to annotate PDF's over multiple departments.
Main department will check all comments and create PDF with all internaly approved comments.
I want to export those annotations (including page and position info) and load them into InDesign docs (the original ones which are the bases for the PDF's).That InDsign doc lives inside another system which is capable of "handling" API's etc.

So basically, export annotiations with an API, so I can process them elsewhere.

Loooking forwrd to a reply.