Help with Acrobat Automating Combining pdfs from csv

[peanutsplannerco]

Hey there, I'm looking for help with an automation in Adobe Acrobat. We print stationery for our customers. They purchase the item, and we select the pdf files for their items and combine them to make file for printing. We would like to be able to automate this by using a csv that will contain the purchased items SKUs, which is identical to the file names for each item, and have those pdfs automatically combined in acrobat with a few preflights added on at the end. Is this possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Raymond Camden]

To be clear, anything is possible, but you have to remember -our- part is literally just to handle the combination of 2 or more PDFs. We don't read CSV files. Now, depending on your system, that's relatively simple to do (for example, in Node.js), and you could write code to parse the CSV, figure out which PDFs need to be combined, and then call our service, but we really can't help you with any of that. 

[peanutsplannerco]

Thanks a lot for the response! So just before I get started, if it's possible for me to figure on my end how to have the files listed in the csv copied to one folder, then Adobe could say, automatically select the files in this folder to combine, and run some deteremined preflights on those pdfs?

[Raymond Camden]

That's what I'd do - get everything working up to the point of, "Ok, I know what files I need to combine." Honestly, are part will probably be less than 30 minutes to implement. The other parts of your process are where the complexity is. 

[peanutsplannerco]

Well, that's good news. I think I have someone to help with the Apple script portion of it. How do I get started with the Adobe portion? For now, I could just copy the pdf files to a specific folder manually and have Acrobat select those pdf. 

[Raymond Camden]

Eh.... to be clear. Acrobat is a desktop program. We're talking about APIs here. It will require you coding a solution. You understand that part, right?

[peanutsplannerco]

Well, I thought I did! haha Apparently not though. I apologize, I'm very new to this. Will the api be able to use the preflights we've already created in Acrobat? I might be missing the point entirely. Currently we're doing all of this manually within Acrobat, and wanted to find a way to automate those tasks I mentioned. 

[Raymond Camden]

So, yes, the APIs allow for automation, but to be clear, the expectation is that you are using the APIs via code. Any code really. If you aren't a developer, another option is MS PowerAutomate (a no code platform). If you don't know how to code... and don't work with someone who does, this may not be the best solution for you (unless PowerAutomate is something you can try). 

[peanutsplannerco]

Thanks for the help. With the help of others, I've been able to get a applescript that will combine the files I need into one single folder, but now I need to do the Acrobat side of things. Is that something you would be able to help with or have a recommendation for where I can go? In the meantime I will definitely check out the PowerAutomate though as well. Thanks!

[peanutsplannerco]

Hey there. Just checking in on this again thanks.