I have a Logic App that monitors incoming emails. Some have multiple PDF attachments that I want to merge and save to Dropbox. I have it working with the Encodian API but I want to switch it over to the Adobe API.
I then use the array as input for the Encodian API. When I try this with the Adobe API, I get an error,
"$content-type": "application/pdf"
This still returns the same error.
Even though the files were already PDF's I thought maybe they still needed to be converted to Base64 so I tried that.
The Append array action generates this result:
[
{
"$content-type":"application/pdf",
"fileContent":"SlZCRVJ..."
},
{
"$content-type":"application/pdf",
"fileContent":"SlZCRVJ..."
}
]
The error again is:
"bad value for parameter 'files'; invalid type".
the full code for the action is:
{
"inputs": {
"host": {
"connection": {
"name": "@parameters('$connections')['adobepdftools']['connectionId']"
}
},
"method": "post",
"body": {
"files": "@variables('FileToMerge')",
"outputFileName": "Temp.pdf"
},
"headers": {
"x-api-key": "PowerAutomate",
"x-region-value": "-ue1"
},
"path": "/operation/v1/combinePDF"
}
}
Why does this have to be so difficult? Where am I going wrong?
1 Correct answer
For anyone looking for the same answer, I was finally able to get this sorted out.
If you are using the 'When a new email arrives' trigger, you need to append to the array variable (mine is named 'FilesToMerge' ) using a 'For each' loop based on the trigger body output:
triggerBody()?['attachments']
Then append the contentBytes alone to the array:
items('For_each')?['contentBytes']
The json in the code view will look like this:
{
"inputs": {
"name": "FilesToMerge",
"valu
26
Replies
Correct answer by
DRYBSMT
AUTHOR
For anyone looking for the same answer, I was finally able to get this sorted out.
If you are using the 'When a new email arrives' trigger, you need to append to the array variable (mine is named 'FilesToMerge' ) using a 'For each' loop based on the trigger body output:
triggerBody()?['attachments']
Then append the contentBytes alone to the array:
items('For_each')?['contentBytes']
The json in the code view will look like this:
{
"inputs": {
"name": "FilesToMerge",
"value": "@items('For_each')?['contentBytes']"
}
}
If you veiw the output of the Array variable with a compose Action, You see a sincle line of code like this:
["---Code from first attachment---","---Second---","---etc---"]
The Adobe Merge PDFs action then will look like this:
Be sure to click this button to change the input mode first:
You can then use the output from the Merge PDFs as the content for whatever action you use to create the new file.
I really hope this is of benefit to someone else searching for the same answer.
I have a virtually identical flow to yours, including a compose step for debugging, but I'm receiving the same error you encountered. I've verified that I'm using the "array" view in the Merge step, but nothing I do seems to work.
The only thing I can think of is that the code view for my "Append to Array Variable" step also includes some metadata in the JSON automatically, but this isn't something that can be changed as it's auto-generated by Microsoft (see image)
Here's the non-code view:
When I check the ouput of "Append to Array" using a "Compose" step ouside of the loop, it looks just like what you've posted. I've also verified that the JSON code view of the "Merge PDF" step is accurate.
This seems like such a simple task, but I'm driving myself up the wall trying to debug this. Is there anything obvious you can see in my flow that might be causing me to still get the same error you did?
To clarify, here's the input view for the Adobe Merge step that's failing; I've verified via a "compose" step and by manually reviewing the output of "Append to Array" that both file objects are in fact valid PDFs.
and the second file (for obvious reasons I've truncated the full view of the input)
When I check the output of both the "compose" and "append to array" steps from a failed run, they appear to match the structure in your working example (the below images are truncated for clarity)
I'm wondering if something about the "Append" step is missing the final "==" intended for signaling "end of file" now that I look at it.
Right, i did see that. then as I was looking back at nmy own question I saw the wrong base64. My bad.
I have been having some issues with item()?['contentBytes'] at times. sometime you include the name of the for each and other times you don't. but this is what I have found:
- Use item() inside the body of a For each loop — this refers to the current item being iterated over in that loop.
- Use items('For_each_-_Attachments') outside the loop body (e.g., in an If action following the loop, or in an expression not nested in the loop scope) to reference a specific item from the loop by name.
I have been using ChatGPT to help me out and it has been quite useful.
I would try removing the For_each reference in your Append to array variable.
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