How to Add Text/Images to PDF Using Automation Anywhere and PDF.co

About Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is a technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. It is a provider of an end-to-end Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform for automating any business process. They offer Discovery Bot for fast-track automation, IQ Bot for transforming unstructured and hidden data with AI that can learn on its own, Bot Insight for real-time analytics, and a Bot Store to get pre-built automation solutions.

We prepared this step by step tutorial with screenshots on how to make a Bot using PDF.co to add Text or Images to Existing PDF.

In this tutorial, we assume that you have already had a Community or Enterprise version of Automation anywhere with chrome extension as well as client agent already installed. We also assume that you have basic knowledge of how to create a simple bot and have it executed on your machine.

Useful Resources:

Step by Step Guide

This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to add text or images to an existing PDF using Automation Anywhere and PDF.co plugin.

Contents

01
PDF.co API Endpoint
    02
    Bot Creation
      03
      URI Configuration
        04
        Header Configurations
          05
          Request Input Configuration
            06
            Configure REST API Output
              07
              Configure Message Box
                08
                Execute Bot and Review Output

                  PDF.co API Endpoint

                  PDF.co API Endpoint for adding text or images to existing PDF. We’ll have PDF.co method documentation handy either by Postman or online documentation at https://developer.pdf.co, so that we can configure API as per our requirement.

                  PDF.co API Endpoint

                  Bot Creation

                  In Automation Anywhere cloud Control Room, create a new boat for adding text annotations or images to existing PDF. We’ll be using “Rest Web Service: Post Method” action to consume PDF.co “/pdf/edit/add” API endpoint. We’ll also have the “Message Box” action attached to the API call output. The complete bot structure will be looking like that.

                  Bot Creation

                  URI Configuration

                  Configure URI to “https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/edit/add” in “Rest Web Service: Post Method” action.

                  Configure URI

                  Header Configurations

                  Configure the Header key with the name “x-api-key” with the API key for PDF.co. This API key is essential for using PDF.co APIs. API keys are all stored here – https://pdf.co.

                  Header Configuration

                  Request Input Configuration

                  Configure input data from the REST Web API call. Take a look at the request data in the JSON format below.

                  {
    "name": "f1040-form-filled",
    "url": "bytescout-com.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-form/f1040.pdf",
    "annotationsString": "20;20;0-;PDF form filled with PDF.co API;24;Arial;FF0000;www.pdf.co;true",
    "imagesString": "100;180;0-;bytescout-com.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-edit/logo.png|400;180;0-;bytescout-com.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-edit/logo.png;www.pdf.co;200;200"
}

                  Here, property “annotationsString” contains text objects to be added, and likewise, property “imageString” includes the instructions on where/which images to be added in PDF.

                  JSON Request

                  Configure REST API Output

                  Create an output variable of type dictionary which will hold the response of API call.

                  Configure REST API Output

                  Configure Message Box

                  Drag and Drop the “Message box” action and attach it after the “REST Web Service: Post Method” action. Here, we’ll configure “message to display” with the “Body” property of the output variable.

                  Configure Message Box

                  Execute Bot and Review Output

                  So, now we have the configurations completed. It is time to execute the bot and check the output message box. Below is the input PDF we’ve used for this bot.

                  Form 1040

                  Take a look at the bot output message box.

                  Message From Bot

                  The following screenshot represents the output URL in response. It shows the text and image objects we’ve configured in the input request.

                  PDF Form