How to merge PDF documents from urls asynchronously for PDF merging API in VB.NET and PDF.co Web API

Step By Step Tutorial: how to merge PDF documents from urls asynchronously for PDF merging API in VB.NET

The coding tutorials are designed to help you test the features without need to write your own code. PDF.co Web API was made to help with PDF merging API in VB.NET. PDF.co Web API is the flexible Web API that includes full set of functions from e-signature requests to data extraction, OCR, images recognition, pdf splitting and pdf splitting. Can also generate barcodes and read barcodes from images, scans and pdf.

VB.NET code snippet like this for PDF.co Web API works best when you need to quickly implement PDF merging API in your VB.NET application. For implimentation of this functionality, please copy and paste code below into your app using code editor. Then compile and run your app. Tutorials are available along with installed PDF.co Web API if you’d like to dive deeper into the topic and the details of the API.

Our website provides free trial version of PDF.co Web API that includes source code samples to help with your VB.NET project.

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ByteScoutWebApiExample.sln

      
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00 # Visual Studio 15 VisualStudioVersion = 15.0.26730.10 MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1 Project("{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}") = "ByteScoutWebApiExample", "ByteScoutWebApiExample.vbproj", "{9B91124C-66C3-4BD9-B29E-168C1ABB15AC}" EndProject Global GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU Release|Any CPU = Release|Any CPU EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution {9B91124C-66C3-4BD9-B29E-168C1ABB15AC}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU {9B91124C-66C3-4BD9-B29E-168C1ABB15AC}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU {9B91124C-66C3-4BD9-B29E-168C1ABB15AC}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU {9B91124C-66C3-4BD9-B29E-168C1ABB15AC}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution HideSolutionNode = FALSE EndGlobalSection GlobalSection(ExtensibilityGlobals) = postSolution SolutionGuid = {4576C9BB-A42D-46A8-9198-7E2982E122FA} EndGlobalSection EndGlobal

ByteScoutWebApiExample.vbproj

      
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"> <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" /> <PropertyGroup> <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration> <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform> <ProjectGuid>{9B91124C-66C3-4BD9-B29E-168C1ABB15AC}</ProjectGuid> <OutputType>Exe</OutputType> <StartupObject>ByteScoutWebApiExample.Module1</StartupObject> <RootNamespace>ByteScoutWebApiExample</RootNamespace> <AssemblyName>ByteScoutWebApiExample</AssemblyName> <FileAlignment>512</FileAlignment> <MyType>Console</MyType> <TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.0</TargetFrameworkVersion> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' "> <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget> <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols> <DebugType>full</DebugType> <DefineDebug>true</DefineDebug> <DefineTrace>true</DefineTrace> <OutputPath>bin\Debug\</OutputPath> <DocumentationFile>ByteScoutWebApiExample.xml</DocumentationFile> <NoWarn>42016,41999,42017,42018,42019,42032,42036,42020,42021,42022</NoWarn> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' "> <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget> <DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType> <DefineDebug>false</DefineDebug> <DefineTrace>true</DefineTrace> <Optimize>true</Optimize> <OutputPath>bin\Release\</OutputPath> <DocumentationFile>ByteScoutWebApiExample.xml</DocumentationFile> <NoWarn>42016,41999,42017,42018,42019,42032,42036,42020,42021,42022</NoWarn> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup> <OptionExplicit>On</OptionExplicit> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup> <OptionCompare>Binary</OptionCompare> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup> <OptionStrict>Off</OptionStrict> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup> <OptionInfer>On</OptionInfer> </PropertyGroup> <ItemGroup> <Reference Include="Newtonsoft.Json, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=30ad4fe6b2a6aeed, processorArchitecture=MSIL"> <HintPath>packages\Newtonsoft.Json.10.0.3\lib\net40\Newtonsoft.Json.dll</HintPath> </Reference> <Reference Include="System" /> <Reference Include="System.Data" /> <Reference Include="System.Deployment" /> <Reference Include="System.Xml" /> <Reference Include="System.Core" /> <Reference Include="System.Xml.Linq" /> <Reference Include="System.Data.DataSetExtensions" /> </ItemGroup> <ItemGroup> <Import Include="Microsoft.VisualBasic" /> <Import Include="System" /> <Import Include="System.Collections" /> <Import Include="System.Collections.Generic" /> <Import Include="System.Data" /> <Import Include="System.Diagnostics" /> <Import Include="System.Linq" /> <Import Include="System.Xml.Linq" /> </ItemGroup> <ItemGroup> <Compile Include="Module1.vb" /> <Compile Include="My Project\AssemblyInfo.vb" /> <Compile Include="My Project\Application.Designer.vb"> <AutoGen>True</AutoGen> <DependentUpon>Application.myapp</DependentUpon> </Compile> <Compile Include="My Project\Resources.Designer.vb"> <AutoGen>True</AutoGen> <DesignTime>True</DesignTime> <DependentUpon>Resources.resx</DependentUpon> </Compile> <Compile Include="My Project\Settings.Designer.vb"> <AutoGen>True</AutoGen> <DependentUpon>Settings.settings</DependentUpon> <DesignTimeSharedInput>True</DesignTimeSharedInput> </Compile> </ItemGroup> <ItemGroup> <EmbeddedResource Include="My Project\Resources.resx"> <Generator>VbMyResourcesResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator> <LastGenOutput>Resources.Designer.vb</LastGenOutput> <CustomToolNamespace>My.Resources</CustomToolNamespace> <SubType>Designer</SubType> </EmbeddedResource> </ItemGroup> <ItemGroup> <None Include="My Project\Application.myapp"> <Generator>MyApplicationCodeGenerator</Generator> <LastGenOutput>Application.Designer.vb</LastGenOutput> </None> <None Include="My Project\Settings.settings"> <Generator>SettingsSingleFileGenerator</Generator> <CustomToolNamespace>My</CustomToolNamespace> <LastGenOutput>Settings.Designer.vb</LastGenOutput> </None> <None Include="packages.config" /> </ItemGroup> <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets" /> </Project>

Module1.vb

      
Imports System.IO Imports System.Net Imports System.Threading Imports Newtonsoft.Json Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Linq ' Cloud API asynchronous "Merge PDF" job example. ' Allows to avoid timeout errors when processing huge or scanned PDF documents. Module Module1 ' The authentication key (API Key). ' Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co/documentation/api Const API_KEY As String = "***********************************" ' Direct URLs of PDF files to merge Dim SourceFiles As String() = { "https://bytescout-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-merge/sample1.pdf", "https://bytescout-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/demo-files/cloud-api/pdf-merge/sample2.pdf"} ' Destination PDF file name Const DestinationFile As String = ".\result.pdf" ' (!) Make asynchronous job Const Async As Boolean = True Sub Main() ' Create standard .NET web client instance Dim webClient As WebClient = New WebClient() ' Set API Key webClient.Headers.Add("x-api-key", API_KEY) ' Set JSON content type webClient.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json") ' Prepare URL for `Merge PDF` API call Dim url As String = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/merge" ' Prepare requests params as JSON ' See documentation: https : //apidocs.pdf.co Dim parameters As New Dictionary(Of String, Object) parameters.Add("name", Path.GetFileName(DestinationFile)) parameters.Add("url", String.Join(",", SourceFiles)) parameters.Add("async", Async) ' Convert dictionary of params to JSON Dim jsonPayload As String = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(parameters) Try ' Execute POST request with JSON payload Dim response As String = webClient.UploadString(url, jsonPayload) ' Parse JSON response Dim json As JObject = JObject.Parse(response) If json("error").ToObject(Of Boolean) = False Then ' Asynchronous job ID Dim jobId As String = json("jobId").ToString() ' URL of generated PDF file that will available after the job completion Dim resultFileUrl As String = json("url").ToString() ' Check the job status in a loop. ' If you don't want to pause the main thread you can rework the code ' to use a separate thread for the status checking and completion. Do Dim status As String = CheckJobStatus(jobId) ' Possible statuses: "working", "failed", "aborted", "success". ' Display timestamp and status (for demo purposes) Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString() + ": " + status) If status = "success" Then ' Download PDF file webClient.DownloadFile(resultFileUrl, DestinationFile) Console.WriteLine("Generated PDF file saved as ""{0}"" file.", DestinationFile) Exit Do ElseIf status = "working" Then ' Pause for a few seconds Thread.Sleep(3000) Else Console.WriteLine(status) Exit Do End If Loop Else Console.WriteLine(json("message").ToString()) End If Catch ex As WebException Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString()) End Try webClient.Dispose() Console.WriteLine() Console.WriteLine("Press any key...") Console.ReadKey() End Sub Function CheckJobStatus(jobId As String) As String Using webClient As WebClient = New WebClient() ' Set API Key webClient.Headers.Add("x-api-key", API_KEY) Dim url As String = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/job/check?jobid=" + jobId Dim response As String = webClient.DownloadString(url) Dim json As JObject = JObject.Parse(response) return Convert.ToString(json("status")) End Using End Function End Module

packages.config

      
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <packages> <package id="Newtonsoft.Json" version="10.0.3" targetFramework="net40" /> </packages>

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