We are happy to announce that CloudConvert is now integrated with the Microsoft Power Automate platform.

Microsoft Power Automate allows it to build cloud-based workflows without writing any code by using thousands of connectors.

For example, you can connect CloudConvert with SharePoint or OneDrive to automate even complex tasks.

Currently, the following actions are available on the Power Automate Platform:

• Convert File
• Compress File
• Capture Website Screenshot

Depending on your feedback further actions from the CloudConvert API will follow. You can find the documentation of the connector here.

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As of now there is a new Watermark API for the CloudConvert service. This new feature allows it to add watermarks or stamps to PDF documents, to images (PNG, JPG...) or videos (MP4, MOV...).

Both adding simple texts or any images as watermark is supported. A typical use case would be to add your company name or logo to files.

Adding Watermark Text

As a first example, we would like to add a red "Top Secret" watermark above an example PDF file. Therefore, we do send the following payload to the https://api.cloudconvert.com/v2/jobs endpoint:

{
    "tasks": {
        "import-file": {
            "operation": "import/url",
            "url": "https://cloudconvert-blog.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/public/test-files/zombies.pdf"
        },
        "add-watermark": {
            "operation": "watermark",
            "input": [
                "import-file"
            ],
            "input_format": "pdf",
            "layer": "above",
            "text": "Top Secret",
            "font_size": 100,
            "font_color": "#ff0400",
            "font_name": "Helvetica Bold",
            "position_vertical": "center",
            "position_horizontal": "center",
            "opacity": 50,
            "rotation": -45
        },
        "export-watermarked-file": {
            "operation": "export/url",
            "input": [
                "add-watermark"
            ],
        }
    }
}

The job contains 3 tasks:

1. Importing the input PDF file.
2. Adding the watermark by setting the text, font size, font name and other parameters.
3. And the export task which creates a public URL to the output file.

Adding Watermark Images

Now we are adding a logo PNG image to the bottom right of a PDF file.

Therefore, we do send the following payload to the https://api.cloudconvert.com/v2/jobs endpoint:

{
    "tasks": {
        "import-file": {
            "operation": "import/url",
            "url": "https://cloudconvert-blog.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/public/test-files/zombies.pdf"
        },
        "import-logo": {
            "operation": "import/url",
            "url": "https://cloudconvert-blog.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/public/test-files/logo.png"
        },
        "add-watermark": {
            "operation": "watermark",
            "input": [
                "import-file"
            ],
            "input_format": "pdf",
            "layer": "above",
            "image": [
                "import-logo"
            ],
            "image_width": 500,
            "position_vertical": "bottom",
            "position_horizontal": "right",
            "margin_vertical": 25,
            "margin_horizontal": 25,
            "opacity": 75
        },
        "export-watermarked-file": {
            "operation": "export/url",
            "input": [
                "add-watermark"
            ]
        }
    }
}

The job contains 4 tasks:

1. Importing the input PDF file.
2. Importing the logo PNG image.
3. The watermark task which sets input to first import task and image to the second import task. Also, there are parameters for the vertical/horizontal position and the spacing to the page boundaries.
4. The export task creates a public URL to the output file.

Of course, this feature can be combined with other operations. For example, you could first convert files from Word to PDF and then add the watermark within a single job. Also, this can be used together with converting videos or creating thumbnails.

Checkout the full documentation of the watermark operation. The Job Builder has been updated to generate ready-to-use API payloads and code snippets for the watermark feature.

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We are glad to announce that CloudConvert now offers the best possible, industry leading conversions for PDF to Word, PDF to Excel and PDF to PowerPoint.

Without question, restoring PDFs into MS Office formats is a challenging and non-trivial task. CloudConvert has partnered with PDFTron from Canada to offer this functionality. PDFTron recently acquired Solid Documents, the provider of the best available PDF to Office conversion technology with unparalleled accuracy in terms of formatting and content preservation.

Through this partnership, CloudConvert can now build on the same technology used in many professional document applications, such as Adobe Acrobat or Foxit.

As of today, this feature is available to CloudConvert customers. The new PDF to Office conversion types come at a different pricing and do cost 4 conversion minutes as base per file.

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CloudConvert now offers a new and convenient way to convert files on demand: Signed URLs. These URLs allow dynamic, on-demand file conversion and will automatically cache the results.

There are a lot of use cases for such dynamic file conversions: For example, a "Download as PDF" button on a website which dynamically creates a PDF version of the current page. Another use case is a thumbnail image of a DOCX file which is created automatically and on-demand.

As a demo, you can just click on this signed URL which is a dynamically created PNG version of this blog post!

Technically, you first need to create a signed URL base using your dashboard. Using this signed URL base you then can create dynamic signed URLs using URL parameters. To secure the URL a signature is required.

As of today, all of our official SDKs have been updated to support this new feature. Check out the full documentation about signed URLs.

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The new CloudConvert Team feature simplifies the billing for organizations such as companies or schools. A single team owner can share the package or subscription with unlimited team members. Team members do have separate accounts and their conversions/files remain private.

You can see the team owner dashboard below. As a team owner you can invite members via email, assign roles and see usage stats for individual team members.

Team members with the role "Admin" can invite and remove other team members.

The feature is now available for all users with active package or subscription.

We hope you like this new feature! If you have feedback don't hesitate to contact us.

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As of today, API v1 is deprecated. In order to provide our customers the best possible features and a single, consistent REST API we will turn off API v1 on January 1, 2022. API v1 has been serving for nearly 8 years now and it is time to move forward.

API v2 was released for production use earlier this year. With the recent addition of the Get Metadata API, all features of API v1 are now available in API v2. API v2 uses a more robust design and better extensibility for new features. You can read more about the fundamentals of API v2 here.

What does this mean for our customers?

First of all, you want to build all new apps with API v2.

Second, you need to update your existing integrations to API v2. API v2 is using a completely different design, so please check out the API docs to get familiar with it. You have more than one year time to transition your app to API v2, which should be suifficient.

There are already official API v2 SDKs for PHP, node.js, Python and Java available. Ruby will follow soon. You might consider using them when upgrading your integration.

Timeline

• May 27, 2019: Initial Beta release of API v2
• January 7, 2020: Production-ready release of API v2
• October 13, 2020: Deprecaton of API v1
• June 2021: We will start to send out warning mails to remaining API v1 users
• January 1, 2022: API v1 endpoints are turned off

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