Tutorial: How to Get Document Information with GroupDocs.Comparison Cloud

Learning Objectives

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

Retrieve essential information about documents before comparison
Extract document properties like format, extension, size, and page count
Implement document info extraction in different programming languages
Use this information to prepare for document comparison

Prerequisites

Before starting this tutorial, you’ll need:

A GroupDocs.Comparison Cloud account (get a free trial here
Your Client ID and Client Secret credentials
A document uploaded to your GroupDocs Cloud Storage
Basic familiarity with RESTful APIs and your chosen programming language

Understanding Document Information

Before comparing documents, it’s often necessary to gather information about them. GroupDocs.Comparison Cloud API provides a dedicated endpoint to retrieve important document metadata, including:

Document file format
File extension
File size
Number of pages

This information is crucial for making informed decisions about document comparison settings.

Step 1: Upload a Document (If Needed)

Before retrieving document information, make sure you have uploaded a document to your cloud storage. For detailed instructions on file uploads, refer to the File API documentation.

Step 2: Understanding the API Resource

To get document information, we’ll use the following GroupDocs.Comparison Cloud REST API resource:

POST https://api.groupdocs.cloud/v2.0/comparison/info

This endpoint requires a JSON body with the document’s file path.

Step 3: Implementing with cURL

Let’s start with a cURL example to understand the request and response format:

# First, get the JWT token
curl -v "https://api.groupdocs.cloud/connect/token" \
-X POST \
-d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET" \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-H "Accept: application/json"

# Use the token to get document information
curl -v "https://api.groupdocs.cloud/v2.0/comparison/info" \
-X POST \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN" \
-d "{
    'FilePath': 'source_files/word/source.docx'
}"

Replace YOUR_CLIENT_ID, YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET, and YOUR_JWT_TOKEN with your actual credentials.

The response will be a JSON object containing document metadata:

{
  "format": "Microsoft Word Document",
  "extension": ".docx",
  "size": 23059,
  "pageCount": 1
}

Step 4: Implementing with SDKs

Now let’s implement the same functionality using various SDKs.

C# Example

using System;
using GroupDocs.Comparison.Cloud.Sdk.Api;
using GroupDocs.Comparison.Cloud.Sdk.Client;
using GroupDocs.Comparison.Cloud.Sdk.Model;
using GroupDocs.Comparison.Cloud.Sdk.Model.Requests;

namespace GetDocumentInfoExample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Configure API credentials
            var configuration = new Configuration("YOUR_CLIENT_ID", "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET");
            
            // Create InfoApi instance
            var infoApi = new InfoApi(configuration);
            
            // Prepare request
            var fileInfo = new FileInfo
            {
                FilePath = "source_files/word/source.docx"
            };
            var request = new GetDocumentInfoRequest(fileInfo);
            
            try
            {
                // Get document information
                var response = infoApi.GetDocumentInfo(request);
                
                // Display document information
                Console.WriteLine($"Document format: {response.Format}");
                Console.WriteLine($"Extension: {response.Extension}");
                Console.WriteLine($"Size: {response.Size} bytes");
                Console.WriteLine($"Page count: {response.PageCount}");
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Error: {e.Message}");
            }
        }
    }
}

Python Example

import groupdocs_comparison_cloud
from groupdocs_comparison_cloud import GetDocumentInfoRequest

# Configure API credentials
configuration = groupdocs_comparison_cloud.Configuration(
    client_id="YOUR_CLIENT_ID",
    client_secret="YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
)

# Create InfoApi instance
info_api = groupdocs_comparison_cloud.InfoApi.from_keys(
    configuration.client_id, configuration.client_secret
)

# Prepare request
file_info = groupdocs_comparison_cloud.FileInfo()
file_info.file_path = "source_files/word/source.docx"
request = GetDocumentInfoRequest(file_info)

try:
    # Get document information
    response = info_api.get_document_info(request)
    
    # Display document information
    print(f"Document format: {response.format}")
    print(f"Extension: {response.extension}")
    print(f"Size: {response.size} bytes")
    print(f"Page count: {response.page_count}")
except groupdocs_comparison_cloud.ApiException as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")

Java Example

import com.groupdocs.cloud.comparison.client.*;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.comparison.model.*;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.comparison.api.InfoApi;
import com.groupdocs.cloud.comparison.model.requests.GetDocumentInfoRequest;

public class GetDocumentInfoExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Configure API credentials
        Configuration configuration = new Configuration("YOUR_CLIENT_ID", "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET");
        
        // Create InfoApi instance
        InfoApi infoApi = new InfoApi(configuration);
        
        // Prepare request
        FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo();
        fileInfo.setFilePath("source_files/word/source.docx");
        GetDocumentInfoRequest request = new GetDocumentInfoRequest(fileInfo);
        
        try {
            // Get document information
            InfoResult response = infoApi.getDocumentInfo(request);
            
            // Display document information
            System.out.println("Document format: " + response.getFormat());
            System.out.println("Extension: " + response.getExtension());
            System.out.println("Size: " + response.getSize() + " bytes");
            System.out.println("Page count: " + response.getPageCount());
        } catch (ApiException e) {
            System.err.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Node.js Example

// Load the GroupDocs.Comparison Cloud SDK
const comparison = require("groupdocs-comparison-cloud");

// Configure API credentials
const clientId = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID";
const clientSecret = "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET";

// Create InfoApi instance
const infoApi = comparison.InfoApi.fromKeys(clientId, clientSecret);

// Prepare request
const fileInfo = new comparison.FileInfo();
fileInfo.filePath = "source_files/word/source.docx";

// Get document information
infoApi.getDocumentInfo(new comparison.GetDocumentInfoRequest(fileInfo))
    .then(response => {
        console.log("Document format:", response.format);
        console.log("Extension:", response.extension);
        console.log("Size:", response.size, "bytes");
        console.log("Page count:", response.pageCount);
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log("Error:", error.message);
    });

Step 5: Practical Application

Now that you can retrieve document information, here are some practical uses for this functionality:

Validating Documents: Check if a document has the expected properties before comparison
User Interface Updates: Show document information to users before they compare documents
Progress Estimation: Use page count to estimate comparison time
Storage Management: Track document sizes to manage cloud storage usage
Format Compatibility Check: Ensure documents being compared are compatible formats

Try It Yourself

Now it’s your turn to practice:

Upload different types of documents to your cloud storage
Retrieve information for each document using the code examples
Create a function that validates documents based on their properties
Build a simple interface that displays document information to users

Troubleshooting Tips

404 Not Found: Ensure the document exists at the specified path
401 Unauthorized: Verify your Client ID and Client Secret
File Format Issues: Confirm the document is in a supported format
Empty Response: Check that the document is not corrupted

What You’ve Learned

In this tutorial, you’ve learned:

How to retrieve essential document information before comparison
How to extract document properties like format, extension, size, and page count
How to implement document information extraction in different programming languages
How to use this information to prepare for document comparison

Next Steps

Now that you can retrieve document information, you’re ready to move on to actual document comparison. Continue to the next tutorial:

Tutorial: How to Compare Documents

This will teach you how to compare two documents and identify differences between them.