Automate Your Exports Using the REST API

Want to test the REST API?

Navigate to our interactive documentation to try out the REST API here

This page describes how to export content using the REST API. There are two ways to do this: synchronously and asynchronously.

• Synchronous exports are easier, and are recommended for the majority of use cases. You simply build the URL for the export parameters you want (template ID, page ID, etc.), and then you can download the exported file like any other file on the web using a web browser or a tool like curl or wget.
• Asynchronous exports are useful if your exports are extremely large or if you want to start the export job from a script and track its progress

Synchronous export 

Prepare the export URL

1. Open Space Tools > Add-ons > Scroll Word Exporter.
2. Find the template you want to use, open the actions dropdown menu, and click Template Information. This will open the template information dialog.
3. Copy the URL from the REST URL field.
4. Replace PAGE-ID with the ID of the page you want to export.
5. (Optional) If required, you can add Export parameters as query parameters.

Example export URL:

http://example.com/confluence/plugins/servlet/scroll-office/api/public/1/export-sync?templateId=205721cc-6689-47ac-ae43-a98cf7f1d9ec&pageId=12345&scope=current

Use the export URL

There are many tools to request data from HTTP servers. Here are some examples using popular tools.

Make sure to check the Authentication section below.

Asynchronous export 

To export content asynchronously, you have to

1. Start the export job (the server will return the ID of the job).
2. Fetch the status of the export job at regular intervals.
3. Download the Word file when the export job has finished.

For more details, read on or take a look at the example scripts:

• async-export-python3.py - for Python 3 (tested with Python 3.9)
• async-export-python2.py - for Python 2 (tested with Python 2.7)

Start the export job

Send a POST request to the URL <base-url>/plugins/servlet/scroll-office/api/public/1/exports. The body of the request must contain the export parameters in a JSON object, for example:

{
  "pageId":"557060",
  "scope":"current",
  "templateId":"com.k15t.scroll.office.default-template-1"
}

You can find the templateID by clicking Space Tools > Add-ons > Scroll Word Exporter, finding the template you want to use and clicking Template Information in the actions dropdown menu. Export parameters are supported. 

The server will return a JSON object that contains the ID of the export job, for example:

{
  "jobId": "f3c7c62b-30fb-4260-a323-10779a2b72a3"
}

Monitor the status of the export job

Fetch the status of the export job at regular intervals (we recommend every two seconds) until the job is complete. To get the status, send a GET request to the URL  <base-url>/plugins/servlet/scroll-office/api/public/1/exports/<job-id>/status. The response contains a JSON object describing the status of the export job, for example:

{
  "status": "incomplete",
  "step": 2,
  "totalSteps": 3,
  "stepProgress": 75,
  "downloadUrl": null
}

The status property is set to either

• incomplete (the export is still running)
• complete (the export has finished successfully)
• error (the export stopped with an error)
• cancelled (the export was cancelled)

The step and totalSteps properties show how many of the steps of the export job are done. The stepProgress property indicates the progress of the current step, from 0 to 100.

Download the PDF File

As soon as the status is complete, the downloadUrl property will contain the URL where the PDF file can be downloaded.

Cancelling a running or queued export

It is possible to cancel exports that are still queued or are currently being processed by sending a DELETE request without body to <base-url>/plugins/servlet/scroll-office/api/public/1/exports/<job-id>.

Please note that the status retrieved by GET requests to <base-url>/plugins/servlet/scroll-office/api/public/1/exports/<job-id>/status will not immediately reflect that the job has been cancelled if the job is still queued but not currently processed.

Exporting as anonymous user

If you intend to perform an asynchronous export as anonymous user you must include the session cookie returned in the start request's response into all subsequent requests (polling and download). This is required for permission checks.

We recommend to use a dedicated user for exports, though.

Authentication

The following authentication methods are available for the REST API.

Authorization: Basic <username:password>

...&os_username=admin&os_password=admin

Authorization: Bearer my-token

IDs used in Export Parameters

When starting an export, you may need to provide several IDs to the API. Here's how to locate them: