---
title: "Protecting the generated PDF"
description: "Learn how to protect generated PDFs with passwords using Java and the Netty library. This guide offers detailed steps with code samples in Java and the Netty library, showing how to secure your PDF documents."
language: 'Java'
library: 'Netty'
property: 'protection'
output: 'pdf'
related: ['adding-an-image-watermark', 'adding-a-text-watermark']
default: false
---

In this guide, we'll show you how to protect generated PDFs with passwords using Java and the Netty library.

When generating PDFs, you might want to add password protection to restrict access.

```java
import io.netty.bootstrap.Bootstrap;
import io.netty.channel.*;
import io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoopGroup;
import io.netty.channel.socket.SocketChannel;
import io.netty.channel.socket.nio.NioSocketChannel;
import io.netty.handler.codec.http.*;
import io.netty.util.CharsetUtil;

// You can get an API key at https://pdfshift.io
String apiKey = "sk_xxxxxxxxxxxx";

EventLoopGroup group = new NioEventLoopGroup();
try {
    Bootstrap b = new Bootstrap();
    b.group(group)
        .channel(NioSocketChannel.class)
        .handler(new ChannelInitializer<SocketChannel>() {
            @Override
            public void initChannel(SocketChannel ch) {
                ChannelPipeline p = ch.pipeline();
                p.addLast(new HttpClientCodec());
                p.addLast(new HttpObjectAggregator(1024 * 1024));
            }
        });

    Channel ch = b.connect("api.pdfshift.io", 443).sync().channel();

    FullHttpRequest request = new DefaultFullHttpRequest(
        HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1, HttpMethod.POST, "/v3/convert/pdf");
    
    request.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.HOST, "api.pdfshift.io");
    request.headers().set("X-API-Key", apiKey);
    request.headers().set(HttpHeaderNames.CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json");
    
    String payload = "{\n" +
        "  \"source\": \"https://www.example.com\",\n" +
        "  \"protection\": {\n" +
        "    \"user_password\": \"user123\",\n" +
        "    \"owner_password\": \"owner123\"\n" +
        "  }\n" +
        "}";
    
    request.content().writeBytes(payload.getBytes(CharsetUtil.UTF_8));
    request.headers().setInt(HttpHeaderNames.CONTENT_LENGTH, request.content().readableBytes());

    ChannelFuture f = ch.writeAndFlush(request);
    f.addListener(ChannelFutureListener.CLOSE);
    
    // Handle response and save PDF...
    
    System.out.println("The PDF document was generated and saved to result.pdf");
} finally {
    group.shutdownGracefully();
}
```

This allows you to secure your PDF documents with passwords.