Exporting only a specific set of pages in Ruby with HttpParty

In this guide, we'll show you how to export only a specific set of pages from a document using Ruby and the HttpParty library to convert them to PDF using PDFShift's API.

When you're converting a document, you might want to export only a specific set of pages from a document. This can be done by setting the pages parameter to the request.

It behaves exactly like the page parameter you can see when you print a document from your browser.

It accepts the following pattern:

• A number, such as 2. This will print the page 2
• A range, such as 2-4. This will print the pages 2 to 4 (2, 3 and 4)
• A list, such as 2,4,5,9. This will print the pages 2, 4, 5 and 9

This way, you can only export the pages that you really need and get immediately the result you want in the PDF, without having to edit it.

Here's an example:

require 'httparty'
require 'json'

# You can get an API key at https://pdfshift.io
api_key = 'sk_xxxxxxxxxxxx'

params = {
    'source' => 'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF',
    'pages' => '2-4'
}

response = HTTParty.post(
    "https://api.pdfshift.io/v3/convert/pdf",
    body: params.to_json,
    headers: {
        'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
        'Authorization' => "Basic #{Base64.strict_encode64("api:#{api_key}")}"
    }
)

# Check for successful response
unless response.success?
    raise "Request failed with status code #{response.code}: #{response.body}"
end

# write response to a file nammed "result.pdf"
File.open('result.pdf', 'wb') { |f| f.write(response.body) }

# Print a success message
puts 'The PDF document was generated and saved to result.pdf'