Pulling a PDF Using Scribd API and PHP

I am creating a platform that provides print capabilities for the social reading and publishing platform, Scribd. This will allow any user to print a document on the cloud storage platform, and pass the ID to the Mimeo Connect Cloud Print Platform.

I want to share each step of the process so that others may take advantage of the code I’m writing.

My goal is to pull a specific file from the Scribd platform. I need a PDF, and Scribd provides this via the Scribd API.

I went to Scribd and logged into my account, clicked on Developers / API link on the bottom of their site and applied for an API key. Now I’m able to make calls against the API.

I went and found the document I wanted to pull, The Future of Reading and Publishing is Social, and grabbed the ID of the document. It is located in the URL right after the /doc/37360086/.

Then using the simplexml_load_file() PHP function I GET the file information using the Scribd API:

$Scribd_API_Key = "[api key]“;
$Scribd_Document_ID = “37360086″;
$Scribd_URL = “http://api.scribd.com/api?method=print.getPrintInfo&api_key=” . $Scribd_API_Key . “&doc_id=” . $Scribd_Document_ID;
$xml = simplexml_load_file($Scribd_URL);

$Title = $xml->title;
$Download_Link = $xml->download_link;
$Page_Count = $xml->page_count;
$Height = $xml->height;
$Width = $xml->width;
$DPI = $xml->dpi;

This call returns an XML response containing relevant file information:

<rsp stat=”ok”>
<download_link>http://documents.scribd.com.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2kjfqelznknvkv5.pdf?t=1284562355
</download_link>
<title>
The Future of Reading and Publishing is Social
</title>
<page_count>4</page_count>
<height>792</height>
<width>612</width>
<dpi>72</dpi>
</rsp>

Now I can pull the PDF file and begin using for my cloud print ordering process. Next I will need to proof the document before I can display for the user.