Job Builder

Available

Build and execute multi-step file-processing workflows visually, then generate production-ready API requests in JSON, cURL, Node.js, and Python.

Open Job Builder View Product Page

Overview

The Job Builder is a visual tool that lets developers design file-processing workflows by stacking conversion steps. Each step takes a file, applies a conversion with specific options, and produces an output that can feed the next step. The builder generates ready-to-use code in four languages — no SDK required.

When to use it: When you need to chain multiple conversions (e.g., convert a DOCX to PDF, then compress the PDF), prototype an API integration, or generate boilerplate code for your application.

Visual workflow

Stack, reorder, duplicate, and delete steps.

Generated code

JSON, cURL, Node.js, Python — live from your steps.

Real endpoints only

Every snippet references the actual API.

Workflow Structure

A workflow consists of three types of steps, executed top-to-bottom:

Configure File Input

Specify the source file. This generates a POST /api/uploads request that returns a fileId. The file is uploaded once at the start of the workflow.

Processing Task(s)

One or more conversion steps. Each generates a POST /api/conversions request with a target format and options. The first step uses the upload's fileId; subsequent steps download the previous step's output and re-upload it for a new fileId.

Export Result

Downloads the final converted output via GET /api/files/:id/download. This is the end of the pipeline — the result of the last processing step.

Supported Operations

The Job Builder supports one operation type: Processing Task (a single-file conversion). This maps to POST /api/conversions.

Processing Task

Available

Convert a file to a target format with optional conversion options. The builder shows only the option keys the server accepts for the chosen target's category.

POST /api/conversions

Planned operations

Merge PDF, Watermark, Thumbnail, and Background Remove appear in the Add Step menu as disabled entries. These operations have no backend endpoint yet.

Task Configuration

Each processing task is configured with:

Field	Type	Required	Description
toFormat	string	Yes	Target format (e.g. "pdf", "webp").
options	object	No	Conversion options validated per target category.

Options are derived from the backend's OPTION_SPECS — the same validation the server uses. The builder cannot produce a 400 from an unknown option by design.

Inputs

The workflow starts with a file upload. The builder generates a multipart POST /api/uploads request that returns a fileId. This fileId feeds the first processing step.

Supported upload types: PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, PPTX, TXT, ODT, RTF, HTML, HTM, JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP, GIF, SVG, TIFF, MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, WEBM, MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ.

Outputs

After the final processing step completes, the result is downloaded via GET /api/files/:id/download. The download endpoint accepts a signed token query parameter for browser-based downloads, or a Bearer token for API-based downloads.

For multi-step workflows, each intermediate step's output is downloaded and re-uploaded as the next step's input. This chaining happens client-side — the API does not support server-side job chaining.

Generated API Requests

The builder generates code in four formats, all derived live from the current step state. Changing a format or option immediately updates every snippet.

JSON

A structured representation of the workflow. Useful for saving workflows or sending to a backend that re-creates the conversion chain.

json

[
  {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "/api/uploads",
    "body": "multipart/form-data: file=@input.docx"
  },
  {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "/api/conversions",
    "headers": { "x-api-key": "ch_live_..." },
    "body": { "fileId": "{{step-1.fileId}}", "toFormat": "pdf" }
  },
  {
    "method": "GET",
    "url": "/api/conversions/{{step-2.conversionId}}",
    "poll": true
  }
]

cURL

Shell commands you can paste into a terminal. Each step is a separate cURL invocation.

bash

# Step 1: Upload
curl -X POST https://api.orbconvert.com/api/uploads \
  -H "x-api-key: ch_live_your_api_key_here" \
  -F "file=@input.docx"

# Step 2: Convert
curl -X POST https://api.orbconvert.com/api/conversions \
  -H "x-api-key: ch_live_your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"fileId":"file_abc123","toFormat":"pdf"}'

# Step 3: Poll status
curl https://api.orbconvert.com/api/conversions/conv_xyz789 \
  -H "x-api-key: ch_live_your_api_key_here"

Node.js

An async/await script using the Fetch API. Includes polling logic and error handling.

javascript

const API_BASE = "https://api.orbconvert.com";
const API_KEY = "ch_live_your_api_key_here";

// Step 1: Upload
const upload = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/api/uploads`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY },
  body: formData, // file attached
});
const { file } = await upload.json();

// Step 2: Convert
const conv = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/api/conversions`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ fileId: file.fileId, toFormat: "pdf" }),
});
const { conversionId } = await conv.json();

// Step 3: Poll
while (true) {
  const status = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/api/conversions/${conversionId}`, {
    headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY },
  }).then(r => r.json());
  if (status.conversion.status === "completed") break;
  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 3000));
}

Python

A requests-based script with the same upload → convert → poll chain.

python

import requests, time

API_BASE = "https://api.orbconvert.com"
API_KEY = "ch_live_your_api_key_here"
HEADERS = {"x-api-key": API_KEY}

# Step 1: Upload
with open("input.docx", "rb") as f:
    upload = requests.post(f"{API_BASE}/api/uploads",
                           headers=HEADERS, files={"file": f})
file_id = upload.json()["file"]["fileId"]

# Step 2: Convert
conv = requests.post(f"{API_BASE}/api/conversions",
                     headers={**HEADERS, "Content-Type": "application/json"},
                     json={"fileId": file_id, "toFormat": "pdf"})
conversion_id = conv.json()["conversionId"]

# Step 3: Poll
while True:
    status = requests.get(f"{API_BASE}/api/conversions/{conversion_id}",
                          headers=HEADERS)
    if status.json()["conversion"]["status"] == "completed":
        break
    time.sleep(3)

Authentication

The generated code uses an API key (x-api-key header) by default. Replace ch_live_your_api_key_herewith your actual key from Settings → API Keys.

JWT Bearer tokens are also supported — swap the x-api-key header for Authorization: Bearer <jwt>.

Errors

Code	Meaning	When
400	Bad Request	Invalid fileId, unsupported format, or invalid option value.
401	Unauthorized	Missing or invalid API key.
413	Payload Too Large	File exceeds size limit (200 MB).
429	Too Many Requests	Rate limit or daily quota exceeded.
500	Internal Server Error	Conversion engine failure.

Limits

Limit	Value
Max file size	200 MB
Max steps per workflow	Unlimited (client-side chaining)
Rate limit	100 requests / 15 min
Daily quota	50 conversions / day (free tier)
Poll interval	Recommended 2-5 seconds

Examples

DOCX → PDF (single step)

Upload a DOCX file, convert to PDF, download the result. One processing step, no options.

toFormat: "pdf", options: {}

PNG → WebP → Compress (two steps)

Convert a PNG to WebP, then re-convert the WebP with quality: 80 and targetSizeKb: 200. The builder generates two separate POST /api/conversions requests.

Step 1: toFormat: "webp" → Step 2: toFormat: "webp", options: { quality: 80, targetSizeKb: 200 }

Ready to build?

Open the visual builder and start creating workflows.

Open Job Builder

Was this page helpful?

Job Builder

Available

Build and execute multi-step file-processing workflows visually, then generate production-ready API requests in JSON, cURL, Node.js, and Python.

Open Job Builder View Product Page

Overview

When to use it: When you need to chain multiple conversions (e.g., convert a DOCX to PDF, then compress the PDF), prototype an API integration, or generate boilerplate code for your application.

Visual workflow

Stack, reorder, duplicate, and delete steps.

Generated code

JSON, cURL, Node.js, Python — live from your steps.

Real endpoints only

Every snippet references the actual API.

Workflow Structure

A workflow consists of three types of steps, executed top-to-bottom:

Configure File Input

Specify the source file. This generates a POST /api/uploads request that returns a fileId. The file is uploaded once at the start of the workflow.

Processing Task(s)

Export Result

Downloads the final converted output via GET /api/files/:id/download. This is the end of the pipeline — the result of the last processing step.

Supported Operations

The Job Builder supports one operation type: Processing Task (a single-file conversion). This maps to POST /api/conversions.

Processing Task

Available

Convert a file to a target format with optional conversion options. The builder shows only the option keys the server accepts for the chosen target's category.

POST /api/conversions

Planned operations

Merge PDF, Watermark, Thumbnail, and Background Remove appear in the Add Step menu as disabled entries. These operations have no backend endpoint yet.

Task Configuration

Each processing task is configured with:

Field	Type	Required	Description
toFormat	string	Yes	Target format (e.g. "pdf", "webp").
options	object	No	Conversion options validated per target category.

Options are derived from the backend's OPTION_SPECS — the same validation the server uses. The builder cannot produce a 400 from an unknown option by design.

Inputs

The workflow starts with a file upload. The builder generates a multipart POST /api/uploads request that returns a fileId. This fileId feeds the first processing step.

Outputs

Generated API Requests

The builder generates code in four formats, all derived live from the current step state. Changing a format or option immediately updates every snippet.

JSON

A structured representation of the workflow. Useful for saving workflows or sending to a backend that re-creates the conversion chain.

json

[
  {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "/api/uploads",
    "body": "multipart/form-data: file=@input.docx"
  },
  {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "/api/conversions",
    "headers": { "x-api-key": "ch_live_..." },
    "body": { "fileId": "{{step-1.fileId}}", "toFormat": "pdf" }
  },
  {
    "method": "GET",
    "url": "/api/conversions/{{step-2.conversionId}}",
    "poll": true
  }
]

cURL

Shell commands you can paste into a terminal. Each step is a separate cURL invocation.

bash

# Step 1: Upload
curl -X POST https://api.orbconvert.com/api/uploads \
  -H "x-api-key: ch_live_your_api_key_here" \
  -F "file=@input.docx"

# Step 2: Convert
curl -X POST https://api.orbconvert.com/api/conversions \
  -H "x-api-key: ch_live_your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"fileId":"file_abc123","toFormat":"pdf"}'

# Step 3: Poll status
curl https://api.orbconvert.com/api/conversions/conv_xyz789 \
  -H "x-api-key: ch_live_your_api_key_here"

Node.js

An async/await script using the Fetch API. Includes polling logic and error handling.

javascript

const API_BASE = "https://api.orbconvert.com";
const API_KEY = "ch_live_your_api_key_here";

// Step 1: Upload
const upload = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/api/uploads`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY },
  body: formData, // file attached
});
const { file } = await upload.json();

// Step 2: Convert
const conv = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/api/conversions`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ fileId: file.fileId, toFormat: "pdf" }),
});
const { conversionId } = await conv.json();

// Step 3: Poll
while (true) {
  const status = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/api/conversions/${conversionId}`, {
    headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY },
  }).then(r => r.json());
  if (status.conversion.status === "completed") break;
  await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 3000));
}

Python

A requests-based script with the same upload → convert → poll chain.

python

import requests, time

API_BASE = "https://api.orbconvert.com"
API_KEY = "ch_live_your_api_key_here"
HEADERS = {"x-api-key": API_KEY}

# Step 1: Upload
with open("input.docx", "rb") as f:
    upload = requests.post(f"{API_BASE}/api/uploads",
                           headers=HEADERS, files={"file": f})
file_id = upload.json()["file"]["fileId"]

# Step 2: Convert
conv = requests.post(f"{API_BASE}/api/conversions",
                     headers={**HEADERS, "Content-Type": "application/json"},
                     json={"fileId": file_id, "toFormat": "pdf"})
conversion_id = conv.json()["conversionId"]

# Step 3: Poll
while True:
    status = requests.get(f"{API_BASE}/api/conversions/{conversion_id}",
                          headers=HEADERS)
    if status.json()["conversion"]["status"] == "completed":
        break
    time.sleep(3)

Authentication

The generated code uses an API key (x-api-key header) by default. Replace ch_live_your_api_key_herewith your actual key from Settings → API Keys.

JWT Bearer tokens are also supported — swap the x-api-key header for Authorization: Bearer <jwt>.

Errors

Code	Meaning	When
400	Bad Request	Invalid fileId, unsupported format, or invalid option value.
401	Unauthorized	Missing or invalid API key.
413	Payload Too Large	File exceeds size limit (200 MB).
429	Too Many Requests	Rate limit or daily quota exceeded.
500	Internal Server Error	Conversion engine failure.

Limits

Limit	Value
Max file size	200 MB
Max steps per workflow	Unlimited (client-side chaining)
Rate limit	100 requests / 15 min
Daily quota	50 conversions / day (free tier)
Poll interval	Recommended 2-5 seconds

Examples

DOCX → PDF (single step)

Upload a DOCX file, convert to PDF, download the result. One processing step, no options.

toFormat: "pdf", options: {}

PNG → WebP → Compress (two steps)

Convert a PNG to WebP, then re-convert the WebP with quality: 80 and targetSizeKb: 200. The builder generates two separate POST /api/conversions requests.

Step 1: toFormat: "webp" → Step 2: toFormat: "webp", options: { quality: 80, targetSizeKb: 200 }

Ready to build?

Open the visual builder and start creating workflows.

Open Job Builder

Was this page helpful?