Updating an Image with the paperlesspaper API

Sometimes you just want to swap the image shown on an ePaper screen: no complicated flows, no signed URLs, no extra metadata. This tutorial shows the simplest way to upload a new image using the paperlesspaper API via:

• Paper upload: POST /papers/uploadSingleImage/:paperId

We’ll focus on the single-image upload flow end to end: pick the target, upload the file, and verify the result.

What you’ll need

• The API base URL:
  https://api.memo.wirewire.de/v1
• API key (x-api-key: ...)
• A paperId
• A local image file (PNG works best)

Getting the API key

Visit the API documentation to learn about how to generate an API key.

Uploading to a Paper (screen entry)

To retrieve the ID of the image/page (we call them paper) you want to update, visit any of your pictures available. The last part of the URL inside the editor is the paperId.

Endpoint POST /papers/uploadSingleImage/:paperId

The simple upload: cURL

Upload a single image to a Paper

curl -X POST "https://api.memo.wirewire.de/v1/papers/uploadSingleImage/<PAPER_ID>" \
-H "x-api-key: <API_KEY>" \
-F "picture=@/path/to/image.png;type=image/png"

Now refresh the Current tab inside the webapplication to see if the image has updated.

node.js

If you prefer code over terminal commands, here’s the same flow using fetch + FormData. Send a multipart request with a single picture field, and you’re done.

Upload to a Paper

import fetch from "node-fetch";
import FormData from "form-data";
import fs from "fs";
import path from "path";

const API_BASE = "https://api.memo.wirewire.de/v1";
const API_KEY = process.env.PAPERLESSPAPER_API_KEY;

export async function uploadPaperImage(paperId, filePath) {
const form = new FormData();
const filename = path.basename(filePath);
form.append("picture", fs.createReadStream(filePath), { filename });
const res = await fetch(`${API_BASE}/papers/uploadSingleImage/${paperId}`, {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"x-api-key": API_KEY,
// Important: node-fetch won't auto-add the multipart boundary header.
...form.getHeaders(),
},
body: form,
});
return res.json();
}

A working example of the code can be found in our node-samples.

This is just a first tutorial on how it works. If you have any questions please open an Issue on Github.