latex-render-api

Rest API for rendering LaTeX documents

Environment Variables:

Name	Type	Default Value	Description
FILE_SIZE_LIMIT	Integer	50	Maximum size of uploaded files in megabytes.
FILE_COUNT_LIMIT	Integer	500	Maximum number of files that can be uploaded in a single request.
COMPILER_TYPE	String	PDFTex	The LaTeX compiler to use (e.g.,PDFTex, XeTeX, etc.).
COMPILER_ARGS	String	undefined	Additional arguments to pass to the LaTeX compiler.
LOG_LEVEL	String	info	Logging level for the application (e.g.,debug, info,typesetting,warn,error). More info
PASSOVER	Integer	2	Number of passes the LaTeX compiler should perform.
PORT	Integer	3000	Port on which the server will listen.

Docker Instructions

To pull and run the Docker container from Docker Hub:

docker run -p 3000:3000 michaelkoelle/latex-render-api:latest

Docker Compose Instructions

To use Docker Compose with the image from Docker Hub, create a docker-compose.yml file with the following content:

version: "3.8"
services:
  latex-render-api:
    image: michaelkoelle/latex-render-api:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      FILE_SIZE_LIMIT: 100

Then run the following commands:

# Start the services
docker-compose up

# Stop the services
docker-compose down

Compile and Run Locally

To compile and run the application yourself:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/michaelkoelle/latex-render-api.git
   cd latex-render-api

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Build the application:

   npm run build

4. Start the server:

   npm start

The server will be running at http://localhost:3000.

Example Request

To render a LaTeX document, send a POST request to the / endpoint with multipart/form-data containing the following fields:

1. entry: The relative path of the main LaTeX file (e.g., main.tex).
2. file_*: The binary content of the files (e.g., file_1, file_2, etc.).
3. path_*: The relative paths corresponding to the uploaded files (e.g., path_1, path_2, etc.).

Example using NodeJS

import { readFileSync } from "fs";

// Build the form data
const formData = new FormData();
const filePath = "path/to/main.tex";
formData.append("entry", filePath);
formData.append(`file_${index}`, new Blob([readFileSync(filePath)]));
formData.append(`path_${index}`, filePath);

// Create a post request
const res = await fetch("http://localhost:3000", {
  method: "POST",
  body: formData,
});

const json = await res.json();

const { pdf, logs } = json;

Example using curl

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/ \
  -F "entry=main.tex" \
  -F "path_1=main.tex" \
  -F "file_1=@path/to/main.tex" \
  -F "path_2=images/example.png" \
  -F "file_2=@path/to/example.png"

Response

The response will include the rendered PDF as a base64-encoded string and logs:

{
  "pdf": "JVBERi0xLjQKJcfs... (truncated base64 string)",
  "logs": "...compiler logs..."
}

Additional Notes

• The entry field is required and should match the relative path of the main LaTeX file.
• Each file_* field must have a corresponding path_* field to specify its relative path. Ensure to at least have the entry file and path listed. Entry file path must match one of the file_* paths
• Ensure the Content-Type header is set to multipart/form-data in your request.