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Retrieve Size of Document using Rest API

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 10, 2025
5 replies
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Hello Guys,

Is there a way to retrieve the size of a document using Rest API.

The size is currently available manually from the “Details” panel windows displayed using “Show Detail” context menu command on a document.

Best regards.

Best answer by alec.bingham

Hey Michel, I’m Alec, I’m one of the API developers here at Lucid. There is not currently a way to get the size of a document via the API, but we always appreciate a chance to hear more about customer use cases and why something like this might be helpful as we determine future plans for the API. If you have any more context for why an endpoint to get document size would be valuable for your use case, I’d be happy to relay that information to the team for consideration.

As for some of your particular questions, Humas is right that document size is determined by more than just the JSON content, but something you may not have considered that is relevant to document size in Lucid is action history. This is a record kept of movement of shapes, adding shapes, deleting shapes, etc. and is important to how the Undo and Redo functions in the Lucidchart and Lucidspark.

Hopefully this can help explain some of what you’re seeing, and I hope to hear more about your use case. I’m especially curious about if your use case cares about Lucid’s representation of the document size (including things like action history as I explained), or if you care more particularly about size of the document when exported, etc.

Humas1985

Lucid Legend Level 10

Hi @Michel L

There isn't a straightforward way to obtain the size of a document via the API. While it is possible to retrieve document contents, users in the community have reported challenges when dealing with larger documents.

We can also wait to hear for any updates from Lucid representatives regarding potential features or ideas which are already in the feature pipeline in this area.

Hope this helps - Happy to help further!!
Thank you very much and have a great one!
Warm regards

Huma || Lucid Legend

Michel LAuthor

Hi @Humas1985,

Thanks for your reply.

I think having a way to get the size of a document could be valuable because getting the content of a document is strangely not at all consistent with the size of a document.

For example I have a document that has a size of 22 MB and if I take the document Json size it is only 140KB. I did not understand why it is so large with only 3 pages and not so much content but that’s it.

I notice also that this information is not available either in DocumentProxy in an extension. It could be a work around if it is easier for you to modify Rest API.

I have to add that if I make a copy of the document, using the “Make a copy” command in the file menu, the size of the copy is 1 B. If I Open it and if I move some block without adding anything it becomes 634 bytes. It seem’s that each time I work on a document it grows.

If I use the “duplicate” command when displaying all the document in the Home location, the size remains the same.

Very strange? Could I have some explanations please?

Best regards.

Michel LAuthor

Any news about my inquiry?

Regards.

Humas1985

Lucid Legend Level 10

Hi @Michel L

The size of large documents can be misleading, as they often contain embedded images, custom fonts, and other media that increase their overall size beyond what is reflected in their JSON content.

Besides, the JSON representation of a document is a simplified abstraction that omits certain internal data structures and resources, resulting in a smaller size compared to the full document.

Let’s wait for the Lucid representatives to take it to the technical team to deep dive and give us some relevant next steps.

Best Regards

Huma || Lucid Legend

A

alec.binghamAnswer

Lucid product team

Hey Michel, I’m Alec, I’m one of the API developers here at Lucid. There is not currently a way to get the size of a document via the API, but we always appreciate a chance to hear more about customer use cases and why something like this might be helpful as we determine future plans for the API. If you have any more context for why an endpoint to get document size would be valuable for your use case, I’d be happy to relay that information to the team for consideration.

As for some of your particular questions, Humas is right that document size is determined by more than just the JSON content, but something you may not have considered that is relevant to document size in Lucid is action history. This is a record kept of movement of shapes, adding shapes, deleting shapes, etc. and is important to how the Undo and Redo functions in the Lucidchart and Lucidspark.

Hopefully this can help explain some of what you’re seeing, and I hope to hear more about your use case. I’m especially curious about if your use case cares about Lucid’s representation of the document size (including things like action history as I explained), or if you care more particularly about size of the document when exported, etc.

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