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API REFERENCEv2

HTML table to custom text template API

Prepare custom row-template text from an HTML report table with the TableConvert conversion API. Use the extracted cell sequence in your custom text template; the template does not receive a browser DOM or HTML page context.

REST APIv2 · Direct outputHTML table → Custom text template5 credits per successful conversion

Try this conversion

Inspect a real sample, preview locally, or send a live request with your own key.

Verified sample
POSThttps://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/html-to-magic

Custom text template response

sku |item |quantity
P101 |Notebook |12
P102 |Marker |8

Local previews use no credits and process the first imported table or worksheet.

Conversion options
A successful live request uses 5 credits.

Your key is sent only to the conversion API and is never saved by this page.

Things to check before integrating

Before you integrate

Extract a simple table and remove layout-only merged cells before converting it.

Before you integrate

A blank custom template can return help text; define the intended template and its escaping before production use.

Code examples

These examples send the sample as multipart/form-data and save the returned bytes unchanged. Set TABLECONVERT_API_KEY in your environment.

HTML table to custom text template API · cURL

curl --fail-with-body --max-time 40 \
  'https://api.tableconvert.com/v2/convert/html-to-magic' \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TABLECONVERT_API_KEY" \
  --form-string 'data=<table>
    <tr>
        <td>sku</td>
        <td>item</td>
        <td>quantity</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>P101</td>
        <td>Notebook</td>
        <td>12</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>P102</td>
        <td>Marker</td>
        <td>8</td>
    </tr>
</table>' \
  --form-string 'output[headerTpl]={F |}
' \
  --form-string 'output[rowsTpl]={F |}
' \
  --form-string 'output[footerTpl]={F |}' \
  --form-string 'output[builtin]=' \
  --output 'html-to-magic.txt'

Requires cURL. Download the sample input first when this example uploads a file.

Authentication

Send Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY. Let the HTTP client set the multipart boundary; do not set Content-Type manually.

Keep production API keys in server-side environment variables.

Request parameters

This importer extracts table, row and cell contents from HTML markup. It is a table-data converter, not a whole-page browser renderer.

ParameterTypeDefaultDescription
datastring—Inline HTML table content. Choose one of data, file or url.
filebinary—Upload a html file using multipart/form-data.
urlstring—A supported publicly accessible HTTP or HTTPS file URL.

Send one source: data, file, or url. The examples below use the source mode appropriate for this format.

Output options

Apply TableConvert Magic row templates to tabular records. Magic is a substitution system for custom text, not a separate file format or an AI transformation.

ParameterTypeDefaultDescription
output[headerTpl]stringEmpty stringTemplate used for the first row/header portion of the custom text export.
output[rowsTpl]stringEmpty stringTemplate repeated for the custom export’s intermediate data rows.
output[footerTpl]stringEmpty stringTemplate used for the last-row/footer portion of the custom text export.
output[builtin]stringEmpty stringPopulate the custom template from a built-in preset; explicit template fields remain authoritative.

Conversion rules

CaseBehavior
Mapping rule 1HTML tr elements become rows and th/td contents become cells after inner tags are removed.
Mapping rule 2Templates substitute cells and row counters into a header, repeated row body and footer.
Mapping rule 3Use the extracted cell sequence in your custom text template; the template does not receive a browser DOM or HTML page context.

How the input is read

  • Supply an HTML table containing explicit tr and th/td elements.
  • Tags inside cells are stripped; CSS, links, images and page layout are not preserved as visual elements.
  • Simplify colspan, rowspan and nested tables before conversion; the parser extracts cells rather than reconstructing browser layout.
  • Multiple table elements are separate extracted tables; confirm which table your request converts.

How the output is written

  • Configure headerTpl, rowsTpl and footerTpl or select a built-in template.
  • Column placeholders use the table position/header and row counters rather than arbitrary object traversal.
  • The destination syntax and escaping remain your template’s responsibility; test a small sample first.

When to use this API

This conversion in practice

Use an HTML report table as the starting dataset for an application-specific text export. Extract a simple table and remove layout-only merged cells before converting it.

Custom text template

Generate repeated text such as URL lists, command fragments or application-specific import lines.

Responses and errors

HTTP statusDescription
200text/plain; charset=utf-8
400Invalid input or conversion parameters.
402Insufficient credits for this request.
403Missing or invalid API key.
413The input exceeds the configured request limit.
415Unsupported input media type.
429Rate limit exceeded.
500The conversion could not be completed.
503The renderer is unavailable or the request timed out.

Check the response before retrying. A new HTTP request is a new conversion and may use credits again.

Limits, billing and versions

Local previews accept up to 200 KB. The current API implementation allows one uploaded file up to 50 MiB, limits each multipart text field to 1 MiB, and gives v2 conversion tasks a 30-second deadline. Deployment limits may be stricter. Read the returned error before retrying; some parser or renderer failures return HTTP 500.

Live calls follow the API credit policy. Failed conversions are refunded; a completed conversion is not undone if the download connection later fails.

View API pricing and credits

Using API v1?

This page documents v2, which returns the output directly. API v1 wraps the result in a JSON envelope. Check the overview before changing an existing integration.

API overview

References and format specifications

Format references explain the underlying syntax. The conversion rules and samples above describe TableConvert’s implementation.