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Analyze documents (like PDFs) using the Gemini API
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You can ask a Gemini model to analyze document files (like PDFs and plain-text files) that you provide either inline (base64-encoded) or via URL. When you use Vertex AI in Firebase, you can make this request directly from your app.

With this capability, you can do things like:

Analyze diagrams, charts, and tables inside documents
Extract information into structured output formats
Answer questions about visual and text contents in documents
Summarize documents
Transcribe document content (for example, into HTML), preserving layouts and formatting, for use in downstream applications (such as in RAG pipelines)

Jump to code samples Jump to code for streamed responses

See other guides for additional options for working with documents (like PDFs)
Generate structured output Multi-turn chat

Before you begin

If you haven't already, complete the getting started guide, which describes how to set up your Firebase project, connect your app to Firebase, add the SDK, initialize the Vertex AI service, and create a GenerativeModel instance.

For testing and iterating on your prompts and even getting a generated code snippet, we recommend using Vertex AI Studio.

Need a sample PDF file?

You can use this publicly available file with a MIME type of application/pdf (view or download file). https://storage.googleapis.com/cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/pdf/2403.05530.pdf

Send PDF files (base64-encoded) & receive text

Make sure that you've completed the Before you begin section of this guide before trying this sample.

You can ask a Gemini model to generate text by prompting with text and PDFs—providing each input file's mimeType and the file itself. Find requirements and recommendations for input files later on this page.

Swift

You can call generateContent() to generate text from multimodal input of text and PDFs.

import FirebaseVertexAI

// Initialize the Vertex AI service
let vertex = VertexAI.vertexAI()

// Create a `GenerativeModel` instance with a model that supports your use case
let model = vertex.generativeModel(modelName: "gemini-2.0-flash")

// Provide the PDF as `Data` with the appropriate MIME type
let pdf = try InlineDataPart(data: Data(contentsOf: pdfURL), mimeType: "application/pdf")

// Provide a text prompt to include with the PDF file
let prompt = "Summarize the important results in this report."

// To generate text output, call `generateContent` with the PDF file and text prompt
let response = try await model.generateContent(pdf, prompt)

// Print the generated text, handling the case where it might be nil
print(response.text ?? "No text in response.")

Kotlin

You can call generateContent() to generate text from multimodal input of text and PDFs.

^{For Kotlin, the methods in this SDK are suspend functions and need to be called
from a Coroutine scope.}

// Initialize the Vertex AI service and create a `GenerativeModel` instance
// Specify a model that supports your use case
val generativeModel = Firebase.vertexAI.generativeModel("gemini-2.0-flash")

val contentResolver = applicationContext.contentResolver

// Provide the URI for the PDF file you want to send to the model
val inputStream = contentResolver.openInputStream(pdfUri)

if (inputStream != null) {  // Check if the PDF file loaded successfully
    inputStream.use { stream ->
        // Provide a prompt that includes the PDF file specified above and text
        val prompt = content {
            inlineData(
                bytes = stream.readBytes(),
                mimeType = "application/pdf" // Specify the appropriate PDF file MIME type
            )
            text("Summarize the important results in this report.")
        }

        // To generate text output, call `generateContent` with the prompt
        val response = generativeModel.generateContent(prompt)

        // Log the generated text, handling the case where it might be null
        Log.d(TAG, response.text ?: "")
    }
} else {
    Log.e(TAG, "Error getting input stream for file.")
    // Handle the error appropriately
}

Java

You can call generateContent() to generate text from multimodal input of text and PDFs.

^{For Java, the methods in this SDK return a
ListenableFuture.}

// Initialize the Vertex AI service and create a `GenerativeModel` instance
// Specify a model that supports your use case
GenerativeModel gm = FirebaseVertexAI.getInstance()
        .generativeModel("gemini-2.0-flash");
GenerativeModelFutures model = GenerativeModelFutures.from(gm);

ContentResolver resolver = getApplicationContext().getContentResolver();

// Provide the URI for the PDF file you want to send to the model
try (InputStream stream = resolver.openInputStream(pdfUri)) {
    if (stream != null) {
        byte[] audioBytes = stream.readAllBytes();
        stream.close();

        // Provide a prompt that includes the PDF file specified above and text
        Content prompt = new Content.Builder()
              .addInlineData(audioBytes, "application/pdf")  // Specify the appropriate PDF file MIME type
              .addText("Summarize the important results in this report.")
              .build();

        // To generate text output, call `generateContent` with the prompt
        ListenableFuture<GenerateContentResponse> response = model.generateContent(prompt);
        Futures.addCallback(response, new FutureCallback<GenerateContentResponse>() {
            @Override
            public void onSuccess(GenerateContentResponse result) {
                String text = result.getText();
                Log.d(TAG, (text == null) ? "" : text);
            }
            @Override
            public void onFailure(Throwable t) {
                Log.e(TAG, "Failed to generate a response", t);
            }
        }, executor);
    } else {
        Log.e(TAG, "Error getting input stream for file.");
        // Handle the error appropriately
    }
} catch (IOException e) {
    Log.e(TAG, "Failed to read the pdf file", e);
} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
    Log.e(TAG, "Invalid pdf file", e);
}

Web

You can call generateContent() to generate text from multimodal input of text and PDFs.

import { initializeApp } from "firebase/app";
import { getVertexAI, getGenerativeModel } from "firebase/vertexai";

// TODO(developer) Replace the following with your app's Firebase configuration
// See: https://firebase.google.com/docs/web/learn-more#config-object
const firebaseConfig = {
  // ...
};

// Initialize FirebaseApp
const firebaseApp = initializeApp(firebaseConfig);

// Initialize the Vertex AI service
const vertexAI = getVertexAI(firebaseApp);

// Create a `GenerativeModel` instance with a model that supports your use case
const model = getGenerativeModel(vertexAI, { model: "gemini-2.0-flash" });

// Converts a File object to a Part object.
async function fileToGenerativePart(file) {
  const base64EncodedDataPromise = new Promise((resolve) => {
    const reader = new FileReader();
    reader.onloadend = () => resolve(reader.result.split(','));
    reader.readAsDataURL(file);
  });
  return {
    inlineData: { data: await base64EncodedDataPromise, mimeType: file.type },
  };
}

async function run() {
  // Provide a text prompt to include with the PDF file
  const prompt = "Summarize the important results in this report.";

  // Prepare PDF file for input
  const fileInputEl = document.querySelector("input[type=file]");
  const pdfPart = await fileToGenerativePart(fileInputEl.files);

  // To generate text output, call `generateContent` with the text and PDF file
  const result = await model.generateContent([prompt, pdfPart]);

  // Log the generated text, handling the case where it might be undefined
  console.log(result.response.text() ?? "No text in response.");
}

run();

Dart

You can call generateContent() to generate text from multimodal input of text and PDFs.

import 'package:firebase_vertexai/firebase_vertexai.dart';
import 'package:firebase_core/firebase_core.dart';
import 'firebase_options.dart';

await Firebase.initializeApp(
  options: DefaultFirebaseOptions.currentPlatform,
);

// Initialize the Vertex AI service and create a `GenerativeModel` instance
// Specify a model that supports your use case
final model =
      FirebaseVertexAI.instance.generativeModel(model: 'gemini-2.0-flash');

// Provide a text prompt to include with the PDF file
final prompt = TextPart("Summarize the important results in this report.");

// Prepare the PDF file for input
final doc = await File('document0.pdf').readAsBytes();

// Provide the PDF file as `Data` with the appropriate PDF file MIME type
final docPart = InlineDataPart('application/pdf', doc);

// To generate text output, call `generateContent` with the text and PDF file
final response = await model.generateContent([
  Content.multi([prompt,docPart])
]);

// Print the generated text
print(response.text);

Learn how to choose a model and optionally a location appropriate for your use case and app.

Stream the response

Make sure that you've completed the Before you begin section of this guide before trying this sample.

You can achieve faster interactions by not waiting for the entire result from the model generation, and instead use streaming to handle partial results. To stream the response, call generateContentStream.