Canva Core Workflow A — Design Creation & Export

Overview

The primary Canva integration workflow: create designs via the REST API, let users edit them in Canva's editor, then export finished designs as PDF/PNG/JPG for downstream use (email campaigns, social posts, print orders).

Prerequisites

• Completed canva-install-auth setup with valid access token
• Scopes: design:content:write, design:content:read, design:meta:read

Instructions

Step 1: Create a Design

// POST https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs
// Rate limit: 20 req/min per user
// Scope: design:content:write

interface CreateDesignRequest {
  design_type:
    | { type: 'preset'; name: 'doc' | 'whiteboard' | 'presentation' }
    | { type: 'custom'; width: number; height: number }; // 40-8000 px
  title?: string;     // 1-255 characters
  asset_id?: string;  // Image asset to insert
}

// Create a social media post (custom dimensions)
const { design } = await canvaAPI('/designs', token, {
  method: 'POST',
  body: JSON.stringify({
    design_type: { type: 'custom', width: 1080, height: 1080 },
    title: 'Instagram Post — Q1 Campaign',
  }),
});

// design.id — unique identifier for all future operations
// design.urls.edit_url — redirect user here to edit (expires 30 days)
// design.urls.view_url — read-only link (expires 30 days)
// design.thumbnail.url — preview image (expires 15 minutes)

Note: Blank designs are auto-deleted after 7 days if never edited.

Step 2: Redirect User to Edit

// Redirect the user to Canva's editor
// The edit_url is user-specific and expires after 30 days
res.redirect(design.urls.edit_url);

Step 3: Get Design Metadata

// GET https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs/{designId}
// Rate limit: 100 req/min per user
// Scope: design:meta:read

const { design: meta } = await canvaAPI(`/designs/${designId}`, token);

console.log(`Title: ${meta.title}`);
console.log(`Pages: ${meta.page_count}`);
console.log(`Created: ${new Date(meta.created_at * 1000).toISOString()}`);
console.log(`Updated: ${new Date(meta.updated_at * 1000).toISOString()}`);
console.log(`Owner: user=${meta.owner.user_id}, team=${meta.owner.team_id}`);