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231 lines
8.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
231 lines
8.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _consumption:
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Consumption
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###########
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Once you've got Paperless setup, you need to start feeding documents into it.
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Currently, there are three options: the consumption directory, IMAP (email), and
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HTTP POST.
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.. _consumption-directory:
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The Consumption Directory
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=========================
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The primary method of getting documents into your database is by putting them in
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the consumption directory. The ``document_consumer`` script runs in an infinite
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loop looking for new additions to this directory and when it finds them, it goes
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about the process of parsing them with the OCR, indexing what it finds, and
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encrypting the PDF (if ``PAPERLESS_PASSPHRASE`` is set), storing it in the
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media directory.
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Getting stuff into this directory is up to you. If you're running Paperless
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on your local computer, you might just want to drag and drop files there, but if
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you're running this on a server and want your scanner to automatically push
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files to this directory, you'll need to setup some sort of service to accept the
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files from the scanner. Typically, you're looking at an FTP server like
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`Proftpd`_ or `Samba`_.
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.. _Proftpd: http://www.proftpd.org/
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.. _Samba: http://www.samba.org/
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So where is this consumption directory? It's wherever you define it. Look for
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the ``CONSUMPTION_DIR`` value in ``settings.py``. Set that to somewhere
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appropriate for your use and put some documents in there. When you're ready,
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follow the :ref:`consumer <utilities-consumer>` instructions to get it running.
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.. _consumption-directory-hook:
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Hooking into the Consumption Process
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------------------------------------
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Sometimes you may want to do something arbitrary whenever a document is
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consumed. Rather than try to predict what you may want to do, Paperless lets
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you execute scripts of your own choosing just before or after a document is
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consumed using a couple simple hooks.
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Just write a script, put it somewhere that Paperless can read & execute, and
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then put the path to that script in ``paperless.conf`` with the variable name
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of either ``PAPERLESS_PRE_CONSUME_SCRIPT`` or
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``PAPERLESS_POST_CONSUME_SCRIPT``. The script will be executed before or
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or after the document is consumed respectively.
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.. important::
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These scripts are executed in a **blocking** process, which means that if
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a script takes a long time to run, it can significantly slow down your
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document consumption flow. If you want things to run asynchronously,
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you'll have to fork the process in your script and exit.
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.. _consumption-directory-hook-variables:
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What Can These Scripts Do?
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..........................
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It's your script, so you're only limited by your imagination and the laws of
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physics. However, the following values are passed to the scripts in order:
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.. _consumption-director-hook-variables-pre:
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Pre-consumption script
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::::::::::::::::::::::
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* Document file name
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.. _consumption-director-hook-variables-post:
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Post-consumption script
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:::::::::::::::::::::::
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* Document id
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* Generated file name
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* Source path
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* Thumbnail path
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* Download URL
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* Thumbnail URL
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* Correspondent
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* Tags
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The script can be in any language you like, but for a simple shell script
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example, you can take a look at ``post-consumption-example.sh`` in the
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``scripts`` directory in this project.
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.. _consumption-imap:
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IMAP (Email)
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============
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Another handy way to get documents into your database is to email them to
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yourself. The typical use-case would be to be out for lunch and want to send a
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copy of the receipt back to your system at home. Paperless can be taught to
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pull emails down from an arbitrary account and dump them into the consumption
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directory where the process :ref:`above <consumption-directory>` will follow the
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usual pattern on consuming the document.
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Some things you need to know about this feature:
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* It's disabled by default. By setting the values below it will be enabled.
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* It's been tested in a limited environment, so it may not work for you (please
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submit a pull request if you can!)
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* It's designed to **delete mail from the server once consumed**. So don't go
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pointing this to your personal email account and wonder where all your stuff
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went.
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* Currently, only one photo (attachment) per email will work.
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So, with all that in mind, here's what you do to get it running:
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1. Setup a new email account somewhere, or if you're feeling daring, create a
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folder in an existing email box and note the path to that folder.
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2. In ``/etc/paperless.conf`` set all of the appropriate values in
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``PATHS AND FOLDERS`` and ``SECURITY``.
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If you decided to use a subfolder of an existing account, then make sure you
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set ``PAPERLESS_CONSUME_MAIL_INBOX`` accordingly here. You also have to set
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the ``PAPERLESS_EMAIL_SECRET`` to something you can remember 'cause you'll
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have to include that in every email you send.
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3. Restart the :ref:`consumer <utilities-consumer>`. The consumer will check
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the configured email account at startup and from then on every 10 minutes
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for something new and pulls down whatever it finds.
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4. Send yourself an email! Note that the subject is treated as the file name,
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so if you set the subject to ``Correspondent - Title - tag,tag,tag``, you'll
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get what you expect. Also, you must include the aforementioned secret
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string in every email so the fetcher knows that it's safe to import.
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Note that Paperless only allows the email title to consist of safe characters
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to be imported. These consist of alpha-numeric characters and ``-_ ,.'``.
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5. After a few minutes, the consumer will poll your mailbox, pull down the
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message, and place the attachment in the consumption directory with the
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appropriate name. A few minutes later, the consumer will import it like any
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other file.
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.. _consumption-http:
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HTTP POST
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=========
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You can also submit a document via HTTP POST, so long as you do so after
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authenticating. To push your document to Paperless, send an HTTP POST to the
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server with the following name/value pairs:
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* ``correspondent``: The name of the document's correspondent. Note that there
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are restrictions on what characters you can use here. Specifically,
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alphanumeric characters, `-`, `,`, `.`, and `'` are ok, everything else is
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out. You also can't use the sequence ` - ` (space, dash, space).
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* ``title``: The title of the document. The rules for characters is the same
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here as the correspondent.
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* ``document``: The file you're uploading
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Specify ``enctype="multipart/form-data"``, and then POST your file with::
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Content-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="whatever.pdf"
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An example of this in HTML is a typical form:
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.. code:: html
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<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
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<input type="text" name="correspondent" value="My Correspondent" />
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<input type="text" name="title" value="My Title" />
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<input type="file" name="document" />
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<input type="submit" name="go" value="Do the thing" />
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</form>
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But a potentially more useful way to do this would be in Python. Here we use
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the requests library to handle basic authentication and to send the POST data
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to the URL.
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.. code:: python
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import os
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from hashlib import sha256
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import requests
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from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth
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# You authenticate via BasicAuth or with a session id.
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# We use BasicAuth here
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username = "my-username"
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password = "my-super-secret-password"
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# Where you have Paperless installed and listening
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url = "http://localhost:8000/push"
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# Document metadata
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correspondent = "Test Correspondent"
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title = "Test Title"
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# The local file you want to push
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path = "/path/to/some/directory/my-document.pdf"
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with open(path, "rb") as f:
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response = requests.post(
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url=url,
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data={"title": title, "correspondent": correspondent},
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files={"document": (os.path.basename(path), f, "application/pdf")},
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auth=HTTPBasicAuth(username, password),
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allow_redirects=False
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)
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if response.status_code == 202:
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# Everything worked out ok
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print("Upload successful")
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else:
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# If you don't get a 202, it's probably because your credentials
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# are wrong or something. This will give you a rough idea of what
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# happened.
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print("We got HTTP status code: {}".format(response.status_code))
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for k, v in response.headers.items():
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print("{}: {}".format(k, v))
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