docspell/modules/microsite/docs/doc/tools.md

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docs	Tools

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The tools/ folder contains some scripts and other resources intented for integrating docspell.

consumedir

The consumerdir.sh is a bash script that works in two modes:

• Go through all files in given directories (non recursively) and sent each to docspell.
• Watch one or more directories for new files and upload them to docspell.

It can watch or go through one or more directories. Files can be uploaded to multiple urls.

Run the script with the -h option, to see a short help text. The help text will also show the values for any given option.

The script requires curl for uploading. It requires the inotifywait command if directories should be watched for new files. If the -m option is used, the script will skip duplicate files. For this the sha256sum command is required.

Example for watching two directories:

./tools/consumedir.sh --path ~/Downloads --path ~/pdfs -m /var/run/consumedir -dv http://localhost:7880/api/v1/open/upload/item/5DxhjkvWf9S-CkWqF3Kr892-WgoCspFWDo7-XBykwCyAUxQ

The script by default watches the given directories. If the -o option is used, it will instead go through these directories and upload all pdf files in there.

Example for uploading all immediatly (the same as above only with -o added):

./tools/consumedir.sh -o --path ~/Downloads --path ~/pdfs/ -m /var/run/consumedir -dv http://localhost:7880/api/v1/open/upload/item/5DxhjkvWf9S-CkWqF3Kr892-WgoCspFWDo7-XBykwCyAUxQ

Systemd

The script can be used with systemd to run as a service. This is an example unit file:

[Unit]
After=networking.target
Description=Docspell Consumedir

[Service]
Environment="PATH=/set/a/path"

ExecStartPre=mkdir -p /var/run/consumedir && chown -R someuser /var/run/consumedir
ExecStart=/bin/su -s /bin/bash someuser -c "consumedir.sh --path '/a/path/' -m '/var/run/consumedir' 'http://localhost:7880/api/v1/open/upload/item/5DxhjkvWf9S-CkWqF3Kr892-WgoCspFWDo7-XBykwCyAUxQ'"

This unit file is just an example, it needs some fiddling. It assumes an existing user someuser that is used to run this service. The url http://localhost:7880/api/v1/open/upload/... is an anonymous upload url as described here.

ds.sh

A bash script to quickly upload files from the command line. It reads a configuration file containing the URLs to upload to. Then each file given to the script will be uploaded to al URLs in the config.

The config file is expected in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/docspell/ds.conf. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to ~/.config.

The config file contains lines with key-value pairs, separated by an = sign. Lines starting with # are ignored. Example:

# Config file
url.1 = http://localhost:7880/api/v1/open/upload/item/5DxhjkvWf9S-CkWqF3Kr892-WgoCspFWDo7-XBykwCyAUxQ
url.2 = http://localhost:7880/api/v1/open/upload/item/6DxhjkvWf9S-CkWqF3Kr892-WgoCspFWDo7-XBykwCyAUxQ

The key must start with url.

Usage

The -h option shows a help overview.

The script takes a list of files as arguments. It checks the file types and will raise an error (and quit) if a file is included that is not a PDF. The -s option can be used to skip them instead.

The -c option allows to specifiy a different config file.

Example:

./ds.sh ~/Downloads/*.pdf

Webextension for Docspell

Idea: Inside the browser click on a PDF and send it to docspell. It is downloaded in the context of your current page. Then handed to an application that pushes it to docspell. There is a browser add-on implementing this in tools/webextension. This add-on only works with firefox.

Install

This is a bit complicated, since you need to install external tools and the web extension. Both work together.

Install ds.sh

First install the ds.sh tool somewhere, maybe /usr/local/bin as described above.

Install the native part

Then install the "native" part of the web extension:

Copy or symlink the native.py script into some known location. For example:

ln -s ~/docspell-checkout/tools/webextension/native/native.py /usr/local/share/docspell/native.py

Then copy the app_manifest.json to $HOME/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/docspell.json. For example:

cp ~/docspell-checkout/tools/webextension/native/app_manifest.json  ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts/docspell.json

See here for details.

And you might want to modify this json file, so the path to the native.py script is correct (it must be absolute).

If the ds.sh script is in your $PATH, then this should work. Otherwise, edit the native.py script and change the path to the tool. Or create a file $HOME/.config/docspell/ds.cmd whose content is the path to the ds.sh script.

Install the extension

An extension file can be build using the make-xpi.sh script. But installing it in "standard" firefox won't work, because Mozilla requires extensions to be signed by them. This means creating an account and going through some process…. So here are two alternatives:

1. Open firefox and type about:debugging in the addressbar. Then click on 'Load Temporary Add-on...' and select the manifest.json file. The extension is now installed. The downside is, that the extension will be removed once firefox is closed.
2. Use Firefox ESR, which allows to install Add-ons not signed by Mozilla. But it has to be configured: Open firefox and type about:config in the address bar. Search for key xpinstall.signatures.required and set it to false. This is described on the last paragraph on this page.

When you right click on a file link, there should be a context menu entry 'Docspell Upload Helper'. The add-on will download this file using the browser and then send the file path to the native.py script. This script will in turn call ds.sh which finally uploads it to your configured URLs.

Open the Add-ons page (Ctrl+Shift+A), the new add-on should be there.