Develop Reference

Get PDF attachments using Python

I admit that I am new to Python.
We have to process PDF files with attachments or annotated attachments. I am trying to extract attachments from a PDF file using PyPDF2 library.
The only (!) example found on GitHub contains the following code:
import PyPDF2
def getAttachments(reader):
catalog = reader.trailer["/Root"]
# VK
print (catalog)
#
fileNames = catalog['/Names']['/EmbeddedFiles']['/Names']
And the call is:
rootdir = "C:/Users/***.pdf" # My file path
handler = open(rootdir, 'rb')
reader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(handler)
dictionary = getAttachments(reader)
I am getting a KeyError: '/EmbeddedFiles'
A print of the catalog indeed does not contain EmbeddedFiles:
{'/Extensions': {'/ADBE': {'/BaseVersion': '/1.7', '/ExtensionLevel': 3}}, '/Metadata': IndirectObject(2, 0), '/Names': IndirectObject(5, 0), '/OpenAction': IndirectObject(6, 0), '/PageLayout': '/OneColumn', '/Pages': IndirectObject(3, 0), '/PieceInfo': IndirectObject(7, 0), '/Type': '/Catalog'}
This particular PDF contains 9 attachments. How can I get them?

Too Long for comments, and I have not tested personally this code, which looks very similar to your outline in the question, however I am adding here for others to test. It is the subject of a Pull Request https://github.com/mstamy2/PyPDF2/pull/440 and here is the full updated sequence as described by Kevin M Loeffler in https://kevinmloeffler.com/2018/07/08/how-to-extract-pdf-file-attachments-using-python-and-pypdf2/
Viewable at https://gist.github.com/kevinl95/29a9e18d474eb6e23372074deff2df38#file-extract_pdf_attachments-py
Download as
https://gist.github.com/kevinl95/29a9e18d474eb6e23372074deff2df38/raw/acdc194058f9fa2c4d2619a4c623d0efeec32555/extract_pdf_attachments.py
It always helps if you can provide an example input of the type you have problems with so that others can adapt the extraction routine to suit.
In response to getting an error
"I’m guessing the script is breaking because the embedded files section of the PDF doesn’t always exist so trying to access it throws an error."
"Something I would try is to put everything after the ‘catalog’ line in the get_attachments method in a try-catch."
Unfortunately there are many pending pull requests not included into PyPDF2 https://github.com/mstamy2/PyPDF2/pulls and others may also be relevant or needed to aid with this and other shortcomings. Thus you need to see if any of those may also help.
For one pending example of a try catch that you might be able to include / and adapt for other use cases see https://github.com/mstamy2/PyPDF2/pull/551/commits/9d52ef517319b538f007669631ba6b778f8ec3a3
Associated keywords for imbedded files apart from /Type/EmbeddedFiles include /Type /Filespec & /Subtype /FileAttachment note the pairs may not always have spaces so perhaps see if those can be interrogated for the attachments
Again on that last point the example searches for /EmbeddedFiles as indexed in the plural whilst any individual entry itself is identified as singular

This can be improved but it was tested to work (using PyMuPDF).
It detects corrupted PDF files, encryption, attachments, annotations and portfolios.
I am yet to compare the output with our internal classification.
Produces a semicolon separated file that can be imported into Excel.
import fitz # = PyMuPDF
import os
outfile = open("C:/Users/me/Downloads/testPDF3.txt", "w", encoding="utf-8")
folder = "C:/Users/me/Downloads"
print ("filepath;","encrypted;","pages;", "embedded;","attachments;","annotations;","portfolio", file = outfile)
enc=pages=count=names=annots=collection=''
for subdir, dirs, files in os.walk(folder):
for file in files:
#print (os.path.join(subdir, file))
filepath = subdir + os.sep + file
if filepath.endswith(".pdf"):
#print (filepath, file = outfile)
try:
doc = fitz.open(filepath)
enc = doc.is_encrypted
#print("Encrypted? ", enc, file = outfile)
pages = doc.page_count
#print("Number of pages: ", pages, file = outfile)
count = doc.embfile_count()
#print("Number of embedded files:", count, file = outfile) # shows number of embedded files
names = doc.embfile_names()
#print("Embedded files:", str(names), file = outfile)
#if count > 0:
# for emb in names:
# print(doc.embfile_info(emb), file = outfile)
annots = doc.has_annots()
#print("Has annots?", annots, file = outfile)
links = doc.has_links()
#print("Has links?", links, file = outfile)
trailer = doc.pdf_trailer()
#print("Trailer: ", trailer, file = outfile)
xreflen = doc.xref_length() # length of objects table
for xref in range(1, xreflen): # skip item 0!
#print("", file = outfile)
#print("object %i (stream: %s)" % (xref, doc.is_stream(xref)), file = outfile)
#print(doc.xref_object(i, compressed=False), file = outfile)
if "Collection" in doc.xref_object(xref, compressed=False):
#print ("Portfolio", file = outfile)
collection ='True'
break
else: collection="False"
#print(doc.xref_object(xref, compressed=False), file = outfile)
except:
#print ("Not a valid PDF", file = outfile)
enc=pages=count=names=annots=collection="Not a valid PDF"
print(filepath,";", enc,";",pages, ";",count, ";",names, ";",annots, ";",collection, file = outfile )
outfile.close()

I was also running into the same problem with several pdfs that I have. I was able to make these changes to the referenced code that got it to work for me:
import PyPDF2
def getAttachments(reader):
"""
Retrieves the file attachments of the PDF as a dictionary of file names
and the file data as a bytestring.
:return: dictionary of filenames and bytestrings
"""
attachments = {}
#First, get those that are pdf attachments
catalog = reader.trailer["/Root"]
if "/EmbeddedFiles" in catalog["/Names"]:
fileNames = catalog['/Names']['/EmbeddedFiles']['/Names']
for f in fileNames:
if isinstance(f, str):
name = f
dataIndex = fileNames.index(f) + 1
fDict = fileNames[dataIndex].getObject()
fData = fDict['/EF']['/F'].getData()
attachments[name] = fData
#Next, go through all pages and all annotations to those pages
#to find any attached files
for pagenum in range(0, reader.getNumPages()):
page_object = reader.getPage(pagenum)
if "/Annots" in page_object:
for annot in page_object['/Annots']:
annotobj = annot.getObject()
if annotobj['/Subtype'] == '/FileAttachment':
fileobj = annotobj["/FS"]
attachments[fileobj["/F"]] = fileobj["/EF"]["/F"].getData()
return attachments
handler = open(filename, 'rb')
reader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(handler)
dictionary = getAttachments(reader)
for fName, fData in dictionary.items():
with open(fName, 'wb') as outfile:
outfile.write(fData)

I know it is a late reply, but i only started looking into this yesterday. I have used the PyMuPdf library to extract the embedded files. here is my code:
import os
import fitz
def get_embedded_pdfs(input_pdf_path, output_path=None):
input_path = "/".join(input_pdf_path.split('/')[:-1])
if not output_path :
output_path = input_pdf_path.split(".")[0] + "_embeded_files/"
if output_path not in os.listdir(input_path):
os.mkdir(output_path)
doc = fitz.open(input_pdf_path)
item_name_dict = {}
for each_item in doc.embfile_names():
item_name_dict[each_item] = doc.embfile_info(each_item)["filename"]
for item_name, file_name in item_name_dict.items():
out_pdf = output_path + file_name
## get embeded_file in bytes
fData = doc.embeddedFileGet(item_name)
## save embeded file
with open(out_pdf, 'wb') as outfile:
outfile.write(fData)

disclaimer: I am the author of borb (the library used in this answer)
borb is an open-source, pure Python PDF library. It abstracts away most of the unpleasantness of dealing with PDF (such as having to deal with dictionaries and having to know PDF-syntax and structure).
There is a huge repository of examples, containing a section on dealing with embedded files, which you can find here.
I'll repeat the relevant example here for completeness:
import typing
from borb.pdf.document.document import Document
from borb.pdf.pdf import PDF
def main():
# read the Document
doc: typing.Optional[Document] = None
with open("output.pdf", "rb") as pdf_file_handle:
doc = PDF.loads(pdf_file_handle)
# check whether we have read a Document
assert doc is not None
# retrieve all embedded files and their bytes
for k, v in doc.get_embedded_files().items():
# display the file name, and the size
print("%s, %d bytes" % (k, len(v)))
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
After the Document has been read, you can simply ask it for a dict mapping the filenames unto the bytes.

Unable to download all documents from eml file

I have a .eml file with 3 attachments in it. I was able to download one of the attachment but unable to download all the attachments.
import os
import email
import base64
# Get list of all files
files = [f for f in os.listdir('.') if os.path.isfile(f)]
# Create output directory
if os.path.exists("output"):
pass
else:
os.makedirs("output")
for eml_file in files:
if eml_file.endswith(".eml"):
with open(eml_file) as f:
email = f.read()
ext=".docx"
if ext is not "":
# Extract the base64 encoding part of the eml file
encoding = email.split(ext+'"')[-1]
if encoding:
# Remove all whitespaces
encoding = "".join(encoding.strip().split())
encoding = encoding.split("=", 1)[0]
# Convert base64 to string
if len(encoding) % 4 != 0: #check if multiple of 4
while len(encoding) % 4 != 0:
encoding = encoding + "="
try:
decoded = base64.b64decode(encoding)
except:
print(encoding)
for i in range(100):
print('\n')
# Save it as docx
path = os.path.splitext(eml_file)[0]
if path:
path = os.path.join("output", path + ext)
try:
os.remove(path)
except OSError:
pass
with open(path, "wb") as f:
f.write(decoded)
else:
print("File not done: " + eml_file)
How can I download all the attachments?
edit: I have initialized the eml_file still not downloading all files.

You import the email module. So why do you ignore it and try to write an email parser yourself? In addition:
You can use glob to list all files with a given extension.
Use should have used not operator in the condition: (if not os.path.exists("output"): os.makedirs("output")), but even this is not necessary, because makedirs has exist_ok parameter.
import os
import glob
import email
from email import policy
indir = '.'
outdir = os.path.join(indir, 'output')
os.makedirs(outdir, exist_ok=True)
files = glob.glob(os.path.join(indir, '*.eml'))
for eml_file in files:
# This will not work in Python 2
msg = email.message_from_file(open(eml_file), policy=policy.default)
for att in msg.iter_attachments():
# Tabs may be added for indentation and not stripped automatically
filename = att.get_filename().replace('\t', '')
# Here we suppose for simplicity sake that each attachment has a valid unique filename,
# which, generally speaking, is not true.
with open(os.path.join(outdir, filename), 'wb') as f:
f.write(att.get_content())

How do I apply my python code to all of the files in a folder at once, and how do I create a new name for each subsequent output file?

The code I am working with takes in a .pdf file, and outputs a .txt file. My question is, how do I create a loop (probably a for loop) which runs the code over and over again on all files in a folder which end in ".pdf"? Furthermore, how do I change the output each time the loop runs so that I can write a new file each time, that has the same name as the input file (ie. 1_pet.pdf > 1_pet.txt, 2_pet.pdf > 2_pet.txt, etc.)
Here is the code so far:
path="2_pet.pdf"
content = getPDFContent(path)
encoded = content.encode("utf-8")
text_file = open("Output.txt", "w")
text_file.write(encoded)
text_file.close()

The following script solve your problem:
import os
sourcedir = 'pdfdir'
dl = os.listdir('pdfdir')
for f in dl:
fs = f.split(".")
if fs[1] == "pdf":
path_in = os.path.join(dl,f)
content = getPDFContent(path_in)
encoded = content.encode("utf-8")
path_out = os.path.join(dl,fs[0] + ".txt")
text_file = open(path_out, 'w')
text_file.write(encoded)
text_file.close()

Create a function that encapsulates what you want to do to each file.
import os.path
def parse_pdf(filename):
"Parse a pdf into text"
content = getPDFContent(filename)
encoded = content.encode("utf-8")
## split of the pdf extension to add .txt instead.
(root, _) = os.path.splitext(filename)
text_file = open(root + ".txt", "w")
text_file.write(encoded)
text_file.close()
Then apply this function to a list of filenames, like so:
for f in files:
parse_pdf(f)

One way to operate on all PDF files in a directory is to invoke glob.glob() and iterate over the results:
import glob
for path in glob.glob('*.pdf')
content = getPDFContent(path)
encoded = content.encode("utf-8")
text_file = open("Output.txt", "w")
text_file.write(encoded)
text_file.close()
Another way is to allow the user to specify the files:
import sys
for path in sys.argv[1:]:
...
Then the user runs your script like python foo.py *.pdf.

You could use a recursive function to search the folders and all subfolders for files that end with pdf. Than take those files and then create a text file for it.
It could be something like:
import os
def convert_PDF(path, func):
d = os.path.basename(path)
if os.path.isdir(path):
[convert_PDF(os.path.join(path,x), func) for x in os.listdir(path)]
elif d[-4:] == '.pdf':
funct(path)
# based entirely on your example code
def convert_to_txt(path):
content = getPDFContent(path)
encoded = content.encode("utf-8")
file_path = os.path.dirname(path)
# replace pdf with txt extension
file_name = os.path.basename(path)[:-4]+'.txt'
text_file = open(file_path +'/'+file_name, "w")
text_file.write(encoded)
text_file.close()
convert_PDF('path/to/files', convert_to_txt)
Because the actual operation is changeable, you can replace the function with whatever operation you need to perform (like using a different library, converting to a different type, etc.)

renaming a list of pdf files with for loop

i am trying to rename a list of pdf files by extracting the name from the file using PyPdf. i tried to use a for loop to rename the files but i always get an error with code 32 saying that the file is being used by another process. I am using python2.7
Here's my code
import os, glob
from pyPdf import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader
# this function extracts the name of the file
def getName(filepath):
output = PdfFileWriter()
input = PdfFileReader(file(filepath, "rb"))
output.addPage(input.getPage(0))
outputStream = file(filepath + '.txt', 'w')
output.write(outputStream)
outputStream.close()
outText = open(filepath + '.txt', 'rb')
textString = outText.read()
outText.close()
nameStart = textString.find('default">')
nameEnd = textString.find('_SATB', nameStart)
nameEnd2 = textString.find('</rdf:li>', nameStart)
if nameStart:
testName = textString[nameStart+9:nameEnd]
if len(testName) <= 100:
name = testName + '.pdf'
else:
name = textString[nameStart+9:nameEnd2] + '.pdf'
return name
pdfFiles = glob.glob('*.pdf')
m = len(pdfFiles)
for each in pdfFiles:
newName = getName(each)
os.rename(each, newName)

Consider using the with directive of Python. With it you do not need to handle closing the file yourself:
def getName(filepath):
output = PdfFileWriter()
with file(filepath, "rb") as pdfFile:
input = PdfFileReader(pdfFile)
...

You're not closing the input stream (the file) used by the pdf reader.
Thus, when you try to rename the file, it's still open.
So, instead of this:
input = PdfFileReader(file(filepath, "rb"))
Try this:
inputStream = file(filepath, "rb")
input = PdfFileReader(inputStream)
(... when done with this file...)
inputStream.close()

It does not look like you close the file object associated with the PDF reader object. Though maybe at tne end of the function it is closed automatically, but to be sure you might want to create a separate file object which you pass to the PdfFileReader and then close the file handle when done. Then rename.
The below was from SO: How to close pyPDF "PdfFileReader" Class file handle
import os.path
from pyPdf import PdfFileReader
fname = 'my.pdf'
fh = file(fname, "rb")
input = PdfFileReader(fh)
fh.close()
os.rename(fname, 'my_renamed.pdf')

python tarred folder stream

Is there a way to tarred a folder and get a tarred stream instead of a tarred file?
I have tried to use tar module but it directly return the tarred file.
with tarfile.open("zipped.tar",'w|') as tar:
for base_root, subFolders, files in os.walk('test'):
for j in files:
filepath = os.path.join(base_root,j)
if os.path.isfile(filepath):
with open(filepath, 'rb') as file:
size = os.stat(filepath).st_size
info = tarfile.TarInfo()
info.size = size
info.name = filepath
if(size <= chunck_size):
data = file.read(info.size)
fobj = StringIO.StringIO(data)
tar.addfile(info, fobj)
else:
data = ""
while True:
temp_data = file.read(chunck_size)
if temp_data == '':
break
data = data + temp_data
fobj = StringIO.StringIO(data)
tar.addfile(info, fobj)

According to the documentation, open can take a fileobj argument :
If fileobj is specified, it is used as an alternative to a file object opened in binary mode for name. It is supposed to be at position 0.
So you can write this, then use the buffer object.
import io
buffer = io.BytesIO()
with tarfile.open("zipped.tar",'w|', fileobj=buffer) as tar: