Upload Request

Docspell Documentation

Uploads of files to docspell are always processed the same way, no matter if coming from a source, the integration endpoint or from the webapp.

The request must be a http multipart/form-data request, with two possible fields:

  • meta
  • file

The file field can appear multiple times and is required at least once. It is the part containing the file to upload.

The meta part is optional and can define additional meta data, that docspell applies to items created from the given files. It allows to transfer structured information together with the unstructured binary files.

This kind of request is very common and most programming languages have support for this.

For example, here is a curl command uploading two files with meta data. Since multiple is false, both files are added to one item:

curl -XPOST -F meta='{"multiple":false, "direction": "outgoing", "tags": {"items":["Order"]}}' \
            -F file=@letter-en.pdf \
            -F file=@letter-de.pdf \
            http://192.168.1.95:7880/api/v1/open/upload/item/3H7hvJcDJuk-NrAW4zxsdfj-K6TMPyb6BGP-xKptVxUdqWa

Metadata🔗

Each upload request can specify a set of metadata that should be applied to the item(s) that are created from this upload. This is specified via a JSON structure in a part with name meta:

{ multiple: Bool
, direction: Maybe String
, folder: Maybe String
, skipDuplicates: Maybe Bool
, tags: Maybe StringList
, fileFilter: Maybe String
, language: Maybe String
, attachmentsOnly: Maybe Bool
}

  • The multiple property is by default true. It means that each file in the upload request corresponds to a single item. An upload with 5 files will result in 5 items created. If it is false, then docspell will create just one item, that will then contain all files.

  • Furthermore, the direction of the document (one of incoming or outgoing) can be given. It is optional, it can be left out or null.

  • A folder id can be specified. Each item created by this request will be placed into this folder. Errors are logged (for example, the folder may have been deleted before the task is executed) and the item is then not put into any folder.

  • The skipDuplicates is optional and set to false if not specified. It configures the processing task. If set to true, the processing task will skip all input files that are already present in docspell.

  • The tags field can be used to provide tags that should be applied automatically. The StringList is a json object containing one field items that is a list of strings:

    { items: (List String)
}

    Tags can be defined using their ids or names.

  • Then a fileFilter field can be used to filter files from uploaded archives. Say you upload a zip file and want only to include certain files, you could give a file filter like *.pdf to only select pdf files or *.html|*.pdf for selecting html and pdf files. This only applies to archive files, like zip or e-mails (where this is applied to the attachments).

  • The language is used for processing the document(s) contained in the request. If not specified the collective's default language is used.

  • The attachmentsOnly property only applies to e-mail files (usually *.eml). If this is true, then the e-mail body is discarded and only the attachments are imported. An e-mail without any attachments is therefore skipped.

Endpoints🔗

Docspell needs to know the collective that owns the files. There are the following ways for this.

Authenticated User🔗

/api/v1/sec/upload/item

This endpoint exists for authenticated users. That is, you must provide a valid cookie or X-Docspell-Auth header with the request. You can obtain this from the login endpoint.

URL protected🔗

/api/v1/open/upload/item/5JE…-…-…-…oHri

A more flexible way for uploading files is to create a “Source” that creates a “hard-to-guess” url. A source can be created in the webapp (via http calls) and associates a random id to a collective. This id is then used in the url and docspell can use it to associate the collective when uploading.

When defining sources, you can also add metadata to it. These will be used as a fallback when inspecting the requests meta data part. Each metadata not defined in the request will be filled with the one from the corresponding source. Tags are applied from both inputs.

Integration Endpoint🔗

Another option for uploading files is the special integration endpoint. This endpoint allows an admin to upload files to any collective, that is known by name.

/api/v1/open/integration/item/[collective-name]

The endpoint is behind /api/v1/open, so this route is not protected by an authentication token (see REST Api for more information). However, it can be protected via settings in the configuration file. The idea is that this endpoint is controlled by an administrator and not the user of the application. The admin can enable this endpoint and choose between some methods to protect it. Then the administrator can upload files to any collective. This might be useful to connect other trusted applications to docspell (that run on the same host or network).

The endpoint is disabled by default, an admin must change the docspell.server.integration-endpoint.enabled flag to true in the configuration file.

If queried by a GET request, it returns whether it is enabled and the collective exists.

It is also possible to check for existing files using their sha256 checksum with:

/api/v1/open/integration/checkfile/[collective-name]/[sha256-checksum]

See the SMTP gateway or the dsc watch/upload command for example can use this endpoint.