Mass PDF document export

Help Center Get Answers
1

Hello everyone!

I am wondering if it would be possible to download all PDF files within a database?

We currently run a database that has hundreds of PDF files with in the database, rather than downloading each PDF file, line by line, is there a way to mass download all PDF files within a database?

Thanks in advance Knackers!

2

I made smth simillar but not downloading the files. Upload them in google drive. I use make to do it. Or you can write a js function to download them instantly from your browser.
If you need further explanation let me know.

3

I agree with @Andreas

I would use Make to download the PDF files from Knack and upload them into a web folder on another platform such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Box etc.

To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a way of bulk downloading the PDF files to your local device.

If you’ve not used Make before the process for accomplishing this is beyond a forum post explanation., in my opinion :laughing:

If you’re comfortable with Make then you’ll need to use a Knack search module to find the PDF records then download the files with an HTTP module using the PDF URL. You will then be able to upload the files to a folder in Google Drive / Dropbox

If you have the Google Drive/ Dropbox folders synced to your local device then they will theoretically be available on your PC as well as in the cloud.

4

If this is something you just need to do as a one-off, you can easily download all of the files associated with an object using this python code in a Google Colab file. You’ll need to update the variables in the “set variables” section and you’ll need a folder in your Google Drive called “Downloads” for the downloaded file to land in at the end. (You can change that by changing the last line.)

#set variables
outdir =  'SomeFolderForStoringTheFiles' #this is where you want to download to
myObject = 'your knack object e.g. object_10' #this is the object that stores the files
myField = 'your field in the above object that stores the files e.g. field_79' #this is the field that stores the files
myAppID = 'your application id from your knack app'
myAppKey = 'your application key from your knack app'

#install knackpy
!pip install knackpy
import knackpy

#import google drive connector
from google.colab import drive

#mount the google drive
drive.mount('/content/drive')


#generate your application
app = knackpy.App(app_id=myAppID , api_key=myAppKey)

#download the files locally to colab
app.download(
    container=myObject,
     field=myField, 
     out_dir=outdir,
     label_keys=["id"]
 )

#also generate a spreadsheet for connecting photos to descriptions
app.to_csv(myObject, out_dir=outdir)

#move all of the content from Colab to Google Drive
mvdir = '/content/' + outdir
!mv $mvdir "/content/drive/MyDrive/Downloads"
3 Likes