8. Content Handling

In order to process documents and other files using a pipeline, you first need to load such a file into the pipeline. After loading, the file is automatically converted into a format called "content object". This is a wrapper around a document which provides all required information for such a document, like its name size, mime type etc., for easier processing inside the pipeline. The content object provides these attributes:

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Description
name	string	The name of the document.
created	long	The unix timestamp in millis when this document was created.
lastUpdated	long	The unix timetsmap in millis when this document was last modified.
mimeType	string	The mime type of this document. If null, it is assumed to be text/plain by default. See here for a list of official mime types: https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml
size	long	The size of the document in bytes or -1 in case the size cannot be determined.
data	object	The data of the document. Which format the data has depends on its mime type. For example, if mime type is application/json, then the data object returns a JSON document.

Here is an example to load a file from the drive service into the body scope and then access its attributes of the content object from there:

pipeline:
  # Load document from drive and set it as content object in the body
  - drive.read:
      path: "invoice.pdf"
  # Access the attributes of the content object in the body
  - log:
      message: "Name: #{body.name}, Size: #{body.size}" 

Collection

In case multiple documents are loaded into a pipeline, such documents are grouped together in a so called content object collection. Such a collection has a similar meaning like a folder has in a local file system.

Attribute	Type	Description
parent	ContentCollection	Returns the parent collection if this is a nested collection, or null in case this is the root collection.
path	string	Returns the path to this collection, whereas / is returned in case it is the root collection. Example: /rootCol/subCol.
children	ContentObject	Returns a list of all content objects which are contained in the collection. This can not only be a document, but also another content collection in case they are nested.

A Content Collection is also a Content Object and therefore it also has all attributes of the Content Object.

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