pypolona

PyPolona is a free and open-source GUI (graphical) app that allows you to search in and download images from the Polona.pl digital library. It also works as a ppolona CLI (command-line) tool. And it’s a Python package available from PyPI. The source is on Github.

Polona.pl provides digitized books, magazines, graphics, maps, music, fliers and manuscripts from collections of the National Library of Poland and co-operating institutions.

With PyPolona, you can:

• search Polona
• print or save the search results as a list of URLs, a YAML file, a JSON file and a simple list of Polona document IDs
• download all or some high-resolution images from Polona for the search results, or for a provided list of Polona document IDs

The PyPolona GUI version is made from the command-line version, and uses the same settings as the ppolona tool.

Install standalone PyPolona app

Download DMG for macOS

On macOS, double-click the downloaded DMG, drag the icon to the /Applications folder. Then Ctrl+click the icon and choose Open, then click Open to open the GUI. Later, you can just double-click the icon. If the app does not run, double-click again.

Download ZIP for Windows

On Windows, unzip the downloaded ZIP, double-click the setup_pypolona.exe icon to install the app. You need 64-bit Windows.

Install pypolona Python package on macOS or Windows

If you have Python 3.8+, you can install the Python version with python3 -m pip install pypolona.

Using the graphical PyPolona app (GUI)

• If you installed the standalone app on macOS, Ctrl-click /Applications/PyPolona.app and choose Open, then choose Open. You can just double-click the next time to run it.
• If you installed the standalone app on Windows, run PyPolona from your start menu.
• If you installed the Python version, run ppolona or python3 -m pypolona

Input tab

In the Input tab:

In query, you can paste one or more URLs from Polona.pl (space-separated)

Turn on download to download the images from the queried result, go to the Download options tab to customize the download location and set a max limit

In Choose One you can change what the query field means:

• search: choose this and in the query field, enter a simple search query like adam mickiewicz; go to the Search options tab to customize
• advanced: you can use the advanced query syntax, see documentation; go to the Search options tab to customize
• ids: Polona uses IDs for documents, you can just paste a list of space-separated IDs if you already know them

Search options tab

In language, you can enter a space-separated list of languages like Polona uses them, e.g. polski niemiecki angielski. Use the sidebar on the Polona website to find them.

In sort, you can sort the results by score, date, title or creator, in ascending or descending order.

In format, you can choose a format in which search results will be output. If you choose ids, you click Restart and then paste them back into the query field.

In save results, you can optionally save the search results into the file.

Download options tab

In download to folder, you can choose into which folder the app will download the images. By default it uses the polona subfolder on your desktop. When you start the download, the app will create subfolders inside, one per document. The folder names start with the publication year, then part of the title, then the ID.

Turn on overwrite, and the app will re-download previously downloaded documents. If off, it will skip them.

In number of pages, you can limit the maximum number of pages that the app downloads for each document. This is useful for test downloads, since some documents may have hundreds or pages.

Buttons

• Click Start to start the search or download.
• Click Cancel to close the app.
• If you’ve started and the search or download has finished, you can:
  • click Restart to start the search or download with the same settings
  • click Edit to go back to change the settings, so you can start another search or download.
• If the download is running, you can click Stop to interrupt it.

Using the CLI

Note: the CLI is ppolona, not pypolona

• If you installed the standalone DMG on macOS, use the CLI via /Applications/PyPolona.app/Contents/MacOS/ppolona -h
• If you installed the Python version, run ppolona -h or python3 -m pypolona -h
• Command-line options:

usage: ppolona [-h] [-D] [-S | -A | -I] [-l [language [language ...]]]
               [-s {score desc,date desc,date asc,title asc,creator asc}] [-f {ids,urls,yaml,json}] [-o save results]
               [-d download to folder] [-O] [-M number of pages]
               query [query ...]

Search in and download from Polona.pl. GUI: ppolona, CLI: ppolona -h

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Input:
  query                 query is a Polona.pl URL unless you choose search, advanced or ids
  -D, --download        Download images from results. See Download options
  -S, --search          Query is search query. See Search options
  -A, --advanced        Query is advanced search query. field:value OR field:value AND (field:value OR field:value). Allowed
                        fields are: title, author, keywords, publication_place, publisher, frequency, sources, call_number,
                        entire_description, content
  -I, --ids             Query is space-separated IDs

Search options:
  -l [language [language ...]], --lang [language [language ...]]
                        Space-separated languages: polski angielski niemiecki...
  -s {score desc,date desc,date asc,title asc,creator asc}, --sort {score desc,date desc,date asc,title asc,creator asc}
                        Sort search results by score, date, title or creator (descending or ascending)
  -f {ids,urls,yaml,json}, --format {ids,urls,yaml,json}
                        Output search results in format
  -o save results, --output save results
                        Save search results to this file

Download options:
  -d download to folder, --download-dir download to folder
                        Download images into subfolders in this folder
  -O, --overwrite       Overwrite if folder exists
  -M number of pages, --max-pages number of pages
                        Maximum number of pages to download per doc (0: all)

More about Polona

The Polona is a bit overcomplicated to use, but fortunately, Polona publishes a JSON API. The pypolona package uses that API.

• Polona — the main Polona website
• Polona/API — the JSON API that pypolona uses
• Polona/blog — the blog
• Polona/typo — a cool minisite that lets you typeset a word and renders it with letters from random publications

Development

• This project uses Gooey. With Gooey, I could rapidly turn the Python command-line app which uses the argparse module into a simple GUI app. This project serves as a good example in how this can be done.
• This project uses PyInstaller to build the standalone app.

Building on macOS

./macdeploy prep && ./macdeploy build

Building on Windows

1. Install Python 3.8 from Python.org (not the Windows Store!)
2. Install Inno Setup

pip3 install --user --upgrade .[dev]
python -m PyInstaller --distpath="app/build/dist-win" --workpath="app/build" -y "app/pyinstaller-win.spec"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" /dMyAppVersion="1.1.7" app/pypolona.iss /Q

License and Copyright

Copyright © 2020 Adam Twardoch. Licensed under the terms of the MIT license. This project is not affiliated with and not endorsed by Polona.

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