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.

Remember: to run the GUI on macOS for the first time, Ctrl+click the DMG, choose Open, then Open, then drag to Applications folder, there Ctrl+click the app icon, choose Open, then Open.

What’s new

Current version is 1.6.0.

1.6.0

• unless you specify --no-text-pdf, PyPolona now downloads an additional PDF that has searchable text if it’s available
• --skip is now --no-overwrite
• improved PDF metadata import, bugfixes

1.5.0

• -i saves each downloaded document as subfolder with images, otherwise as one PDF (with metadata)
• --skip instead of --overwrite flag

1.0.0

• initial release

Install standalone PyPolona app

Download DMG for macOS

On macOS, Ctrl+click the downloaded DMG, choose Open, then Open again, then drag the icon to the /Applications folder.

When you run the app for the first time, Ctrl+click the Polona.app, choose Open, then click Open. 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

Search settings

In the Input tab:

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

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

• if nothing is selected, the query is interpreted as one or more URLs from Polona.pl
• search: choose this and in the query field, enter a simple search query like adam mickiewicz; go to the Options tab to customize
• advanced: you can use the advanced query syntax, see documentation; go to the 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

In the Options tab:

• In Space-separated languages, 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 search, you can sort the results by score, date, title or creator, in ascending or descending order.

• In Output search results 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. Choose urls to get clickable links.

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

Download settings

Turn on Download found docs to download the content of the queried result.

• Turn on Download JPEGs into subfolders to download each document content as a series of JPEGs. In the download folder, one subfolder will be created per document. The subfolder name starts with the publication year, then part of the title, then the ID. If you are also downloading searchable PDFs, an additional PDF with the _text suffix will be saved in the subfolder. Also, a YAML file with some metadata will be saved in the subfolder.

• Turn off Download JPEGs into subfolders to download each document content as one PDF. The app will not create subfolders. The PDF name starts with the publication year, then part of the title, then the ID. If you are also downloading searchable PDFs, an additional PDF with the _text suffix will be also saved.

In the Options tab:

• In Save downloaded docs in this folder, you can choose into which folder the app will download the documents. By default it uses the polona subfolder on your desktop.

• In Download max 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.

• For some documents, Polona has an extra lower-resolution searchable PDF. By default, that PDF is also downloaded, and saved with a _text suffix. Turn on Skip downloading searchable PDFs to not download these additional PDFs.

• By default, the app will re-download and overwrite previously downloaded documents. Turn on Skip existing subfolders/PDFs to skip them.

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] [-S | -A | -I] [-D] [-i] [-l [language [language ...]]] [-s {score desc,date desc,date asc,title asc,creator asc}]
               [-f {ids,urls,yaml,json}] [-o results_file] [-d download_folder] [-M num_pages] [-T] [-O]
               query [query ...]

Search in and download from Polona.pl. GUI: Help › PyPolona 1.6.0 Help. 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
  -S, --search          Query is search query, see Options
  -A, --advanced        Query is advanced search query, see Documentation
  -I, --ids             Query is space-separated IDs
  -D, --download        Download found docs, see Options
  -i, --images          Download JPEGs into subfolders instead of PDF

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 results_file, --output results_file
                        Save search results to this file
  -d download_folder, --download-dir download_folder
                        Save downloaded docs in this folder
  -M num_pages, --max-pages num_pages
                        Download max pages per doc (0: all)
  -T, --no-text-pdf     Skip downloading searchable PDFs
  -O, --no-overwrite    Skip existing subfolders/PDFs

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

To build the Python package, the Mac DMG and the Win EXE (via Wine):

./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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