Get element contents

Task

You want to get, manipulate, and print or save, the contents of the document elements and metadata from the processed data that Unstructured returns.

Approach

Each element in the document elements contains fields for that element’s type, its ID, the extracted text, and associated metadata.

The programmatic approach you take to get these document elements will depend on which SDK you use:

For the Unstructured Python SDK, calling an UnstructuredClient object’s general.partition_async method returns a PartitionResponse object.

This PartitionResponse object’s elements variable contains a list of key-value dictionaries (List[Dict[str, Any]]). For example:

Python
# ...

res = await client.general.partition_async(request=req)

# Do something with the elements, for example:
save_elements_to_file(res.elements)

# ...

You can use standard Python list operations on this list.

You can also use standard Python looping techniques on this list to access each element in this list.

To work with an individual element’s contents, you can use standard dictionary operations on the element.

For example:

Python
# ...

res = await client.general.partition_async(request=req)

for element in res.elements:
    # Do something with each element, for example:
    save_element_to_database(f"{element["element_id"]}")
    save_element_to_database(f"{element["text"]}")
    save_element_to_database(f"{element["metadata"]["filename"]}\n")

# ...

To serialize this list as JSON, you can:

Use the elements_from_dicts function to convert the list of key-value dictionaries (Iterable[Dict[str, Any]]) into a list of elements (Iterable[Element]).
Use the elements_to_json function to convert the list of elements into a JSON-formatted string and then print or save that string.

For example:

Python
from unstructured.staging.base import elements_from_dicts, elements_to_json

# ...

res = await client.general.partition_async(request=req)

dict_elements = elements_from_dicts(
    element_dicts=res.elements
)

elements_to_json(
    elements=dict_elements,
    indent=2,
    filename=output_filepath
)
# ...

For the Unstructured JavaScript/TypeScript SDK, calling an UnstructuredClient object’s general.partition method returns a Promise<PartitionResponse> object.

This PartitionResponse object’s elements property contains an Array of string-value objects ({ [k: string]: any; }[]). For example:

TypeScript
// ...

client.general.partition({
    partitionParameters: {
        files: {
            content: data,
            fileName: inputFilepath
        },
        strategy: Strategy.HiRes,
        splitPdfPage: true,
        splitPdfAllowFailed: true,
        splitPdfConcurrencyLevel: 15
    }
}).then((res) => {
    if (res.statusCode == 200) {
        // Do something with the elements, for example:
        saveElementsToFile(res.elements)
    }
} // ...

You can use standard Array operations on this array.

You can also use standard Array techniques such as forEach to access each object in this array. For example:

TypeScript
// ...

client.general.partition({
    partitionParameters: {
        files: {
            content: data,
            fileName: inputFilepath
        },
        strategy: Strategy.HiRes,
        splitPdfPage: true,
        splitPdfAllowFailed: true,
        splitPdfConcurrencyLevel: 15
    }
}).then((res) => {
    if (res.statusCode == 200) {
        res.elements?.forEach(element => {
            // Do something with each element, for example:
            saveElementToDatabase(`${element["element_id"]}`)
            saveElementToDatabase(`${element["text"]}`)
            saveElementToDatabase(`${element["metadata"]["filename"]}`)
        }
    }
} // ...

To serialize this list as JSON, you can use the standard JSON.stringify function to serialize it to JSON-formatted string and the Node.js fs.WriteFileSync function to save it as a file. For example:

TypeScript
// ...

client.general.partition({
    partitionParameters: {
        files: {
            content: data,
            fileName: inputFilepath
        },
        strategy: Strategy.HiRes,
        splitPdfPage: true,
        splitPdfAllowFailed: true,
        splitPdfConcurrencyLevel: 15
    }
}).then((res) => {
    if (res.statusCode == 200) {    
        const jsonElements = JSON.stringify(res.elements, null, 2)

        fs.writeFileSync(outputFilepath, jsonElements)
    }
} // ...

Unstructured API

Workflow Endpoint

Partition Endpoint

Legacy APIs

Troubleshooting

Task

Approach

Unstructured API

Workflow Endpoint

Partition Endpoint

Legacy APIs

Troubleshooting

​Task

​Approach

Task

Approach