README.md

[hdwatts]

lambda-OCRmyPDF

Adapting the python library OCRmyPDF to run as an AWS Lambda Function.

From the OCRmyPDF readme:

OCRmyPDF adds an OCR text layer to scanned PDF files, allowing them to be searched or copy-pasted.

Purpose

The purpose of this application was to adapt the OCRmyPDF application/library to be run on AWS servers to serve as a dynamic document OCR processing service. We loved the implementation of OCRmyPDF but felt it would work well if adapted to an Amazon Lambda Function.

What's in the repo?

This repository contains all external libraries required by OCRmyPDF compiled on and extracted from an Amazon Linux EC2 instance. It also contains all python packages compiled on and extracted from an Amazon Linux EC2 instance. Lastly, it features some minor changes to the OCRmyPDF source itself to make it Lambda friendly.

Calling the Event

The event currently supports only a few, basic, parameters, which we intend on expanding. The parameters are:

Key	Description
awsRegion	The region where the S3 bucket is located
s3.bucket.name	The name of the S3 bucket
s3.object.key	The key for the object in the S3 bucket
pages	The pages parameter for OCRmyPDF. Ex: "1,3-5,8"

Installation

Download Latest Release

Download the latest release from this repository's releases page.

Create the Function

• Go to S3 and upload the downloaded zip file to an S3 bucket of your choosing. Copy and paste the url of the file for later.
• Access the AWS Lambda dashboard and click on Create Function.
• Ensure Author from scratch is selected
• Name your function as you please.
• Make sure that your Runtime is set to Python 3.6
• If you do not have an IAM Role set up for S3 access, set one up with Read, Write access on S3. I used AWS's AWSLambdaExecute policy as a base.

Setup the Function

• Under the Function code section:
  • Set the Code entry type field to Upload a file from Amazon S3
  • Set the Runtime field to Python 3.6
  • Set the handler field to apply-ocr-to-s3-object.apply_ocr_to_document_handler
  • Copy and paste the S3 object URL from above into the Amazon S3 link URL field
• Under the Environment Variables section:
  • Set the below environment variables to their respective paths
  • PATH : /var/task/bin
  • PYTHONPATH : /var/task/python
  • TESSDATA_PREFIX : /var/task/tessdata

Test the Function

The following test configuration can be added to lambda to test the functionality. Upload any pdf called input.pdf to an S3 bucket and run this test configuration:

input_test_configuration.json

{
  "pages": "1",
  "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
  "s3": {
    "bucket": {
      "name": "[YOUR BUCKET NAME HERE]"
    },
    "object": {
      "key": "input.pdf"
    }
  }
}

To Do:

• Make backup creation configurable in the lambda action
• Add instructions for aws-cli
• Add additional language support
• Continue to trim down python packages
• Reimplement multithreading in a way that would work as a Amazon Lambda function