Metadata-Version: 2.1
Name: alacorder
Version: 71.1
Summary: beta
Author-email: Sam Robson <sbrobson@crimson.ua.edu>
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Requires-Python: >=3.7
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
License-File: LICENSE

<a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/sbrobson959/alacorder/blob/main/index.ipynb" target="_parent"><img src="https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg" alt="Open In Colab"/></a>
[![Binder](https://mybinder.org/badge_logo.svg)](https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/sbrobson959/alacorder/main?labpath=index.ipynb)
```
	    ___    __                          __         
	   /   |  / /___  _________  _________/ /__  _____
	  / /| | / / __ `/ ___/ __ \/ ___/ __  / _ \/ ___/
	 / ___ |/ / /_/ / /__/ /_/ / /  / /_/ /  __/ /    
	/_/  |_/_/\__,_/\___/\____/_/   \__,_/\___/_/     

		ALACORDER beta 71
```

# **Getting Started with Alacorder**

<sup>[GitHub](https://github.com/sbrobson959/alacorder)  | [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/alacorder/)     | [Report an issue](mailto:sbrobson@crimson.ua.edu)
</sup>

### Alacorder processes case detail PDFs into data tables suitable for research purposes. Alacorder also generates compressed text archives from the source PDFs to speed future data collection from the same set of cases.

## **Installation**

**Alacorder can run on most devices. If your device can run Python 3.7 or later, it can run Alacorder.**
* To install on Windows, open Command Prompt and enter `pip install alacorder`. 
    * To start the interface, enter `python -m alacorder` or `python3 -m alacorder`.
* On Mac, open the Terminal and enter `pip3 install alacorder` then `python3 -m alacorder`.
    * To start the interface, enter `python3 -m alacorder` or `python -m alacorder`.
* Install [Anaconda Distribution](https://www.anaconda.com/products/distribution) to install Alacorder if the above methods do not work, or if you would like to open and edit this interactive guide on your desktop.
    * After installation, create a virtual environment, open a terminal, and then repeat these instructions. If your copy of Alacorder is corrupted, use `pip uninstall alacorder` or `pip3 uninstall alacorder` and then reinstall it. There may be a newer version.

> **Alacorder should automatically download and install dependencies upon setup, but you can also install the full list of dependencies yourself with `pip`: `pandas`, `numpy`, `PyPDF2`, `openpyxl`, `xlrd`, `xlwt`, `build`, `setuptools`, `xarray`, `jupyter`, `numexpr`, `bottleneck`.**


```python
pip uninstall -y alacorder
pip install alacorder
```

## **Using the guided interface**

#### **Once you have a Python environment up and running, you can launch the guided interface in two ways:**

1.  *Import the library from your command line:* Depending on your Python configuration, enter `python -m alacorder` or `python3 -m alacorder` to launch the command line interface in module mode. 

2.  *Import the `alacorder` module in Python:* Use the import statement `from alacorder import __main__` to start the command line interface.

#### **Alacorder can be used without writing any code, and exports to common formats like Excel (`.xls`, `.xlsx`), Stata (`.dta`), CSV (`.csv`), and JSON (`.json`).**

* Alacorder compresses case text into `pickle` archives (`.pkl.xz`) to save storage and processing time. If you need to unpack a `pickle` archive without importing `alac`, use a `.xz` compression tool, then read the `pickle` into Python with the standard library module `pickle`.

* Once installed, enter `python -m alacorder` or `python3 -m alacorder` to start the interface. If you are using `iPython`, launch the `iPython` shell and enter `from alacorder import __main__` to launch the guided interface. 



```python
from alacorder import __main__
```

# **Special Queries with `alac`**

### **For more advanced queries, the `alac` module can extract fields and tables from case records with just a few lines of code.**

* Call `alac.config(input_path, tables_path = '', archive_path = '')` and assign it to a variable to hold your configuration object. This tells the imported Alacorder methods where and how to input and output. If `tables_path` and `archive_path` are left blank, `alac.parse…()` methods will print to console instead of export.

* Call `alac.writeArchive(config)` to export a full text archive. It's recommended that you create a full text archive and save it as a `.pkl.xz` file before making tables from your data. Full text archives can be scanned faster than PDF directories and require significantly less storage. Full text archives can be imported to Alacorder the same way as PDF directories. 

* Call `alac.parseTables(config)` to export detailed case information tables. If export type is `.xls`, `.xlsx` or `.pkl.xz`, the `cases`, `fees`, and `charges` tables will be exported. Otherwise, you can select which table you would like to export. 

* Call `alac.parseCharges(config)` to export `charges` table only.

* Call `alac.parseFees(config)` to export `fee` tables only.


```python
import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings('ignore')

from alacorder import alac

pdf_directory = "/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler/"
archive = "/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler.pkl.xz"
tables = "/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler.xlsx"

# make full text archive from PDF directory 
c = alac.config(pdf_directory, archive)
alac.writeArchive(c)

print("Full text archive complete. Now processing case information into tables at " + tables)

# then scan full text archive for spreadsheet
d = alac.config(archive, tables)
alac.parseTables(d)
```

## **Custom Parsing with `alac.parse()`**
### If you need to conduct a custom search of case records, Alacorder has the tools you need to extract custom fields from case PDFs without any fuss. Try out `alac.parse()` to search thousands of cases in just a few minutes.


```python
from alacorder import alac
import re

archive = "/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler.pkl.xz"
tables = "/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler.xlsx"

def findName(text):
    name = ""
    if bool(re.search(r'(?a)(VS\.|V\.{1})(.+)(Case)*', text, re.MULTILINE)) == True:
        name = re.search(r'(?a)(VS\.|V\.{1})(.+)(Case)*', text, re.MULTILINE).group(2).replace("Case Number:","").
	strip()
    else:
        if bool(re.search(r'(?:DOB)(.+)(?:Name)', text, re.MULTILINE)) == True:
            name = re.search(r'(?:DOB)(.+)(?:Name)', text, re.MULTILINE).group(1).replace(":","").replace("Case Number:","").strip()
    return name

c = alac.config(archive, tables)

alac.parse(c, findName)
```


| Method | Description |
| ------------- | ------ |
| `getPDFText(path) -> text` | Returns full text of case |
| `getCaseInfo(text) -> [case_number, name, alias, date_of_birth, race, sex, address, phone]` | Returns basic case details | 
| `getFeeSheet(text, cnum = '') -> [total_amtdue, total_balance, total_d999, feecodes_w_bal, all_fee_codes, table_string, feesheet: pd.DataFrame()]` | Returns fee sheet and summary as `str` and `pd.DataFrame` |
| `getCharges(text, cnum = '') -> [convictions_string, disposition_charges, filing_charges, cerv_eligible_convictions, pardon_to_vote_convictions, permanently_disqualifying_convictions, conviction_count, charge_count, cerv_charge_count, pardontovote_charge_count, permanent_dq_charge_count, cerv_convictions_count, pardontovote_convictions_count, charge_codes, conviction_codes, all_charges_string, charges: pd.DataFrame()]` | Returns charges table and summary as `str`, `int`, and `pd.DataFrame` |
| `getCaseNumber(text) -> case_number` | Returns case number
| `getName(text) -> name` | Returns name
| `getFeeTotals(text) -> [total_row, tdue, tpaid, tbal, tdue]` | Return totals without parsing fee sheet



# **Working with case data in Python**


### Out of the box, Alacorder exports to `.xls`, `.xlsx`, `.csv`, `.json`, `.dta`, and `.pkl.xz`. But you can use `alac`, `pandas`, and other python libraries to create your own data collection workflows and design custom exports. 

***The snippet below prints the fee sheets from a directory of case PDFs as it reads them.***


```python
from alacorder import alac

c = alac.config("/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler/","/Users/crimson/Desktop/Tutwiler.xls")

for path in c['contents']:
    text = alac.getPDFText(path)
    cnum = alac.getCaseNumber(text)
    charges_outputs = alac.getCharges(text, cnum)
    if len(charges_outputs[0]) > 1:
        print(charges_outputs[0])
```

## Extending Alacorder with `pandas` and other tools

Alacorder runs on [`pandas`](https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/getting_started/index.html#getting-started), a python library you can use to perform calculations, process text data, and make tables and charts. `pandas` can read from and write to all major data storage formats. It can connect to a wide variety of services to provide for easy export. When Alacorder table data is exported to `.pkl.xz`, it is stored as a `pd.DataFrame` and can be imported into other python [modules](https://www.anaconda.com/open-source) and scripts with `pd.read_pickle()` like below:
```python
import pandas as pd
contents = pd.read_pickle("/path/to/pkl")
```

If you would like to visualize data without exporting to Excel or another format, create a `jupyter notebook` and import a data visualization library like `matplotlib` to get started. The resources below can help you get started. [`jupyter`](https://docs.jupyter.org/en/latest/start/index.html) is a Python kernel you can use to create interactive notebooks for data analysis and other purposes. It can be installed using `pip install jupyter` or `pip3 install jupyter` and launched using `jupyter notebook`. Your device may already be equipped to view `.ipynb` notebooks. 

## **Resources**

* [`pandas` cheat sheet](https://pandas.pydata.org/Pandas_Cheat_Sheet.pdf)
* [regex cheat sheet](https://www.rexegg.com/regex-quickstart.html)
* [anaconda (tutorials on python data analysis)](https://www.anaconda.com/open-source)
* [The Python Tutorial](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/)
* [`jupyter` introduction](https://realpython.com/jupyter-notebook-introduction/)


	

	
-------------------------------------		
© 2023 Sam Robson
