NativePHP Mobile Document Scanner

Native document scanning for NativePHP Mobile apps

Scan physical documents from the camera with automatic edge detection, perspective correction, multi-page support, and PDF output. The same scanner engine used by Apple Notes and Google Drive, wrapped in a clean Laravel facade.

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Requirements

• PHP 8.2+
• NativePHP Mobile 3.x
• iOS 13.0+ (VisionKit — zero additional dependencies)
• Android API 21+ with at least 1.7 GB RAM (ML Kit via Google Play Services)

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Installation

composer require lstables/nativephp-mobile-document-scanner

Register the plugin with NativePHP:

php artisan native:plugin:register lstables/nativephp-mobile-document-scanner

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Usage

Basic scan

use lstables\NativeDocumentScanner\Facades\DocumentScanner;

$result = DocumentScanner::scan();

if ($result && $result->hasPages()) {
    // Array of absolute file paths to JPEG pages
    foreach ($result->pages as $path) {
        // upload, store, process...
    }

    // Combined PDF path (if outputPdf was true)
    if ($result->hasPdf()) {
        Storage::put('scans/document.pdf', file_get_contents($result->pdf));
    }
}

Scan to PDF only

$pdfPath = DocumentScanner::scanToPdf();

if ($pdfPath) {
    Storage::put('receipts/scan.pdf', file_get_contents($pdfPath));
}

Scan to JPEG pages only

$pages = DocumentScanner::scanToJpegs(maxPages: 3);

Scan a single page

$imagePath = DocumentScanner::scanSinglePage();

Full options

$result = DocumentScanner::scan(
    maxPages: 10,           // 0 = unlimited
    allowGalleryImport: true,  // Android only — allow importing from photo library
    mode: 'full',           // 'base' | 'filter' | 'full'
    outputPdf: true,        // Include a combined PDF
    outputJpegs: true,      // Include per-page JPEGs
);

Scanning modes:

Mode	What it includes
base	Crop, rotate, reorder pages
filter	+ Greyscale, auto-enhancement filters
full	+ ML-powered stain/shadow/finger removal (default)

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Listening to events

Events fire whether you use the facade or the JS bridge, and are received by your Livewire components:

use lstables\NativeDocumentScanner\Events\DocumentScanned;
use lstables\NativeDocumentScanner\Events\DocumentScanCancelled;
use lstables\NativeDocumentScanner\Events\DocumentScanFailed;

#[OnNative(DocumentScanned::class)]
public function onScanned(int $pageCount, array $pages, ?string $pdf): void
{
    // Store, upload, or process scanned files
}

#[OnNative(DocumentScanCancelled::class)]
public function onCancelled(): void
{
    // User tapped Cancel
}

#[OnNative(DocumentScanFailed::class)]
public function onFailed(string $reason): void
{
    // Something went wrong
}

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JavaScript usage

For Livewire + Alpine or SPA setups, use the JS bridge directly:

import { scan, scanToPdf, scanToJpegs, scanSinglePage } from 'vendor/lstables/nativephp-mobile-document-scanner/resources/js/documentScanner'

// Full scan
const result = await scan({ maxPages: 5, mode: 'full' })
if (result && !result.cancelled) {
    console.log(result.pages)     // ['/path/to/page_1.jpg', ...]
    console.log(result.pdf)       // '/path/to/document.pdf'
    console.log(result.pageCount) // 5
}

// Just a PDF
const pdfPath = await scanToPdf()

// Just JPEG pages
const pages = await scanToJpegs(3)

// Single page
const page = await scanSinglePage()

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ScanResult

Property	Type	Description
pages	string[]	Absolute paths to JPEG files, one per page
pdf	string|null	Absolute path to combined PDF, or null
pageCount	int	Number of pages scanned
hasPages()	bool	Whether any pages were captured
hasPdf()	bool	Whether a PDF was generated
firstPage()	string|null	Path to the first page, or null
toArray()	array	Serialise to plain array

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File locations

Scanned files are written to the device's temporary/cache directory under NativeDocumentScanner/. They persist until the OS clears the cache. Copy them to permanent storage (Laravel's Storage facade, or a file upload) before the session ends.

$result = DocumentScanner::scanToPdf();

// Move to Laravel storage
Storage::disk('local')->put(
    'documents/scan_' . now()->timestamp . '.pdf',
    file_get_contents($result)
);

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Platform notes

iOS

• Uses VNDocumentCameraViewController from VisionKit — the same scanner as Apple Notes
• No additional dependencies or CocoaPods required
• UI is Apple's — not customisable (this is a system constraint, not a plugin limitation)
• No gallery import available on iOS (camera-only)

Android

• Uses Google ML Kit Document Scanner API via Google Play Services
• ML models are downloaded centrally — minimal impact on app bundle size
• No camera permission required — handled by Play Services
• Gallery import can be enabled via allowGalleryImport: true
• Requires a minimum device RAM of 1.7 GB

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Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release
• VisionKit scanner (iOS)
• ML Kit Document Scanner (Android)
• Facade with scan(), scanToPdf(), scanToJpegs(), scanSinglePage()
• DocumentScanned, DocumentScanCancelled, DocumentScanFailed events
• JavaScript bridge library
• Full Pest test suite

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License

MIT