Native iOS app written in Swift

[paulgessinger]

Hello!

I've been working on a native app for iOS that connects to Paperless-ngx. Here's what it currently looks like:

Currently implemented features are:

• List documents, filter by tag, correspondent, document type, sorting.
• Load up saved views created on the web interface. The app filtering uses the saved view data format, so filter states created in the app can be saved as saved views, and existing ones can be updated.
• Download and view PDFs in the native quick look viewer
• Edit existing documents, change title, tags, correspondent, document type or delete documents
• Add new documents, either by choosing a PDF through the iOS native file picker, or by "sharing" a PDF with the app from anywhere.
• Manage (create, update, delete) tags, correspondents, document types and saved views.

Features that I plan to add are:

• Show processing queue to give feedback when adding documents (currently the interface does not indicate the processing status until the import is complete).
• Streamlined interface for "inbox clearing".
• Potentially: offline functionality (currently the app is completely in-memory only).
• Stretch: iPad and maybe macOS apps.

Right now the code is still in a private repository, but I intend to make it public when I'm happy with a first version of the app.

If anyone is interested, I can set up a TestFlight so people can try out the app.
TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/bOpOdzwL

The app is now available on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/swift-paperless/id6448698521

---

Repository

The source code is available over on my repository now. If you have feedback or a feature request please create an issue there!

[UseroftheGalaxy]

Very nice. I would be intressted in a Beta/Alpha Test once you are ready to test.

[shamoon]

Nice work mate, looks really clean 😎. Let us know when its available and we can add to the readme

[paulgessinger]

It's available now at https://apps.apple.com/app/swift-paperless/id6448698521 🥳

[Christophe85]

Very nice I would be happy if I can test it or help in something. I can for exemple do the translation in French.

[XDavidT]

I think you can use https://crowdin.com/translate/paperless-ngx/all to get translate for all languages :)

[Christophe85]

Is it possible to help you in the French Translation to have the application in French as I proposed you ?

[paulgessinger]

If you're not set-up to it yourself, I can upload the exported translation files from the App that's used for English and German.

[Christophe85]

I don't know how to do it, but I can do it or help you or translate some files if you tell me what to do.

[paulgessinger]

Ok, so:

I've pushed a commit with stub french translation files: https://github.com/paulgessinger/swift-paperless/tree/main/swift-paperless/fr.lproj

I suppose it's easiest to just change the content of these files. Then, if you're comfortable with git, you can create a pull request over on https://github.com/paulgessinger/swift-paperless, or alternatively send the files to me.

I created an issue for this, that might be easier to follow up on.

[ronald1090aa]

I would also be interested for Beta/Alpha Test once the App is ready to test.

[Flol0]

I would also like to join TestFlight!

[paulgessinger]

I've set up a TestFlight group here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/bOpOdzwL

[paulgessinger]

Oh that's interesting. Do you mean the text search or the filtering based on tags etc?

The text search just uses the title_content query parameter to the documents endpoint. If you do a search like this in the web interface, do the documents show up?

[Christophe85]

I think I found the problem.
I don't find the document based on tags or other filtering.
After some test it seeams that it is linked to my default folder. I have a rule that puts my file in this folder : {correspondent}/{document_type}/{created_year}/{created_year_short}-{created_month}-{created_day}-{title}

This rule is used for the most of my documents. If I use the default path I can see the document. If I change back to this I don't find it.

[paulgessinger]

Hm ok. So do we think this is specific to how I query the document search API? I don't think I specify the storage path at all, and as far as I understand I also shouldn't have to.
In my personal instance I also have a custom storage path (but different from yours), and that seems to work fine.

[Christophe85]

I put You my storage path that you can test... maybe it is too long ? or a problem regarding spaces in the names ?

[paulgessinger]

I'll dig around a bit!

[jimmy-ck]

Hi @paulgessinger,
Great initiative and promising look. Unfortunately I was not able to test the preview since my paperless service is "hidden" behind a Cloudfare Zero Trust Tunnel. This infuses a log in page of cloudflare for security reasons. Naturally your app's API calls are not aware of that.
Could you please consider integrating custom HTTP request headers? This would allow cloudflare users to use service tokens. After a first handshake including this header this would remin valid as configured in your cloudflare zero trust settings. So the custom HTTP headers would only be necessary time-to-time.

The headers would be:

• CF-Access-Client-Id:
• CF-Access-Client-Secret:

Refering cloudflare's documentation of service tokens: https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/identity/service-tokens/#connect-your-service-to-access
Some users of Home Assistant iOS App requested something very similar before: home-assistant/iOS#1722

[paulgessinger]

Ok, build number 2 with a version of this feature added is now live on TestFlight. Let me know if you have a chance to test it for your use-case @jimmy-ck.

[jimmy-ck]

First tests are not successful, might be a self-made faulty a Cloudflare configuration though. Difficult to debug for me, since I’m currently on vacation abroad. I will test it when I’m back home.

[paulgessinger]

See paulgessinger/swift-paperless#11

[plu]

Hi @jimmy-ck, I'd be curious if you'd want to give this a try and see if that solution would also work for Cloudflare: #3283 (reply in thread)

[jimmy-ck]

Hi @plu, it does not work, which I'd expect. In the above discussed case an additional parameter set got attached to each HTTP request using fixed headers, which are settable by the user. This adresses the requirements for using "service tokens", as a full bypass of the Cloudflare Zero Trust Wall (meaning other defined authentification methods configured). I'm happy with that – but maybe it's not the general best way to go for that.
Authelia seems to authenticate for Cloudflare Zero Connect using OpenID Connect: https://www.authelia.com/integration/openid-connect/cloudflare-zerotrust/

[ronald1090aa]

Hello all,
I seem to be too stupid to log in.
I have tried with and without http:// and I am also sure that I am using the correct data (username and password). Nevertheless, the login button is not active and the address always has the red circle with the x inside.
What could I do wrong?
Thanks for any tips

[epcos71]

As I know it only works with "https://".

[ronald1090aa]

Ok. Thank You

[paulgessinger]

Indeed, it needs to be https. If you don't type a scheme I just add https.

I would have to configure a special setting in the app to even allow it to do unencrypted requests as far as I know.

[paulgessinger]

See paulgessinger/swift-paperless#12

[paulgessinger]

HTTP connections are now supported if you explicitly prefix the url with http://.

[Bart1909]

Hi @paulgessinger ,
this looks really nice :) Thank you very much!

One more feature request: It would be nice, if a search by ASN would be possible. And if the ASN is displayed with the document.

Maybe an integration in paperless will also be possible, that documents can be opened in the app.
Background of my question: I'm printing a barcode and qrcode on my documents. The barcode is used for recognition of the ASN numbers. And the qrcode includes the link to https://mypaperless.example.com/asn/123 so I can easily open the right document in paperless when scanning the qr code. Would be nice, if this would then open the app.

Best regards
Tobi

[paulgessinger]

@Bart1909 you have to tap on the code itself, not the preview. I guess I can make the preview tappable as well though.

[Bart1909]

@smichaelsen I'm using a Dymo Labelwriter for this. I've written a small script, which reads the highest ASN through the Paperless API and then generates the next 10 Stickers. I'm using 19x51mm stickers, this works fine.

An other option, which a friend of me is using, is to buy A4 sticker paper (e.g. https://amzn.eu/d/2jkkLDe) and then generate the barcodes via Word and print them.
This would be a sample for the linked paper:
ASN-1-to-20032.pdf

Hope this helps you

[Bart1909]

@paulgessinger ah this works! Thank you :)
Yeah, maybe it will be a good point to make the preview tappable too

[smichaelsen]

@Bart1909 While I find it intriguing to look deeper into how I can get my Dymo to print anything that comes from the paperless API and a custom made script, the sticker paper seems a very pragmatic solution to me. Thank you very much!

Maybe I'll try to recreate that PDF but instead with QR codes, directly linking to the document in my paperless installation. Sounds like a fun weekend project.

[Bart1909]

@smichaelsen if you already own a Dymo printer, you can also generate the Barcodes with the Dymo Application as described here: https://youtu.be/Sk2Q1x3tq24?si=SyKOq4KFMooa_Dt2

[FizzyMUC]

Hey Paul. I'm excited for the app! Seems like this is what I've been looking for for a while now. But no matter what I do, it keeps telling me there are "no documents". It recognizes my tags, correspondents, etc, but documents don't show. Any idea what's going on?

[Christophe85]

Great it seems to work ! I will test it on the next days…

[FizzyMUC]

Working now!!! Awesome! Thank you. Keep on doing what you're doing.

[FizzyMUC]

By the way: does your app has its own repo?

[paulgessinger]

By the way: does your app has its own repo?

It does, but it's not public yet. I'll open it up as soon as I'm happy with what I have.

[paulgessinger]

I created an empty repo for now for issue tracking: https://github.com/paulgessinger/swift-paperless

[hendrik1120]

Hi @paulgessinger your app looks really great. What are your plans on how to integrate the different authentication methods in paperless? I am personally using header auth with authelia since the openid connect pr, despite people having much interest in, has sadly been abandoned. What do you think about a browser popup to authenticate using the paperless webui and grabbing the token afterward, like nextcloud does?

[paulgessinger]

I thought about that actually. As far as I understand it, when logging in via the webui it doesn't actually expose a token anywhere, since it's using a session cookie.

In principle there is this functionality, but since the token is not included in a redirect I don't think I can obtain it.

Maybe one of the maintainers knows if there is an alternative for login that redirects with the token that I don't know about?

[paulgessinger]

See paulgessinger/swift-paperless#10

[FizzyMUC]

Hi Paul, will you also implement the owners and storage path features in the near future?
Best
Fizzy

[paulgessinger]

Storage paths should be easy to add, so that's on my list for sure.

I haven't really thought about the whole ownership model yet to be honest. I'll have to see if this has other implications, and how sophisticated the UI would have to be.

[paulgessinger]

See paulgessinger/swift-paperless#13

[paulgessinger]

Storage paths are now on TestFlight.

[paulgessinger]

Limited filtering for owners is included starting from build 8. Supported are filtering for documents owned by the logged in user, not owned by the logged in user (aka shared with the logged in user) or all unowned documents.

[RefineryX]

This looks great! My Paperless is behind Authelia.

The login URL is not registered in the app, maybe because it is fetching and seeing the Authelia login page rather than the default Paperless login page.

Anyone got any advice how I would get this to work with Authelia and Paperless?

I see that OIDC is possibility being integrated. Would be good to see how this will be handled in the app. #1746

[paulgessinger]

Yeah this is currently not really possible. I'll need to figure out how authelia does its thing. In another Thread there was discussion about bypassing cloudflare tunnel using custom headers, which I've added recently. Is there maybe a similar solution for authelia.

[paulgessinger]

See paulgessinger/swift-paperless#10

[plu]

Thanks @RefineryX for making me aware of Authelia, what a great piece of software! I've made another iOS app for paperless-ngx, and I've started implementing support for Authelia. Actually it should work for any other authentication mechanism that uses forward auth. I'd probably be ready to provide some TestFlight link in 1-2 days, if somebody is interested giving it a try before I release it into the App Store.

Here's a small sneak peak:

authelia480.mov

[paulgessinger]

Oh, so you capture the cookies and attach them to the API calls? You can't get these from SFSafariViewController I don't think, so I suppose you're using WKWebView for this?

[plu]

Yep, correct, using WKWebView - when I detect some redirect, I just assume it's some forward auth mechanism. The paperless API usually does not use redirects, at least I haven't noticed any such behaviour. Once the redirect is detected, I extract the url from the Location response header, then show this view (adding some comments, hopefully better to understand then):

struct ForwardAuthView: UIViewRepresentable {
    let server: Server
    let url: URL
    let completion: () -> Void

    func makeUIView(context: Context) -> WKWebView {
        let webView = WKWebView()
        webView.alpha = 0.0
        webView.load(URLRequest(url: url))
        return webView
    }

    func updateUIView(_ webView: WKWebView, context: Context) {
        webView.navigationDelegate = context.coordinator
    }

    final class Coordinator: NSObject {
        let parent: ForwardAuthView

        init(_ parent: ForwardAuthView) {
            self.parent = parent
        }
    }

    func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator {
        Coordinator(self)
    }
}

extension ForwardAuthView.Coordinator: WKNavigationDelegate {
    @MainActor
    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, decidePolicyFor navigationResponse: WKNavigationResponse) async -> WKNavigationResponsePolicy {
        // parent.server.url.host() is the host of the paperless instance here
        if let response =  navigationResponse.response as? HTTPURLResponse, response.url?.host() == parent.server.url.host() {
            // The cookies end up in HTTPCookieStorage.shared, but not immediately. The following lines are a workaround for that
            webView.configuration.processPool = .init()
            webView.configuration.websiteDataStore.httpCookieStore.getAllCookies { cookies in
                cookies.forEach(HTTPCookieStorage.shared.setCookie(_:))
                DispatchQueue.main.async {
                    self.parent.completion()
                }
            }
        }
        return .allow
    }

    func webView(_ webView: WKWebView, didFinish navigation: WKNavigation!) {
        if webView.alpha == 0.0 {
            UIView.animate(withDuration: 0.3) {
                webView.alpha = 1.0
            }
        }
    }
}

[furfarch]

hi @paulgessinger
very pleased to see the app, will test it and provide feedback. Hope the stretch to iPad will be possible.

Two things
I noticed that when you type the wrong url, you need to use the delete/back button, the red cross does not delete the link.

The other one, would be nice to be able to store a list of servers, run more than one instance of paperless, so this would be a major added value.

Thanks for your work on this!

Cheers C.

[Jopo-JP]

Hey there,

the app is great and can't wait to see, when there is iPad Support for a bigger screen.

I noticed, that http request aren't allowed with you app. This means, I would need to create an https key for my local network.

Best regards,
Nikolas

[paulgessinger]

Thanks!
You're right that HTTP is currently not supported. I'm thinking how I can add this in a good way still, but I'll add it.

[Jopo-JP]

Thanks. I wanted to add, my friends with iOS to it and it simply refused the connection.
Have a nice day.

[paulgessinger]

HTTP connections are now supported if you explicitly prefix the url with http://.

[bee-eater]

Great Work! I love it! :-)

[XDavidT]

The app show me red "X" when provide my URL.
My server is running on docker but I have NGINX on the server so there is local domain for my paperless, but still nothing (not HTTPS because it's on my local network)

[ibyteprettyhard]

@XDavidT, I'm curious what you did to fix the problem; I'm experiencing the same thing. I'm running paperless-ngx 2.4 w/ build 30 iOS app. I'm running behind a reverse proxy, desktop/browser works great.

[paulgessinger]

@ibyteprettyhard any chance you could try to export the logs?

[ibyteprettyhard]

@paulgessinger Sure, should I just post them in this thread or is there a better/proper place to post them?

[paulgessinger]

@ibyteprettyhard maybe email is better. There's an email address in the app I believe.

[ibyteprettyhard]

@paulgessinger logs sent to swift-paperless@paulgessinger.com

[j1gg3]

Amazing app - thank you !

Just a question: Any way to add native iOS document scanner into your app?

[j1gg3]

Actually I don't know what to enter under API Token. ❓

[marcelbrueckner]

You need to generate an API token in the Django Admin panel. Paperless-ngx's docs are lacking imho, but here's how to access it via the user settings screen.

[paulgessinger]

It's on my list of things to add once I get an App Store release sorted out for the current version!

[j1gg3]

amazing - figured it out with your help. Thank you! :-)

[paulgessinger]

This is now implemented as of build 33 on TestFlight, thanks to @cbot.

[paulgessinger]

The app is now actually available on the App Store in a first version: https://apps.apple.com/app/swift-paperless/id6448698521

Feel free to stay on the TestFlight, however, to get future developments first!

[L-E-0-N]

Hi Paul, congrats on the release to the App Store!

Quick question, would love to start using your app only my URL isn’t valid so I can’t login. Got paperless hosted locally on my synology through Docker. Filling in the URL with http:// followed by the ip and port In using locally isn’t working. Am I missing something I should be including? Something in the headers, or a token?

[paulgessinger]

Hm ok then it seems this is a separate issue. I'll investigate more.

[mquade]

Same issue for me. It works with the IP but I love to have DNS also locally. HTTP is not an (big) issue because everything is in local LAN. When connecting from outside, it's VPN.

[paulgessinger]

I pushed build 23 to TestFlight, where you can tap the red cross to copy the error that it got to the pasteboard. Maybe you can post that here (redacted of course)?

[L-E-0-N]

Here’s the error:

Request to http://192.168.1.116:8000/api/ gave error:
keyNotFound(CodingKeys(stringValue: "mail_accounts", intValue: nil), Swift.DecodingError.Context(codingPath: [], debugDescription: "No value associated with key CodingKeys(stringValue: "mail_accounts", intValue: nil) ("mail_accounts").", underlyingError: nil))

Tried accessing http://192.168.1.116:8000/api/ but that works as expected.

[L-E-0-N]

Wait it actually worked. Tried my mail first, which gave an error again but tried my username after (what I also tried before constantly) which worked 🙌

[fivestones]

I just installed this from the App Store, and it's looking and working great! Thanks so much for this!
Excited to see the source code on your github too :-)

[paulgessinger]

Source code is now public over on the repository.

[thegodfatherrelish]

I can only agree with the praise, the app is definitely very successful, I have now installed it at home on my devices and those of my wife and she is also very happy with it and also uses Paperless-ngx more than before (which in turn makes my life easier 😜).

[skorpion1298]

Thank you a lot! Bless you! 👍

[petruut]

adding my gratitude to this as well!! lovely app, fantastic idea and execution.

are you still planning to open source it? that's my only long-term concern, but i understand if you changed your mind.

[paulgessinger]

Thanks!

The complete source code is over at https://github.com/paulgessinger/swift-paperless

[fadenb]

Really like your app.
One thing that stopping me from using it regularly is that it prefers to connect via IPv4 instead of IPv6 even though a valid AAAA response is provided by my resolver.
In my specific setup this causes issues as on IPv4 I am using a certificate for another domain so the app tells me it is invalid.
For sure, this is not a common or "clean" setup but it is what I have right now. Applications that prefer the current standard IPv6 work fine :)

[dere24pit]

Hello thank you for developing this App.
But i get following error
Der Vorgang konnte nicht abgeschlossen werden. (swift_paperless.(unknown context at $104cdd190).RequestError-Fehler 0.)
Best regards

[paulgessinger]

Hey @dere24pit!
Can you head on over to the issues over at https://github.com/paulgessinger/swift-paperless/issues and/or send me the logs from the settings screen either in an issue or via email?