Import to EagleFiler from Mariner's Paperless

[Michael Tsai]

In response to this thread, here’s an AppleScript that can import from Mariner Paperless to EagleFiler, preserving the files, category structure, and metadata. It reads the files and metadata directly so that it’s not necessary to run the Paperless app (which hasn’t been tested on newer versions of macOS since it was discontinued).

 

[MacHeritage]

Here’s an AppleScript that can import from Mariner Paperless to EagleFiler, preserving the files, category structure, and metadata. It reads the files and metadata directly so that it’s not necessary to run the Paperless app (which hasn’t been tested on newer versions of macOS since it was discontinued).

Just when I think I know all the best Mac software titles, I find another that has been around for forever. Thank you! I now have EagleFiler on my list to check out.

 

[ScottR]

Here’s an AppleScript that can import from Mariner Paperless to EagleFiler, preserving the files, category structure, and metadata. It reads the files and metadata directly so that it’s not necessary to run the Paperless app (which hasn’t been tested on newer versions of macOS since it was discontinued).

I gave it a try, and everything imported in a huge, totally disorganized mess. Plus I got this error:

 

[Michael Tsai]

I gave it a try, and everything imported in a huge, totally disorganized mess.

Thanks for trying the script. If the Paperless files have categories and subcategories, these will be translated to nested folders in EagleFiler, so the organization should be preserved. Please note that there are multiple ways of viewing the list in EagleFiler. If you click on Records in the sidebar, that shows everything in one giant list (like Library in Photos or All My Files in Finder or Songs in Music). However, the organization is still present and can be seen if you click on an individual folder (indented under Records, or in this case under the folder named after your .paperless package that the importer created).

Plus I got this error

This seems to be due to a file not having a category set. I’ve updated the script to handle this—such files will just be imported at the top level.

You can also contact eaglefiler@c-command.com if you have further questions.

 

[ScottR]

Thanks for trying the script. If the Paperless files have categories and subcategories, these will be translated to nested folders in EagleFiler, so the organization should be preserved. Please note that there are multiple ways of viewing the list in EagleFiler. If you click on Records in the sidebar, that shows everything in one giant list (like Library in Photos or All My Files in Finder or Songs in Music). However, the organization is still present and can be seen if you click on an individual folder (indented under Records, or in this case under the folder named after your .paperless package that the importer created).

The issue is that in Paperless I had everything organized by being divided into folders/subfolders/collections (left pane), but none of that was preserved.
E.g., a folder named "Investments" with subfolders by different brokers, and in each subfolder a year with statements.
Or a Taxes folder, and within that a Collection for each year, and various documents (1099s, estimated tax payments, charitable contributions, etc.) in that year's Collection.
All of that is gone, and with it, how my data is organized.
Also, strangely, often it populates the "title" field with the actual filename, rather than any info that's displayed in Paperless, so I'll have documents with titles like "4955BBA4-E77B-4298-B7EF-C - 12-9-21"

 

[Michael Tsai]

The issue is that in Paperless I had everything organized by being divided into folders/subfolders/collections (left pane), but none of that was preserved.

Aha, I didn’t realize that was a thing because the customer whom I wrote the importer for was doing this using categories/subcategories and only using smart collections. I’ve updated the import script to also handle collections and collection folders. These are translated to nested tags in EagleFiler, to account for the fact that Paperless allows the same file to be present in multiple collections (which is not possible with standard Mac/EagleFiler) folders.

There’s some trickiness here because Paperless also allows you to have multiple collections that have the exact same name. The script will temporarily add some bookkeeping information (the collection’s ID number) to each tag’s name in order to keep track of which collection is which. After the import is done, it will remove the ID numbers from the collections that don’t actually have duplicate names. This requires updating to EagleFiler 1.9.20b2; otherwise the ID numbers will remain.

Also, strangely, often it populates the "title" field with the actual filename, rather than any info that's displayed in Paperless, so I'll have documents with titles like "4955BBA4-E77B-4298-B7EF-C - 12-9-21"

This was confusing because the Paperless title is called the “merchant” in the database schema, so I didn’t realize it was meant to be the title. I’ve now updated the script to preserve the title that was set in Paperless.