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With GroupDocs.Redaction API you can apply metadata redactions for documents of different formats like PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX and others. See full list at supported document formats article.
GroupDocs.Redactions provides a flexible API that allows to replace or remove metadata using filters or search by regular expression.
Base functionality for all redactions, derived from MetadataRedaction base class is metadata filtering and it is mandatory for metadata redactions. It uses flagged enumeration MetadataFilters, containing items for most frequent metadata entries. You can set the filter to All, or any combination of metadata. For instance, the example below sets filter to Author, Manager and NameOfApplication - for textual redaction or cleaning them out:
# redaction derived from MetadataRedaction
redaction.filter = MetadataFilters.AUTHOR | MetadataFilters.MANAGER | MetadataFilters.NAME_OF_APPLICATION
Below is the table with full list of MetadataFilters items:
| Filter | Numeric value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| None | 0 | Empty filter setting, matches no metadata items |
| Author | 1 | Author of the document |
| Category | 2 | Category of the document |
| Comments | 4 | Document comment |
| Company | 8 | Company of the Author |
| ContentStatus | 16 | Content status |
| CreatedTime | 32 | Created time |
| HyperlinkBase | 64 | Hyperlink base |
| LastPrinted | 128 | Last printed date and time |
| LastSavedBy | 256 | Last saved by user |
| LastSavedTime | 1024 | Last saved date and time |
| NameOfApplication | 2048 | Name of application where the document was created |
| Manager | 4096 | Author’s manager name |
| RevisionNumber | 8192 | Revision number |
| Subject | 16384 | Subject of the document |
| Template | 32768 | Document template name |
| Title | 65536 | Document title |
| TotalEditingTime | 131072 | Total editing time |
| Version | 262144 | Document’s version |
| Description | 524288 | Document’s description |
| Keywords | 1048576 | Document’s keywords |
| ContentType | 2097152 | Content type |
| All | 2147483647 | All types of the metadata items |
You can replace all or specific metadata in the document with empty (blank or minimal) values using EraseMetadataRedaction class. The example below blanks out all properties of the document:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import EraseMetadataRedaction, MetadataFilters
def clean_all_metadata():
# Specify the redaction options to erase all metadata
met_red = EraseMetadataRedaction(MetadataFilters.ALL)
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(met_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
clean_all_metadata()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 16 KB)
You can specify MetadataFilter.All or use default constructor to blank out all metadata within given document, Custom - to clear all custom metadata entries.
You can use MetadataSearchRedaction to remove sensitive data from document’s metadata using regular expressions. For instance, we can remove any mention of “Company Ltd.”:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import MetadataSearchRedaction
def redact_metadata():
# Specify the redaction options: search pattern and replacement string
met_red = MetadataSearchRedaction("Company Ltd.", "--company--")
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(met_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_metadata()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 16 KB)
First argument is regular expression, second is a replacement string. You can also set scope for redaction by setting filter, e.g. to MetadataFilter.Company. - it will leave the regular expressions matches undone in all metadata items, except “Company” property:
from groupdocs.redaction import Redactor
from groupdocs.redaction.options import SaveOptions
from groupdocs.redaction.redactions import MetadataSearchRedaction, MetadataFilters
def redact_metadata_with_filter():
# Specify the redaction options: search pattern and replacement string
met_red = MetadataSearchRedaction("Company Ltd.", "--company--")
# Limit the redaction scope to the Company metadata item only
met_red.filter = MetadataFilters.COMPANY
# Load the document to be redacted
with Redactor("./sample.docx") as redactor:
# Apply the redaction
result = redactor.apply(met_red)
# Save the redacted document next to the source file
so = SaveOptions()
so.add_suffix = True
so.rasterize_to_pdf = False
so.redacted_file_suffix = "redacted"
redactor.save(so)
if __name__ == "__main__":
redact_metadata_with_filter()
sample.docx is the sample file used in this example. Click here to download it.
Binary file (DOCX, 16 KB)
All metadata redactions apply to each metadata item separately, and even if metadata item redaction fails, the rest of the metadata items will be updated. You can find a list of failed, skipped (rejected) metadata items and reasons for that in ErrorMessage property of RedactorLogEntry.Result.
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