Document splitters behavior

Splitter processor output contains split information for the input document, including a confidence score. The Document AI API outputs a Document JSON object, and the output format uses the entities field for representing document splits. Additional information depends on the specific type of splitter.

  • Entity.type specifies the document classification.

  • Entity.pageAnchor.pageRefs[] specifies the pages that contain each sub-document. Note that pageRefs[].page is zero-based and is the index into the document.pages[] field.

Splitter versions using generative AI are not designed to split logical documents that are over 500 pages long. You can manually split logical documents that are more than 500 pages long into two or more documents and run the splitter for each separately to classify them.

Splitters identify page boundaries, but do not actually split the input document for you. The Document AI Toolbox SDK provides utility functions that can split the input document based on output from a splitter processor.

Code samples

Splitters identify page boundaries, but don't actually split the input document for you. You can use Document AI Toolbox to physically split a PDF file by using the page boundaries. The following code samples print the page ranges without splitting the PDF:

Java

For more information, see the Document AI Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Document AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.


import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1beta3.Document;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1beta3.DocumentProcessorServiceClient;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1beta3.DocumentProcessorServiceSettings;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1beta3.ProcessRequest;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1beta3.ProcessResponse;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1beta3.RawDocument;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

public class ProcessSplitterDocument {
  public static void processSplitterDocument()
      throws IOException, InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String location = "your-project-location"; // Format is "us" or "eu".
    String processerId = "your-processor-id";
    String filePath = "path/to/input/file.pdf";
    processSplitterDocument(projectId, location, processerId, filePath);
  }

  public static void processSplitterDocument(
      String projectId, String location, String processorId, String filePath)
      throws IOException, InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs
    // to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your
    // requests, call
    // the "close" method on the client to safely clean up any remaining background
    // resources.
    String endpoint = String.format("%s-documentai.googleapis.com:443", location);
    DocumentProcessorServiceSettings settings =
        DocumentProcessorServiceSettings.newBuilder().setEndpoint(endpoint).build();
    try (DocumentProcessorServiceClient client = DocumentProcessorServiceClient.create(settings)) {
      // The full resource name of the processor, e.g.:
      // projects/project-id/locations/location/processor/processor-id
      // You must create new processors in the Cloud Console first
      String name =
          String.format("projects/%s/locations/%s/processors/%s", projectId, location, processorId);

      // Read the file.
      byte[] imageFileData = Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(filePath));

      // Convert the image data to a Buffer and base64 encode it.
      ByteString content = ByteString.copyFrom(imageFileData);

      RawDocument document =
          RawDocument.newBuilder().setContent(content).setMimeType("application/pdf").build();

      // Configure the process request.
      ProcessRequest request =
          ProcessRequest.newBuilder().setName(name).setRawDocument(document).build();

      // Recognizes text entities in the PDF document
      ProcessResponse result = client.processDocument(request);
      Document documentResponse = result.getDocument();

      System.out.println("Document processing complete.");

      // Read the splitter output from the document splitter processor:
      // https://cloud.google.com/document-ai/docs/processors-list#processor_doc-splitter
      // This processor only provides text for the document and information on how
      // to split the document on logical boundaries. To identify and extract text,
      // form elements, and entities please see other processors like the OCR, form,
      // and specalized processors.
      List<Document.Entity> entities = documentResponse.getEntitiesList();
      System.out.printf("Found %d subdocuments:\n", entities.size());
      for (Document.Entity entity : entities) {
        float entityConfidence = entity.getConfidence();
        String pagesRangeText = pageRefsToString(entity.getPageAnchor().getPageRefsList());
        String subdocumentType = entity.getType();
        if (subdocumentType.isEmpty()) {
          System.out.printf(
              "%.2f%% confident that %s a subdocument.\n", entityConfidence * 100, pagesRangeText);
        } else {
          System.out.printf(
              "%.2f%% confident that %s a '%s' subdocument.\n",
              entityConfidence * 100, pagesRangeText, subdocumentType);
        }
      }
    }
  }

  // Converts page reference(s) to a string describing the page or page range.
  private static String pageRefsToString(List<Document.PageAnchor.PageRef> pageRefs) {
    if (pageRefs.size() == 1) {
      return String.format("page %d is", pageRefs.get(0).getPage() + 1);
    } else {
      long start = pageRefs.get(0).getPage() + 1;
      long end = pageRefs.get(1).getPage() + 1;
      return String.format("pages %d to %d are", start, end);
    }
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Document AI Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Document AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';
// const location = 'YOUR_PROJECT_LOCATION'; // Format is 'us' or 'eu'
// const processorId = 'YOUR_PROCESSOR_ID'; // Create processor in Cloud Console
// const filePath = '/path/to/local/pdf';

const {DocumentProcessorServiceClient} =
  require('@google-cloud/documentai').v1beta3;

// Instantiates a client
const client = new