Enhanced Anonymization

DocuDesk extends its GDPR anonymization capabilities with a batch processing workflow that allows users to upload, review, and anonymize multiple documents in a single guided session. The pipeline is designed as a stepwise state machine backed by a distributed cache.

Overview

The batch workflow proceeds through these stages:

1. Upload — Upload one or more files as a named batch
2. Extract — Step through files one at a time to extract entities via Presidio
3. Review — Inspect detected entities and select which types to anonymize
4. Anonymize — Apply anonymization to all extracted files with selected entity types
5. Report — Download a CSV/JSON report of replacements per file

API Endpoints

Upload Batch

POST /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/batch/upload

Uploads multiple files and creates a batch in the cache. The batch is identified by a server-generated UUID and expires after 2 hours of inactivity.

Form fields:

Field	Type	Description
files	multipart[]	One or more files to include in the batch

Response:

{
  "batchId": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "status": "uploading",
  "fileCount": 3
}

---

Extract Next File

POST /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/batch/{batchId}/extract

Extracts entities from the next unprocessed file in the batch. Call this endpoint repeatedly until batchStatus is review.

Response:

{
  "batchStatus": "extracting",
  "fileId": 42,
  "fileName": "report.pdf",
  "entityCount": 7,
  "filesExtracted": 1,
  "totalFiles": 3
}

When all files are extracted: batchStatus becomes review.

---

Get Batch Status

GET /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/batch/{batchId}/status

Returns the current state of a batch including all file statuses.

---

Get Detected Entities

GET /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/batch/{batchId}/entities

Returns the aggregated entity types detected across all files in the batch, for use in the review step before anonymization.

---

Anonymize Batch

POST /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/batch/{batchId}/anonymize

Applies anonymization to all extracted files using the selected entity types.

Request body (JSON):

Field	Type	Description
entities	string[]	Entity type labels to anonymize (e.g. PERSON, PHONE_NUMBER)

Response:

{
  "batchId": "550e8400-...",
  "batchStatus": "completed",
  "processedFiles": 3,
  "skippedFiles": [],
  "totalFiles": 3
}

---

Download Report

GET /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/batch/{batchId}/report

Returns a summary report of all replacements made per file.

---

Anonymization Profiles

GET  /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/profiles
PUT  /apps/docudesk/api/anonymization/profiles

Manage named entity type profiles (preset selections of entity types for repeated use).

---

Configuration Options

Config key	Default	Description
docudesk_batch_max_files	100	Maximum files per batch session

Set via the DocuDesk admin settings or occ config:app:set docudesk docudesk_batch_max_files.

Batch State Machine

uploading → extracting → review → anonymizing → completed
                              ↓
                           (per-file: error)

Files that fail extraction or anonymization are marked error and skipped; the batch continues with the remaining files.

Services

BatchStateService

Manages batch lifecycle in the distributed cache (APCu or Redis).

Method	Description
createBatch()	Create a new batch and persist to cache
getBatch()	Retrieve batch by ID; returns null if expired
updateBatch()	Update batch state in cache
deleteBatch()	Remove a batch from the cache
getMaxFiles()	Read configured max-files limit

BatchExtractionService

Steps through a batch one file at a time, calling AnonymizationService::extractAndDetectEntities().

Method	Description
extractNext()	Extract entities from the next uploaded file in the batch

BatchAnonymizeService

Anonymizes all extracted files in a batch.

Method	Description
anonymizeBatch()	Apply anonymization to extracted files with given entity types

BatchUploadService

Handles file upload and batch initialization.

BatchReportService

Generates the post-anonymization report.

EntityConsolidationService

Aggregates detected entity types across all files for the review step.

Dependencies

Dependency	Purpose
AnonymizationService	Single-file entity extraction and anonymization
ICacheFactory	Distributed cache (APCu/Redis) for batch state
IAppConfig	Read batch configuration limits