Document Metadata Extraction

To retrieve attachments in bulk from sequential pathways, we use a Python script. It automatically requests each incremental ID and determines the appropriate file extension by inspecting HTTP Content-Type headers.

import os
import requests
import mimetypes
from urllib.parse import urljoin
import time

# Configured for local testing
BASE_URL = "https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/media/"
OUTPUT_DIR = "./downloaded_assets"
START_ID = 1
END_ID = 5000

os.makedirs(OUTPUT_DIR, exist_ok=True)

def download_file(resource_id):
    file_url = urljoin(BASE_URL, str(resource_id))
    
    try:
        # Use a GET request to retrieve the headers and content
        response = requests.get(file_url, timeout=10, verify=False)
        
        if response.status_code == 200:
            # 1. Read the Content-Type header (e.g., "application/pdf")
            content_type = response.headers.get('Content-Type', '').split(';')[0].strip()
            
            # 2. Look up the standard extension for this MIME type
            ext = mimetypes.guess_extension(content_type)
            
            # Fall back to a generic extension if the type is unknown
            if not ext:
                ext = '.dat'
                
            # 3. Construct the filename using the correct extension
            filename = f"asset_{resource_id}{ext}"
            filepath = os.path.join(OUTPUT_DIR, filename)
            
            with open(filepath, 'wb') as f:
                f.write(response.content)
            print(f"[+] Downloaded asset {resource_id} as {filename} (MIME: {content_type})")
        else:
            print(f"[-] Asset {resource_id} returned status: {response.status_code}")
            
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        print(f"[!] Error fetching asset {resource_id}: {e}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(f"Starting generic download from {BASE_URL}...")
    for rid in range(START_ID, END_ID + 1):
        download_file(rid)
        time.sleep(0.1)

Once files are downloaded locally, we use a Windows PowerShell script utilizing the COM Shell.Application object. This extracts extended shell properties such as System.Author and System.Document.LastAuthor.

$folderPath = "C:\Users\rtrav\govuk\downloaded_assets"
$shell = New-Object -com shell.application
$folder = $shell.Namespace($folderPath)

Get-ChildItem $folderPath | ForEach-Object {
    $file = $folder.ParseName($_.Name)
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        FileName      = $_.Name
        Author        = ($file.ExtendedProperty("System.Author") -join "; ")
        LastSavedBy   = $file.ExtendedProperty("System.Document.LastAuthor")
    }
} | Export-Csv -Path "metadata_export.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Sanitizing Before Publishing

Organizations should mandate automated document scrubbing/sanitization pipelines before assets are uploaded to public CMS repositories. Modern document management suites can strip custom properties, author identities, revision trackers, and internal folder path strings automatically.