File Content Extraction 26.1
Filter SDK Python Programming Guide

# Using Document Objects

As shown in Start Using the Filter API, you obtain a document object for each document that you want to process. The document object provides access to the data within a document, including its file format, metadata, text, and subfiles.

This topic provides some additional guidance about using document objects in your code.

A document object must be created and used on the same thread that created the parent session.

## Document Objects and Session Configuration

Changing session configuration options can change the data that is returned by methods of a document object, even if you created the document object before changing the configuration.

Consider the following example. You have a document with embedded images but no subfiles and you run the following code:

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    with kv.FilterSession(bin_directory_path, license) as session:
        session.config.extract_images(False)

        with session.open(file_path) as doc:
            len(doc.subfiles)  # Returns 0

            session.config.extract_images(True)
            len(doc.subfiles)  # Returns 3

(Changing your session configuration invalidates objects previously obtained through the document object. Instead, you should access data through document object members.)

## Password Protected Documents

When you have a document object, you might find that it is password protected. For instance, `doc.info.encrypted` may be `True`, or filtering the document might raise a `KeyViewError`. If you know the password, you can configure the session to use that password and then access the document's contents, as in the following code sample.

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    with session.open(file_path) as doc:
        # doc.filter(output_file_path) - would raise exception
        session.config.password("secret123")
        doc.filter(output_file_path) # does not raise exception

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Version 26.1 | Last updated January 2026

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Product: File Content Extraction 26.1

Topic Title: Using Document Objects