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41 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
41 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
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## Introduction
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A *document serializer* (AKA simply *serializer*) is a Docling abstraction that is
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initialized with a given [`DoclingDocument`](./docling_document.md) and returns a
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textual representation for that document.
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Besides the document serializer, Docling defines similar abstractions for several
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document subcomponents, for example: *text serializer*, *table serializer*,
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*picture serializer*, *list serializer*, *inline serializer*, and more.
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Last but not least, a *serializer provider* is a wrapper that abstracts the
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document serialization strategy from the document instance.
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## Base classes
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To enable both flexibility for downstream applications and out-of-the-box utility,
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Docling defines a serialization class hierarchy, providing:
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- base types for the above abstractions: `BaseDocSerializer`, as well as
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`BaseTextSerializer`, `BaseTableSerializer` etc, and `BaseSerializerProvider`, and
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- specific subclasses for the above-mentioned base types, e.g. `MarkdownDocSerializer`.
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You can review all methods required to define the above base classes [here](https://github.com/docling-project/docling-core/blob/main/docling_core/transforms/serializer/base.py).
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From a client perspective, the most relevant is `BaseDocSerializer.serialize()`, which
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returns the textual representation, as well as relevant metadata on which document
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components contributed to that serialization.
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## Use in `DoclingDocument` export methods
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Docling provides predefined serializers for Markdown, HTML, and DocTags.
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The respective `DoclingDocument` export methods (e.g. `export_to_markdown()`) are
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provided as user shorthands — internally directly instantiating and delegating to
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respective serializers.
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## Examples
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For an example showcasing how to use serializers, see
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[here](../examples/serialization.ipynb).
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