Install on Google Cloud

You can run DocView Capture in your own Google Cloud project. One command creates everything it needs. You then finish in the browser, in the setup wizard. You do not need to install anything on your computer: the command runs in Cloud Shell, a command line that opens in your browser.

What gets created

<prefix> is a short name for the installation. It is docview unless you choose another one.

What you need

• A Google Cloud project with billing turned on.
• Permission to create resources in it. The Owner role on the project is simplest.

That is all. Cloud Shell already has every tool the command uses.

Step 1: Run the deployment

1. Click the button. It opens Cloud Shell with a copy of the published DocView Capture repository and a short tutorial beside it.

   

2. If Cloud Shell asks, click Trust repo and Authorize.

3. Run the command. Replace my-project with your project ID, and choose the region where your data should be:

   ./deploy/gcp/deploy.sh --project my-project --region europe-west2
   

4. Type y when it asks you to continue.

It takes about 15–25 minutes. Creating the database is the slow part. If Cloud Shell disconnects, open it again and run the same command: it carries on where it stopped.

Useful options:

All options: ./deploy/gcp/deploy.sh --help

When it finishes, you see:

   Site:          https://docview-web-123456789012.europe-west2.run.app
   Setup wizard:  https://docview-web-123456789012.europe-west2.run.app/setup
   Setup token:   A1b2C3d4E5f6G7h8J9k0L1m2

Step 2: Finish in the setup wizard

1. Open the Setup wizard address. If it does not answer yet, wait a minute and refresh: the first start creates the database.
2. Enter the setup token.
3. Create the administrator account and check the other steps. The database and storage are already set by the deployment, so the wizard shows them as fixed.

See The setup wizard for each step. To show the setup token again:

gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=docview-setup-token --project=my-project

Add DocView Workers or DocView OmniRead

Run the same command again with a new number. Nothing else changes and no data is touched:

./deploy/gcp/deploy.sh --project my-project --region europe-west2 --workers 3 --omniread 1

If you used other options the first time, such as --prefix, --domain or --admin-email, repeat them.

To change only the number of DocView Workers, this single command is enough:

gcloud run services update docview-worker --region=europe-west2 --min-instances=3 --max-instances=3

--workers 0 removes the DocView Workers and --omniread 0 removes OmniRead. Work that is waiting stays in the queue until DocView Workers run again.

After adding OmniRead, open the Batch Setup that should use it and choose DocView OmniRead as its OCR engine. The address and key are already configured. See DocView OmniRead. The first documents take longer, because OmniRead downloads its models when they are first needed.

Use your own domain

1. Run the command with --domain, for example --domain capture.example.com.

2. Point the domain at the web site. The command prints how. In regions that support it this is a domain mapping:

   gcloud beta run domain-mappings create --service=docview-web --domain=capture.example.com --region=europe-west2
   

   Then add the DNS records it shows at your DNS provider. Google creates the certificate. In other regions, use a load balancer; ask your Google Cloud administrator.

Until the domain works, the site stays available at its run.app address.

Update to a new version

Run the command again with the version you want:

./deploy/gcp/deploy.sh --project my-project --region europe-west2 --tag 1.4.0

The site and DocView Workers restart on the new version and update the database themselves. Read Upgrading first, for example to take a backup.

Costs

These are rough monthly estimates in US dollars for the default setup. Prices depend on the region and change over time, so check them with the Google Cloud pricing calculator.

SQL Server Express has no licence charge; you pay for the database server's processor, memory and disk. The web and standard editions add a licence charge per vCPU.

The smallest sensible setup is the default: one web site, one DocView Worker, SQL Server Express and no OmniRead, roughly $230–260 a month plus storage. Google Cloud committed use discounts lower this for long-running installations.

Logs

• In the Google Cloud console, open Cloud Run, click the service (docview-web, docview-worker or docview-omniread) and open the Logs tab.

• Or in Cloud Shell:

  gcloud run services logs read docview-web --region=europe-west2 --limit=100
  

Delete everything

./deploy/gcp/deploy.sh --project my-project --region europe-west2 --delete

This removes the web site, DocView Workers, OmniRead, image repository, NAT gateway and the setup token. It keeps the database and the storage bucket, so you can install again later and find your data.

To delete the database and all page images as well:

./deploy/gcp/deploy.sh --project my-project --region europe-west2 --delete --delete-data

This cannot be undone. Google Cloud does not let you reuse the database name for about a week, so a new installation in that time needs a different --prefix.

Troubleshooting

• "Permission denied" or "Billing must be enabled": check that billing is turned on for the project and that you have the Owner role (or ask an administrator to run the command).
• "Setting IAM policy failed" when the web site is deployed: your organisation does not allow public sites. Ask your Google Cloud administrator to allow public access for this project's Cloud Run services.
• The setup page does not open after the command finished: wait a minute and refresh; the first start creates the database. If it still fails, read the docview-web logs (see Logs).
• The command stopped half-way: run it again. It skips what already exists and continues.

To run DocView Capture somewhere else, see Install with Docker.