Factur-X Python library

Factur-X is the e-invoicing standard for France and Germany. The Factur-X specifications are available on the FNFE-MPE website <http://fnfe-mpe.org/factur-x/>_ in English and French. The Factur-X standard is also called ZUGFeRD 2.1 in Germany <https://www.ferd-net.de/standards/zugferd-2.1.1/index.html>_.

The main feature of this Python library is to generate Factur-X invoices from a regular PDF invoice and a Factur-X compliant XML file.

This lib provides additionnal features such as:

• extract the Factur-X XML file from a Factur-X PDF invoice,
• check a Factur-X XML file against the official XML Schema Definition.

Some of the features provided by this lib also work for ZUGFeRD 1.0 (the ancestor of the Factur-X standard).

Installation

This library works both on python 2.7 and python 3.

To install it for python 3, run:

.. code::

sudo pip3 install --upgrade factur-x

To install it for python 2.7, run:

.. code::

sudo pip install --upgrade factur-x

Usage

.. code::

from facturx import generate_facturx_from_file

facturx_pdf_invoice = generate_facturx_from_file(regular_pdf_invoice, facturx_xml_file)

To have more examples, look at the source code of the command line tools located in the bin subdirectory.

Command line tools

Several command line tools are provided with this lib:

• facturx-pdfgen: generate a Factur-X PDF invoice from a regular PDF invoice and an XML file
• facturx-pdfextractxml: extract the Factur-X XML file from a Factur-X PDF invoice
• facturx-xmlcheck: check a Factur-X XML file against the official Factur-X XML Schema Definition

All these commande line tools have a -h option that explains how to use them and shows all the available options.

Webservice

This project also provides a webservice to generate a Factur-X invoice from a regular PDF invoice, the factur-x.xml file and additional attachments (if any). This webservice runs on Python3 and uses Flask <https://www.palletsprojects.com/p/flask/>_. To run the webservice, run facturx-webservice available in the bin subdirectory of the project. To query the webservice, you must send an HTTP POST request in multipart/form-data using the following keys:

• pdf -> PDF invoice (required)
• xml -> factur-x.xml file (any profile, required)
• attachment1 -> First attachment (optional)
• attachment2 -> Second attachment (optional)
• ...

It is recommended to run the webservice behind an HTTPS/HTTP proxy such as Nginx <https://www.nginx.com/>_ or Apache <https://httpd.apache.org/>_. You will certainly have to increase the default maximum upload size (default value is only 1MB under Nginx!): use the parameter client_max_body_size for Nginx and LimitRequestBody for Apache.

You can use curl <https://curl.haxx.se/>_, a command line tool to send HTTP requests (on Linux Ubuntu/Debian, just install the curl package) to generate the request:

.. code::

curl -X POST -F '[email protected]/home/me/invoice.pdf' -F '[email protected]/home/me/factur-x.xml' -F '[email protected]/home/me/purchase_order.pdf' -o /home/me/facturx_invoice.pdf https://ws.fnfe-mpe.org/generate_facturx

A public instance of this webservice is available on a server of FNFE-MPE <http://fnfe-mpe.org/>_ at the URL https://ws.fnfe-mpe.org/generate_facturx.

Licence

This library is published under the BSD licence (same licence as PyPDF4 <https://github.com/claird/PyPDF4/>_ on which this lib depends).

Contributors

• Alexis de Lattre [email protected]

Changelog

• Version 1.12 dated 2020-07-16

  • Compress attachments and XMP metadata using Flate compression

• Version 1.11 dated 2020-05-11

  • Fix crash UnicodeEncodeError on Python 2.7

• Version 1.10 dated 2020-04-14

  • Update XSD of all profiles to Factur-X version 1.0.5

• Version 1.9 dated 2020-02-11

  • Improve Python3 support in get_facturx_xml_from_pdf()

• Version 1.8 dated 2020-01-16

  • New tool facturx-webservice which implements a REST webservice using Flask to generate a Factur-X PDF invoice via a simple POST request.

  • New argument 'attachments' for generate_facturx_from_file() which replaces argument additional_attachments:

    • Possibility to set a filename for the attachment different from filename of the filepath
    • Possibility to set creation dates for attachments
    • Update script facturx-pdfgen to use the new attachments argument

• Version 1.7 dated 2020-01-13

  • Fix bug in release 1.6 in XMP: variables were not replaced by their real value

• Version 1.6 dated 2020-01-09

  • Generate XMP (XML-based PDF metadata) via string replacement instead of using XML lib

• Version 1.5 dated 2019-11-13

  • Fix bug in generate_facturx_from_file() when using argument additional_attachments

• Version 1.4 dated 2019-07-24

  • Update Factur-X XSD to the final version of Factur-X v1.0.04
  • Support XML extraction with ZUGFeRD invoices using 'zugferd-invoice.xml' filename (instead of the filename 'ZUGFeRD-invoice.xml' specified by the standard)

• Version 1.3 dated 2019-06-12

  • Add XSD files for Extended profile in the Python package

• Version 1.2 dated 2019-06-12

  • add support for the Extended profile
  • validate XML for Minimum and Basic WL profiles with the XSD of profile EN 16931, as asked by Cyrille Sautereau
  • minor improvements in the code for /Kids

• Version 1.1 dated 2019-04-22

  • Improve support for embedded files extraction by adding support for /Kids

• Version 1.0 dated 2019-01-26

  • Use PyPDF4 instead of PyPDF2, because there are no new releases of PyPDF2 since May 2016 (cf https://github.com/mstamy2/PyPDF2/wiki/State-of-PyPDF2-and-Future-Plans), and we need a recent version of PyPDF2 to be able to generate fully compliant PDF/A-3 files.

• Version 0.9 dated 2019-01-25

  • Port to python 3 contributed by JoshuaJan (https://github.com/joshuajan)
  • Fix path to ZUGFeRD 1.0 XSD

• Version 0.8 dated 2018-06-10

  • Make pretty_print work for XMP file, for better readability of that file

• Version 0.7 dated 2018-05-24

  • Fix XMP structure under /x:xmpmeta/rdf:RDF/rdf:Description (use XML tags instead of XML attributes)
  • declare PDF-1.6 instead of PDF-1.3 (still declared by default by pyPDF2)

• Version 0.6 dated 2018-05-01

  • Now fully PDF/A-3 compliant with additionnal attachments (tested with veraPDF)
  • facturx-pdfgen: don't overwrite by default and add --overwrite option
  • Add factur-x library version number in metadata creator entry

• Version 0.5 dated 2018-03-29

  • Fix XMP metadata structure
  • Now fully PDF/A-3 compliant when the input PDF file is PDF/A compliant (tested with veraPDF). This implied copying /OutputIntents and /ID datas from source PDF to Factur-X PDF.
  • Fix support for additionnal attachments: they can now all be saved with Acrobat Reader
  • Improve XML extraction from PDF Factur-x file

• Version 0.4 dated 2018-03-27

  • Factur-x specs say /AFRelationship must be /Data (and not /Alternative)
  • Update Factur-X XSD to v1.0 final
  • Add support for additionnal attachments
  • Add factur-x lib version in Creator metadata table
  • Add /PageMode = /UseAttachments, so that the attachments are displayed by default when opening Factur-X PDF invoice with Acrobat Reader
  • Improve and enrich PDF objects (ModDate, CheckSum, Size)