Skip to main content

Automated downloader for University Malaya past year exam papers

Project description

Open Source UM PastYear Paper Downloader

One-click bulk download solution for University Malaya (UM) past year exam papers

Automate the tedious process of manually downloading past year papers one by one. Simply provide your UM credentials and subject code, and get all available papers in a organized ZIP file.

PyPI version Python 3.8+ License: MIT


Quick Start

1. Install Python

2. Install umpaper-fetch

Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):

# Windows
python -m venv venv
.\venv\Scripts\activate

# macOS/Linux
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

If not using virtual environment, change all commands from "umpaper" to "python -m umpaper_fetch.cli"

Then install the package:

# Install from PyPI
pip install umpaper-fetch

# Upgrade to latest version
pip install --upgrade umpaper-fetch

3. Basic Usage

# See all available commands and options
umpaper --help
# Run the downloader interactively
umpaper

Key Features

Core Functionality

  • One-Click Bulk Download: Download all past year papers for any subject code automatically
  • Smart ZIP Organization: Automatically organizes papers by year and creates a structured ZIP archive
  • Secure Authentication: Handles complex UM OpenAthens authentication flow seamlessly
  • Concurrent Downloads: Multi-threaded downloading for faster performance
  • Auto-Retry Logic: Robust error handling with configurable retry attempts
  • Real-time Progress: Live progress bars and detailed status updates

File Organization

  • Hierarchical Structure: Papers organized by subject → year → semester
  • Custom Download Locations: Choose where to save your papers
  • Smart File Naming: Automatically detects and preserves meaningful filenames
  • Auto-Generated README: Includes download summary and paper inventory in ZIP
  • Organized Output: Individual PDFs + consolidated ZIP file
  • Optional Cleanup: Choice to keep individual files or ZIP only

User Experience

  • Terminal-Based Interface: Clean, intuitive command-line interface
  • Interactive Mode: Prompts for credentials and settings when needed
  • Command-Line Mode: Full automation with command-line arguments
  • Browser Options: Support for Edge, Chrome with auto-detection
  • Comprehensive Logging: Detailed logs for troubleshooting
  • Customizable Command: Extensive options to control timeouts, retries, browser selection, subjects code

Complete Command Reference

For Regular Users

Interactive Mode (Recommended for beginners)

# See all available options first
umpaper --help

# Run interactive mode and it will prompts for all required action
umpaper

Available Options

Command Short Description Default
--help -h Available command to use
--username -u UM username (without @siswa.um.edu.my) prompted
--subject-code -s Subject code to search for (e.g., WIA1005). Supported multiple subject code separated by space prompted
--output-dir -o Custom download directory ./downloads
--browser -b Browser choice: auto, chrome, edge chrome
--timeout Session timeout in seconds 30
--max-retries Maximum retry attempts for failed downloads 3
--no-location-prompt Skip interactive location selection false
--show-browser Show browser window (disable headless mode) false
--verbose -v Enable detailed debug logging false

Quick Commands

# With username and subject code
umpaper -u 23011111 -s WIA1005

# Process multiple subject
umpaper -s WIA1005 WIA1002 WIA2001

# With custom output directory
umpaper -u 23011111 -s WXES1116 -o "C:/Downloads/Papers"

# Skip location prompt for automation
umpaper -u 23011111 -s WIA1005 --no-location-prompt

For Developers

Development Installation

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/MarcusMQF/umpaper-fetch.git
cd umpaper-fetch

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

# Install development dependencies
pip install -e .[dev]

What You Get

Organized File Structure

downloads/
├── WIA1005/
│   ├── Year_2023/
│   │   ├── WIA1005_Final_2023_S1.pdf
│   │   └── WIA1005_Final_2023_S2.pdf
│   ├── Year_2022/
│   │   ├── WIA1005_Final_2022_S1.pdf
│   │   └── WIA1005_Final_2022_S2.pdf
│   └── Unsorted/
│       └── WIA1005_Additional_Papers.pdf
├── WIA1005_past_years.zip
└── WIA1005_README.txt

ZIP Archive Contents

  • Hierarchical Organization: Subject → Year → Files
  • Automatic README: Download summary and file inventory
  • Optimized Compression: Balanced compression for size/speed
  • Preserve Metadata: Original filenames and dates maintained

Prerequisites & Setup

System Requirements

  • Python 3.8+ installed
  • Internet connection (stable recommended)
  • UM student account with active credentials
  • Browser: Microsoft Edge (Windows) or Google Chrome (Mac/Linux)

Browser Setup

  • Windows: Google Chrome (pre-installed, recommended)
  • Mac/Linux: Google Chrome (install from google.com/chrome)
  • Auto-detection: Tool will find the best available browser

Firewall/Network

  • Tool connects to exampaper.um.edu.my via HTTPS
  • No special firewall configuration needed
  • Works on UM campus network and external networks

Security & Privacy

What We Do

  • Use secure HTTPS connections only
  • Handle UM authentication through official channels
  • Clean up browser data after each session
  • Never store or log passwords
  • Respect server rate limits

What We Don't Do

  • Store credentials anywhere
  • Bypass security measures
  • Access unauthorized content
  • Share or transmit personal data
  • Violate UM terms of service

Legal & Academic Use

Educational Purpose Only: This tool is designed for UM students to efficiently access past year papers for their studies. Users must:

  • Have valid UM credentials
  • Comply with UM's terms of service
  • Use papers for academic purposes only
  • Respect copyright and intellectual property rights

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial tool not affiliated with University Malaya.


Support & Contributing

Get Help

  • Check this README for common usage patterns
  • Report issues on GitHub Issues
  • Request features via GitHub Issues

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/feature-name)
  3. Make your changes with tests
  4. Submit a pull request

Project details


Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

umpaper_fetch-1.0.7.tar.gz (56.8 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distribution

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

umpaper_fetch-1.0.7-py3-none-any.whl (54.4 kB view details)

Uploaded Python 3

File details

Details for the file umpaper_fetch-1.0.7.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: umpaper_fetch-1.0.7.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 56.8 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
  • Uploaded via: twine/3.8.0 pkginfo/1.12.1.2 readme-renderer/44.0 requests/2.32.5 requests-toolbelt/1.0.0 urllib3/2.0.7 tqdm/4.66.1 importlib-metadata/6.8.0 keyring/25.6.0 rfc3986/1.5.0 colorama/0.4.6 CPython/3.11.9

File hashes

Hashes for umpaper_fetch-1.0.7.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 fbc1c85e5ecef593964e642d3e9808b8c0b2b5bb6e7390cbb06947c7c2988200
MD5 00490ed8c6dbc128955a2adbfe9511bd
BLAKE2b-256 85a540c01cf327d0fe48a392bee75314c76ee779319c3727f6574b960911470f

See more details on using hashes here.

File details

Details for the file umpaper_fetch-1.0.7-py3-none-any.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: umpaper_fetch-1.0.7-py3-none-any.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 54.4 kB
  • Tags: Python 3
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? No
  • Uploaded via: twine/3.8.0 pkginfo/1.12.1.2 readme-renderer/44.0 requests/2.32.5 requests-toolbelt/1.0.0 urllib3/2.0.7 tqdm/4.66.1 importlib-metadata/6.8.0 keyring/25.6.0 rfc3986/1.5.0 colorama/0.4.6 CPython/3.11.9

File hashes

Hashes for umpaper_fetch-1.0.7-py3-none-any.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 543b95df994b7fd387ec38fbb5fa91d2b88818cd6e19912c168df001e871df2a
MD5 eebc214e23976cfb498d866f8d87c78c
BLAKE2b-256 daaca4e7d36043a94d9ef45f6a9a1e5d57a20952a2aa46fcad753bf8d850c98a

See more details on using hashes here.

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Pingdom Monitoring Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page