Writing Scripts with the Seal Module

The Seal Platform allows you to write and execute your own custom Python code within the platform, enabling powerful custom solutions and automations.

If this is your first time using Python, then there are great reference materials online such as: https://docs.python.org/3.10/tutorial/

What if I don't know how to code?

Not to worry - Seal comes with a built in AI Copilot to write code for you. Navigate to the 'Copilot' tab on the right hand side, and start chatting with the AI to describe what you need.

The AI agent has access to your current code, so you can ask it to help you debug specific issues or add to the existing code.

Once you're happy with the code, click on 'Accept code' to use it in your Script.

Note that the generated code may not fully be fit for your purpose - we recommend checking over the results.

The Seal Module

The Seal module is a Python package for interacting programatically with the Seal platform.

It is automatically available in every Script's Python environment - you don't need to import it manually.

The Seal module consists of a collection of methods on the seal object:

Getting entities

seal.get_entity(entity_id, ?version)

Returns the entire json blob of data for that entity. The entity id can be copied from the entity's URL in Seal - it's the final section of the url, after the entity title. Just passing an entity_id returns the latest version or draft of the entity. To get a specific version of an entity, include the version as a second argument.

seal.get_entities_by_title(title)

Get entities by their title (string). Note that exact titles are necessary. Since multiple entities can share the same title, this returns an array.

Getting and Updating Fields

seal.get_all_fields_by_entity_id(entity_id)

Retrieve all fields of a specified entity. The entity id can be copied from the entity's URL in Seal - it's the final section of the url, after the entity title.

To get a specific version of an entity, include the version as a second argument.

seal.get_fields("field_name")

Fetches specific fields from the entity where the script is embedded. Note that exact field names are necessary.

seal.update_field_value("field_name", "new_value")

Modify a field's value in the entity where the script is embedded.

seal.add_field("new_field", "Type", "value")

Add a new field to the embedded entity.

For specific types, refer to this specific section in the Scripts docs.

seal.delete_field("field_name")

Remove a field from the embedded entity. Note that the data associated within the field will also be removed.

Handling files

seal.download_file(file_entity_id, ?version)

The file is downloaded to the local filesystem of the virtual machine instance. The value returned is the local file path as a string.

seal.upload_file(file_path, file_name)

Returns the id of the new File Entity in Seal.

AI data extraction

seal.extract_data_from_file(file_entity_id, version, ?=prompt)

Extract data from a file entity. See Parameters below:

• file_entity_id: ID of the file entity to extract data from

• version: (Optional) Specific version of the file entity

• prompt: (Optional, keyword-only) Custom prompt to guide the data extraction

Returns: json Example:

data = seal.extract_data_from_file(
    "9351e027-d26c-4769-a395-507f4f148cb4",
     prompt="Extract all temperature readings by day"
)

Submitting Data

seal.submit_to_instance_submission_field("field_name", [{"key": "value"}])

Submit instances to a submission field. Specify specific field names and values.

You can also submit data to a submission table. See example:

seal.submit_to_instance_submission_field("Name of Submission table", [{ 
    "Number": 42, 
    "Text": "Hi",
    "Checkbox": True, 
    "Date": "2024-12-12",
    "Reference": [{ "version": '1', "id": "entity id"}],
    "Select": ["Option"],
    "User": ["UserID"]
    "Time & Date": "2025-02-18T14:10:30.815Z"
    }]) 
    

Creating Charts

chart = alt.Chart(data).mark_bar().encode(x="x", y="y")
chart_id = seal.create_chart(chart, title="Sample Chart")

Generate a chart from an Altair chart.

Importing packages

Seal comes with many common Python packages pre-installed. If there are other python packages you regularly require, please contact Seal support.

These packages are automatically imported in every Script, so don't need to be manually imported:

• altair (also aliased as alt)

• Chart (alias of altair.Chart)

• pandas (also aliased as pd)

Available packages to import include:

• altair

• annotated-types

• attrs

• blinker

• cachetools

• certifi

• cffi

• charset-normalizer

• click

• cloudevents

• contourpy

• cryptography

• cycler

• deprecation

• et-xmlfile

• flask

• fonttools

• functions-framework

• gcloud

• google-api-core

• google-auth

• google-cloud-appengine-logging

• google-cloud-audit-log

• google-cloud-core

• google-cloud-error-reporting

• google-cloud-logging

• google-cloud-storage

• google-crc32c

• google-resumable-media

• googleapis-common-protos

• grpc-google-iam-v1

• grpcio

• grpcio-status

• gunicorn

• httplib2

• idna

• itsdangerous

• jinja2

• joblib

• jsonschema

• jsonschema-specifications

• jwcrypto

• kiwisolver

• lxml

• markupsafe

• matplotlib

• numpy

• oauth2client

• openpyxl

• packaging

• pandas

• pillow

• proto-plus

• protobuf

• pyasn1

• pyasn1-modules

• pycorn

• pycparser

• pycryptodome

• pydantic

• pydantic-core

• pyparsing

• pyrebase4

• python-dateutil

• python-docx

• python-jwt

• pytz

• referencing

• requests

• requests-toolbelt

• rpds-py

• rsa

• scikit-learn

• scipy

• setuptools

• six

• tabulate

• threadpoolctl

• toolz

• typing-extensions

• urllib3

• vl-convert-python

• watchdog

• werkzeug

• xlrd

To temporarily install a package when running the script:

import subprocess
subprocess.check_output("pip install {name of package}".split())