Re: [Rails] Extract text from PDF file

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:22:11 -0800

PDFBox is the library I'm using on a current project: http://pdfbox.apache.org/ There is a link to "Extract Text" under Command Line Utilities. There is also a section called "Text Extraction" under Tutorials.
There is a ruby command line utility that wraps PDFBox called Docsplit: http://documentcloud.github.com/docsplit/ that might be worth looking into. 

For pdftk: http://pdf-toolkit.rubyforge.org/classes/PDF/Toolkit.html#M000003


Hope this helps,
Garrett Lancaster


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        Walter Lee Davis <mailto:[email protected]>
January 31, 2011 1:58 PM



I don't see how these relate to the question -- they are apparently 
designed to generate PDFs rather than to extract text from existing 
PDF documents. Can you point to an example where these libraries can 
be used in that fashion? I'd love to use something more professionally 
developed than my own system.


Walter

On Jan 31, 2011, at 12:36 PM, Garrett Lancaster wrote:


pdftk, pdfbox (java), pdfkit

Garrett Lancaster







Walter Lee Davis
January 31, 2011 11:32 AM


On Jan 31, 2011, at 12:12 PM, Tushar Gandhi wrote:



I did this using Paperclip and defining a processor for Paperclip as 
follows:


------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Garrett Lancaster <mailto:[email protected]>
January 31, 2011 11:36 AM


pdftk, pdfbox (java), pdfkit

Garrett Lancaster

------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Walter Lee Davis <mailto:[email protected]>
January 31, 2011 11:32 AM



On Jan 31, 2011, at 12:12 PM, Tushar Gandhi wrote:



I did this using Paperclip and defining a processor for Paperclip as 
follows:


#lib/paperclip_processors/text.rb
module Paperclip
  # Handles extracting plain text from PDF file attachments
  class Text < Processor

    attr_accessor :whiny

    # Creates a Text extract from PDF
    def make
      src = @file
      dst = Tempfile.new([@basename, 'txt'].compact.join("."))
      command = <<-end_command
        "#{ File.expand_path(src.path) }"
        "#{ File.expand_path(dst.path) }"
      end_command

      begin

        success = Paperclip.run("/usr/bin/pdftotext -nopgbrk", 
command.gsub(/\s+/, " "))
        Rails.logger.info "Processing #{src.path} to #{dst.path} in 
the text processor."

      rescue PaperclipCommandLineError

        raise PaperclipError, "There was an error processing the text 
for #{@basename}" if @whiny

      end
      dst
    end
  end
end

#app/models/document.rb

  has_attached_file :pdf,:styles => { :text => { :fake => 'variable' } 
}, :processors => [:text]

  after_post_process :extract_text

  private
  def extract_text
    file = File.open("#{pdf.queued_for_write[:text].path}","r")
    plain_text = ""
    while (line = file.gets)
      plain_text << Iconv.conv('ASCII//IGNORE', 'UTF8', line)
    end

    self.plain_text = plain_text #text column to hold the extracted 
text for searching

  end


I had to find and install the creaky-old pdftotext library on my 
server (happily, there was an apt-get bundle for it) and configure the 
path correctly. When Paperclip accepts a PDF upload, it creates a text 
extraction of that file and saves it in 
system/pdfs/:id/text/filename.pdf. Note that while it has a .pdf 
extension, the file itself is actually just the plain text extracted 
from the original pdf. After quite a lot of googling and begging my 
local Ruby group, I got the recipe for ripping open that text file and 
reading it into a variable to store on the record. The text you get 
out of pdftotext will vary wildly in quality and comprehensiveness, 
but since all I needed was a way to get a simple search system fed, it 
works fine for my needs. I never show this text to anyone, just use it 
as the "keywords" for search. You may want/need to present an editing 
field for the administrator to clean up these extracted texts.


Walter

------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Tushar Gandhi <mailto:[email protected]>
January 31, 2011 11:12 AM


Hi,
In my upcoming application we are uploading the pdf files.
After uploading the pdf file I have to extract the text from pdf and
display it to user.
can anyone tell me how to extract text from pdf file?
Is there any plugin or gem present for this?
Thanks,
Tushar



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