pdf to text

[Justin Koivisto]

I am looking for a way to convert PDF files into text content. I don't
care about layout or formatting, just the plain text that I can use to
search against in a database.

I've look into the pdftotext tool from:
http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

However, when I use it via the command line, it works fine. If I issue
the same command via a system() call, there are major problems that
cause the server to crash. (Don't know why, there aren't any error
messages been generated anywhere.)

I am looking to use this when a PDF file is uploaded via a form and
store the text in a database for a search function.

TIA

-- Justin

[NC]

Justin Koivisto wrote:

I am looking for a way to convert PDF files into text content.

I vaguely remember using Ghostscript for that...

Cheers,
NC

[Joe Blow]

I have not used pdftotext via system(). However you could try different
versions of pdftotext. In my experience the version you use can have
quite different effects. Different versions should be easily available.
It's also possible to use ascii2txt, which depends on Ghostscript I
think. When I tried it I got into a muddle of versions though, and
pdftotext was much easier.

[Miguel Cruz]

Justin Koivisto <ju****@koivi.com> wrote:

I am looking for a way to convert PDF files into text content. I don't
care about layout or formatting, just the plain text that I can use to
search against in a database.

I've look into the pdftotext tool from:
http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html

However, when I use it via the command line, it works fine. If I issue
the same command via a system() call, there are major problems that
cause the server to crash. (Don't know why, there aren't any error
messages been generated anywhere.)

What do you mean when you say the server crashes? The Apache process
dies? The entire machine locks up? The server physically falls off the
rack and lands on the floor?

How about doing an experiment where you use system() to call a shell
script that sets up some debugging and dumps the environment, and see
what you come up with?

miguel
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