Extracting text from PDF file using pdfbox

Question

I am trying to extract text from PDF file using pdfbox but not as a command line tool but inside my Java app. I am downloading pdf using jsoup.

res = Jsoup
.connect(host+action)
.ignoreContentType(true)
.data(data)
.cookies(cookies)
.method(Method.POST)
.timeout(20*1000)
.execute();

// prepare document
InputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(res.bodyAsBytes()); 
PDDocument pdf = new PDDocument();
pdf.load(is,true);

// extract text
PDFTextStripper stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
String text = stripper.getText(pdf);

// print extracted text
System.out.println(text);

This code prints just empty line. When I do this:

System.out.println(res.body());

it prints the pdf file to output like this:

%PDF-1.4
%����
6 0 obj
<<
/Filter /FlateDecode
/Length 1869
>>
stream
x��X�n��

...

<<
/Size 28
/Info 27 0 R
/Root 26 0 R
>>
startxref
20632
%%EOF

So I am sure that pdf in downloaded correctly - just this PDF stripper doesnt work...

---------------------------------------------- edit

this problem is solved - working code is here http://thottingal.in/blog/2009/06/24/pdfbox-extract-text-from-pdf/

maybe [this](http://thottingal.in/blog/2009/06/24/pdfbox-extract-text-from-pdf/) can help you get started ... I have never worked with **jsoup** nor **pdfbox** so I am no help but I sure will try **pdfbox** since I've been testing **itextpdf reader** for extracting texts. — WeloSefer, Jan 16 '13 at 09:19
Great. If you can answer your own question for later use, it will be great .. — WeloSefer, Jan 16 '13 at 09:35
Provide the answer as an actual answer, and mark the question as answered, so the question will appear to a have a correct answer to other users coming from an unanswered questions search page. — Richard Krajunus, Feb 20 '14 at 23:03
Can't add much more than a ditto. An unanswered question is like a water spring that was never discovered. — James P., Jul 11 '14 at 23:44
itext have a new licence you can not use it if it is not an open source project... or buy a licence... but you can use PDFBOX (and you can index file to with PDFBOX lucene) — cyril, Oct 15 '14 at 08:20

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 20 '17 at 09:16

(Question answered in the comments. See Question with no answers, but issue solved in the comments (or extended in chat) )

@WeloSefer wrote:

maybe this can help you get started ... I have never worked with jsoup nor pdfbox so I am no help but I sure will try pdfbox since I've been testing itextpdf reader for extracting texts.

The OP wrote:

Thanks, that is what I was looking for - it works now :) this problem is solved - working code is here http://thottingal.in/blog/2009/06/24/pdfbox-extract-text-from-pdf/

Extracting text from PDF file using pdfbox

1 Answers1

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