README

Text Extraction from MS Office and PDF files

Yet another library to extract text from MS Office (docx, pptx, xlsx) and PDF (pdf) files.

Similar libraries

There are other great libraries that do the same job and have inspired this project, such as:

How this is different from other text extraction tools

Parses file based on mime type, not file extension
Does not spawn a child process to use a tool installed on the device
Reads and returns text from file if it is a simple text file

Libraries used

This module uses some amazing existing libraries that perform better than the ones that originally existed in this module, and are therefore used instead:

pdf-parse, for parsing PDF files
xlsx, for parsing MS Excel files
mammoth, for parsing MS Word files

This module also uses:

xml2js - to convert the MS Office XML files into JSON
js-yaml - to convert JSON into YAML
file-type - to detect the mime type of files
decompress - to unzip files
read-chunk - to read chunks of data from large files

A big thank you to the contributors of these projects.

Installation

To use this in an npm project, simply type in:

npm install office-text-extractor

There is no support for browser environments yet. If you want to add support, please feel free to open a pull request.

Usage

// Importing the library:

// CommonJS import
const extractText = require('office-text-extractor');

// ES/TS import
import extractText from 'office-text-extractor';

// Extracting text:

// Async-await way
const text = await extractText('path/to/file');
console.log(text);

// Promise way
extractText('path/to/file');
  .then((text) => {
    console.log(text);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error(err);
  })

Tests

To run tests (using Ava), type the following:

npm test

Todos

~~Add tests~~
~~Add typescript typings~~
Add callback support
Add support for Open Office formats
Add support for browser environments

If you want to help out, please do open a pull request.

License - ISC

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Usage no npm install needed!