PDF to Text / PHP Guide

Overview

This page serves as a guide for using the PDFCrowd API to extract text from PDF in PHP applications.

composer require pdfcrowd/pdfcrowd

git clone https://github.com/pdfcrowd/pdfcrowd-php

Quick Start

Below are PHP examples to help you quickly get started with the API. Explore our additional examples for more insights.

<?php
require "pdfcrowd.php";

try
{
    // Create an API client instance.
    $client = new \Pdfcrowd\PdfToTextClient("USERNAME", "APIKEY");

    // Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    $client->convertFileToFile("/path/to/invoice.pdf", "invoice.txt");
}
catch(\Pdfcrowd\Error $why)
{
    error_log("PDFCrowd Error: {$why}");
    throw $why;
}

?>

<?php
require "pdfcrowd.php";

try
{
    // Create an API client instance.
    $client = new \Pdfcrowd\PdfToTextClient("USERNAME", "APIKEY");

    // Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    $client->convertUrlToFile("https://pdfcrowd.com/static/pdf/apisamples/invoice.pdf", "invoice.txt");
}
catch(\Pdfcrowd\Error $why)
{
    error_log("PDFCrowd Error: {$why}");
    throw $why;
}

?>

<?php
require "pdfcrowd.php";

try
{
    // Create an API client instance.
    $client = new \Pdfcrowd\PdfToTextClient("USERNAME", "APIKEY");

    // Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    $client->convertRawDataToFile(file_get_contents("/path/to/hello_world.pdf"), "invoice.txt");
}
catch(\Pdfcrowd\Error $why)
{
    error_log("PDFCrowd Error: {$why}");
    throw $why;
}

?>

Authentication

The API requires authentication using your PDFCrowd username and API key. To get started quickly, you can use these demo credentials for testing without registering:

• Username: USERNAME
• API key: APIKEY

To get your own API credentials, you can start a free trial or purchase a PDFCrowd license.

Error Handling

It is recommended that you implement error handling to catch errors the API may return. Effective error handling is vital as it ensures application stability and provides clearer diagnostics. See the example code below for guidance on implementing error handling, and refer to this list of status codes for more information.

try 
{
    // Call the API 
}
catch(\Pdfcrowd\Error $why) 
{
    // Log the complete error
    error_log("PDFCrowd Error: {$why}");

    // Log the HTTP status code
    error_log("Status Code: {$why->getStatusCode()}");

    // Log the reason code
    error_log("Reason Code: {$why->getReasonCode()}");

    // Log the error message
    error_log("Error Message: {$why->getMessage()}");

    // Log the documentation link
    error_log("Documentation Link: {$why->getDocumentationLink()}");
}

Troubleshooting

• If you are receiving an error, refer to the API Status Codes for more information.
• Use setDebugLog() and getDebugLogUrl() to obtain detailed information about the conversion process, including load errors, load times, browser console output, etc.
• Consult the FAQ for answers to common questions.
• Contact us if you need assistance or if there is a feature you are missing.

API Method Reference

Refer to the PDF to Text PHP Reference for a description of all API methods.