How to read and search a specific word in pdf file using PHP? Is it possible in PHP?

Question

Please check the URL: http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1T4c3744326abcd119.cde

I client want some thing like this. User will search a word and application searches that word in a opened page and highlight it. This is a Flash application and uses php at back-end to generate XML.

Can anyone help me out in this?

Answer 1

There is a free class here http://davidwalsh.name/read-pdf-doc-file-php that might do the trick.

Answer 2

You will need to find a PHP tool that lets you extract text from a PDF file, but it also needs to tell you the exact location of the text in the file. The steps required would be:

1. Extract text with co-ordinates from PDF
2. Iterate through the extracted text until you find matching search term
3. Get the co-ordinates of the matching search term
4. Use the co-ordinates to highlight the same word in the same location in Flash app

Good luck!