📄 gdrive-pdfToText

A node module to extract texts from a PDF in Google Drive. It doesn't require Google Drive API, and it extracts even if "Viewers can't download, print and copy".

Usage/Examples

Install

npm i gdrive-pdfToText

import gdrivePdf from "gdrive-pdfToText";

const test = async () => {
  const driveUrl =
    "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pGOAwzneiFqjRYOLvrXaR10U6sffQSCn/view?usp=sharing";
  const text = await gdrivePdf.pdfToText(driveUrl);
  //           await gdrivePdf.pdfToText(driveUrl, "password")
  console.log("🎃 Drive Url: ", driveUrl);
  console.log("🎉 Extracted Text:", text);
};

test();

Test

Clone the project

  git clone https://github.com/AlecBlance/gdrive-pdfToText

Go to the project directory

  cd gdrive-pdfToText

Install dependencies

  npm install

Start the test

  npm run dev-sample

FAQ

How does it work?

Well, it's simple. 🙌 Every pdf in google drive are being processed in /presspage endpoint which makes texts in pdf interactive. We just need to pass a certain id to get the texts, which can be found in the request sent to /meta endpoint.

Can it open pdf that cannot be downloaded/copied/printed?

It can! 🎉 As long as it can be viewed publicly. That's the good thing about this module, because it doesn't rely on Google Drive's API to restrict any process like retrieving information.

Why did you make this module?

My future project relies on this text extraction feature. Google Drive won't allow me to download nor extract texts from pdfs that are only available for viewing. Even, Google Apps Script is also restrictive. Just to make my future project possible, I should overcome this hurdle. 💪😆

Are you open to suggestions?

Well, of course! 😎 Feel free to contact me or do a PR. I'll review it and if it is good and valuable, I'll merge it right away.

Tech Stack

Client: NodeJS

Library: fetch-retry (for timeout errors)

Authors

• @AlecBlance

License

MIT