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PDF Text Search from Uploaded File - VB.NET

PDF Search Text sample in VB.NET demonstrating ‘PDF Text Search from Uploaded File’

Module1.vb
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Net
Imports Newtonsoft.Json
Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Linq

Module Module1

    ' The authentication key (API Key).
    ' Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
    Const API_KEY As String = "***********************************"

    ' Source PDF file
    Const SourceFile As String = ".\sample.pdf"

    ' Comma-separated list of page indices (or ranges) to process. Leave empty for all pages. Example: '0,2-5,7-'.
    Const Pages As String = ""

    ' PDF document password. Leave empty for unprotected documents.
    Const Password As String = ""

    ' Search string.
    Const SearchString As String = "\d{1,}\.\d\d" 'Regular expression To find numbers Like '100.00'
    ' Note: Do Not use `+` char in regex, but use `{1,}` instead.
    ' `+` char Is valid for URL And will Not be escaped, And it will become a space char on the server side.

    ' Enable regular expressions (Regex) 
    Const RegexSearch As Boolean = True

    Sub Main()

        ' Create standard .NET web client instance
        Dim webClient As WebClient = New WebClient()

        ' Set API Key
        webClient.Headers.Add("x-api-key", API_KEY)

        ' 1. RETRIEVE THE PRESIGNED URL TO UPLOAD THE FILE.
        ' * If you already have a direct file URL, skip to the step 3.

        ' Prepare URL for `Get Presigned URL` API call
        Dim query As String = Uri.EscapeUriString(String.Format(
            "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url?contenttype=application/octet-stream&name={0}",
            Path.GetFileName(SourceFile)))

        Try
            ' Execute request
            Dim response As String = webClient.DownloadString(query)

            ' Parse JSON response
            Dim json As JObject = JObject.Parse(response)

            If json("error").ToObject(Of Boolean) = False Then
                ' Get URL to use for the file upload
                Dim uploadUrl As String = json("presignedUrl").ToString()
                ' Get URL of uploaded file to use with later API calls
                Dim uploadedFileUrl As String = json("url").ToString()

                ' 2. UPLOAD THE FILE TO CLOUD.
                webClient.Headers.Add("content-type", "application/octet-stream")
                webClient.UploadFile(uploadUrl, "PUT", SourceFile) ' You can use UploadData() instead if your file is byte array or Stream

                ' Set JSON content type
                webClient.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

                ' 3. MAKE UPLOADED PDF FILE SEARCHABLE

                ' Prepare URL for PDF text search API call.
                ' See documentation: https : //app.pdf.co/documentation/api/1.0/pdf/find.html
                Dim url As String = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/find"

                ' Prepare requests params as JSON
                ' See documentation: https : //apidocs.pdf.co
                Dim parameters As New Dictionary(Of String, Object)
                parameters.Add("password", Password)
                parameters.Add("pages", Pages)
                parameters.Add("url", uploadedFileUrl)
                parameters.Add("searchString", SearchString)
                parameters.Add("regexSearch", RegexSearch)

                ' Convert dictionary of params to JSON
                Dim jsonPayload As String = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(parameters)

                ' Execute POST request with JSON payload
                response = webClient.UploadString(url, jsonPayload)

                ' Parse JSON response
                json = JObject.Parse(response)

                If json("error").ToObject(Of Boolean) = False Then
                    For Each item As JToken In json("body")
                        Console.WriteLine($"Found text {item("text")} at coordinates {item("left")}, {item("top")}")
                    Next
                Else
                    Console.WriteLine(json("message").ToString())
                End If

            End If

        Catch ex As WebException
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString())
        End Try

        webClient.Dispose()

        Console.WriteLine()
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key...")
        Console.ReadKey()

    End Sub

End Module

PDF.co Web API: the Web API with a set of tools for documents manipulation, data conversion, data extraction, splitting and merging of documents. Includes image recognition, built-in OCR, barcode generation and barcode decoders to decode bar codes from scans, pictures and pdf.

Get your PDF.co API key here!

Download Source Code (.zip)

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