Calculating text width and incorrect result array paths

[gidzr]

Hey there

Thanks so much for writing this wrapper. It's probably the only decent one out there for pdf parsing.

I've come across a few issues from the readme and usage against the behaviour of the project.

Firstly - I've been trying to work out how to get width and height of the bounding box for text (not the page width/height).

I came across your 'calculateTextWidth' function, trying it per your Usage instructions and attempting to do it my own way, but nothing works.

Btw, my pdfFile is a standard PDF created from an MSWord docx (text based), using the SaveAs pdf with MSWord. It comprises of 4 lines of text only. A very basic industry standard PDF.

I've also configed the parser
use Smalot\PdfParser\Config;
$config = new Config();
$config->setDataTmFontInfoHasToBeIncluded(true);
use Smalot\PdfParser\Parser;
$parser = new Parser([], $config);

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////1. When running your usage approach (https://github.com/smalot/pdfparser/blob/master/doc/Usage.md), I get a resulting error:
$pdf = $parser->parseFile($pdfFile);
$data = $pdf->getPages()[0]->getDataTm();
$text = $data[0][1];
$font = reset($pdf->getFonts()); <------- line 299
$width = $font->calculateTextWidth($text);

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice
Message: Only variables should be passed by reference
Line Number: 299

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////2. When running your usage approach (https://github.com/smalot/pdfparser/blob/master/doc/Usage.md), I get a resulting error:
$pdf = $parser->parseFile($pdfFile);
$data = $pdf->getPages()[0]->getDataTm();
$fonts = $pdf->getFonts();
$font_id = $data[0][2]; //R7
$font = $fonts[$font_id]; <------- line 310
$text = $data[0][1];
$width = $font->calculateTextWidth($text);

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: Undefined array key "F1"
Line Number: 310

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
////3. When I adjust all the approach based on the arrays I'm actually getting out of the parser
$pdf = $parser->parseFile($pdfFile);
$data = $pdf->getPages()[0]->getDataTm();
$fonts = $pdf->getPages()[0]->getFonts();
$font_id = $data[0][2]; //R7
$font = $fonts[$font_id];
$text = $data[0][1];
$width = $font->calculateTextWidth($text);

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: Undefined array key "Widths"
Filename: PdfParser/Font.php
Line Number: 279
Backtrace:
File: C:\xampp81\php\vendor\smalot\pdfparser\src\Smalot\PdfParser\Font.php
Line: 279
Function: _error_handler
File: C:\xampp81\htdocs\villg.life\application\views\tabsSecurity\listImage.php
Line: 286
Function: calculateTextWidth

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

When I call ->getDetails() manually on the page (in the same way your function calculateTextWidth(string $text, array &$missing = null) does at https://github.com/smalot/pdfparser/blob/master/src/Smalot/PdfParser/Font.php, I get the following array from the page - which is page related data, not the bounding box for the text snippet.
Array (
[Type] => Page
[Parent] => Array (
[Type] => Pages
[Count] => 1
)
[Resources] => Array (
[ExtGState] => Array (
[GS5] => Array ( [Type] => ExtGState [BM] => Normal [ca] => 1 )
[GS11] => Array ( [Type] => ExtGState [BM] => Normal [CA] => 1 )
)
[Font] => Array (
[F1] => Array ( [Name] => ArialMT [Type] => Type0 [Encoding] => Identity-H [Subtype] => Type0 [BaseFont] => ArialMT)
[F2] => Array ( [Name] => ArialMT [Type] => TrueType [Encoding] => WinAnsiEncoding [Subtype] => TrueType [BaseFont] => ArialMT [FirstChar] => 32 [LastChar] => 32 ) )
[ProcSet] => Array ([0] => PDF [1] => Text [2] => ImageB [3] => ImageC [4] => ImageI )
)
[MediaBox] => Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 595.32 [3] => 841.92 ) [Contents] => Array ( [Filter] => FlateDecode [Length] => 683 ) [Group] => Array ( [Type] => Group [S] => Transparency [CS] => DeviceRGB ) [Tabs] => S [StructParents] => 0 )

I'm not not sure what's going..

Also, I've had a look into the code and it looks like there's a few hidden cool functions that aren't clearly documented in the readMe.. Is that the case or am I overthinking it?

[k00ni]

It is usually a good practice to create one issue per problem, otherwise it is harder to provide help. (1) + (2) are important to fix, but it seems its PDF-dependent and not shown in general.

[gidzr]

@k00ni : Noted re issue being split. Will make sure I stick with that approach in future. Thanks for the steer.
Any update on the bug or still on the to-do list?
Thanks 👍

[k00ni]

1. problem

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Notice
Message: Only variables should be passed by reference
Line Number: 299

It's because we use reset with a non-variable. Fixed with #644.

2. problem

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: Undefined array key "F1"
Line Number: 310

Your code:

$pdf = $parser->parseFile($pdfFile);
$data = $pdf->getPages()[0]->getDataTm();
$fonts = $pdf->getFonts();
$font_id = $data[0][2]; //R7
$font = $fonts[$font_id]; // <------- line 310

Without the PDF I can't really help here. Maybe $data contains incomplete/wrong information which do not match with the result of getFonts.

3. problem

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: Undefined array key "Widths"
Filename: PdfParser/Font.php
Line Number: 286 # changed by @k00ni to match current line number

I created a hotfix to avoid the warning, but I could not find the origin of the error in time. #645 contains a hot fix which should suppress the warning in case the Widths-key is not set.

4. problem

Please open a new issue for that and provide an example PDF. @GreyWyvern revamped a huge chunk of the library in #634, you should try if that helps you.

---

I will close this, because most of your problems should be solved (to some extent). For problem 4 open a new issue. In case I forgot something, don't hesitate to comment here.