# 360Works Textractor User Guide

Textractor extracts plain text from non-plain files such as PDF, Word, etc. It can read from remote files or from local files, simply pass in a URL or a container field and it returns the text!

### PDFs

PDFs containing form fields have the form values listed at the top of the resulting text.

Note: PDF extraction requires that java version 1.5 or higher be installed on your system.

### Excel

Excel files have the option of returning the contents of a file, or only returning unique unordered cell values. See the note on `index` flags in extractText

### Word / RTF

Word (.doc) and Rich Text Format (.rtf) documents are extracted verbatim, without any formatting.
The following versions of Word are supported:

- Word 1.0
- 2.0
- 4.0
- 6.0
- 95
- 97
- 2000
- xp
- 2003
- 2007

### Using Textractor with SuperContainer URLs

When using Textractor with SuperContainer URLs, be sure to use the "RawData" instead of "Files" in your URL.

For example, intead of this:
http://yourServer/SuperContainer/Files/path/to/file
Your url should look like this:
http://yourServer/SuperContainer/RawData/path/to/file

### Acknowledgements

The following libraries are used in this plugin:
text-mining

See also: extractText

## Error Handling/Reporting

When something unexpected happens, a plugin function returns a result of `"ERROR"`. This makes it easy to check for errors. If a plugin function returns "ERROR", call the `txrLastError` function to get a detailed description of what went wrong.

Here is an example of basic error reporting:

    Set Variable [ $result = MyPluginFunction("x" ; "y" ; "z") ]
    If [ $result = "ERROR" ]
        Show Custom Dialog [ "An error occurred: " & txrLastError ]
    End If

### Chaining Multiple Functions Together

Since the string `"ERROR"` evaluates to false when evaluated by FileMaker, and most plugin functions return a `1` when successful, you can chain multiple dependent plugin operations together using the `"and"` operator. However, in this case the result will be a `1` or a `0`, not `"ERROR"`. For example:

    // chain multiple calls together
    // if any of the functions fail, the calculation will
    // short-circuit with a result of false,
    // and none of the subsequent function calls will be evaluated.
    Set Variable [ $success =
        FirstPluginFunction("x") and
        SecondPluginFunction("y") and
        ThirdPluginFunction("z")
    ]
    If [not $success]
        Show Custom Dialog [ "An error occurred: " & txrLastError ]
    End If

Note: the above only works for plugin functions which return `1` on success! Check the documentation for each function used in this manner.

### Additional Error Checking - Plugin not installed

If a plugin is not installed correctly, calls to a plugin function will return "?". As part of your startup script, you should check for this occurrence and display a warning accordingly that the plugin needs to be installed. Note: when treated as a boolean true/false value, FileMaker will treat `?` as `true`.

## Installation

### Requirements

FileMaker version 7 or higher.

Java Virtual Machine (JVM) version 1.4.2 or later. If you are running a JVM earlier than 1.4.2, you should upgrade. Download a JVM from http://www.java.com/en/download/. If you are not sure what version of Java you have installed, you can do `java -version` on the command line in Windows or OS X.

Windows, or Mac OS X version 10.4 or higher.

Note to intel Mac users: running this plugin under Rosetta is not supported. Upgrade to FileMaker 8.5 to run our plugin in native Intel mode.

### Install Steps for FileMaker Pro

Drag the plugin from the MAC or WIN folder into your FileMaker extensions, and restart FileMaker.

This will also enable the plugin for use with Instant Web Publishing from the FileMaker Pro client software.

If the plugin does not load correctly, double-check that you meet the system requirements.

### Install steps for FileMaker Web Publishing Engine / Instant Web Publishing

You do not need to do this step unless you plan on using the plugin with Instant Web Publishing or Custom Web Publishing with FileMaker Server Advanced. You will need an Enterprise License to use this feature.

For installing into the Web Publishing Engine with FileMaker 9 Server or FileMaker Server Advanced, drag the plugin from the MAC or WIN folder into the `FileMaker Server/Web Publishing/publishing-engine/wpc/Plugins` folder. If there is no `Plugins` folder inside the `wpc` folder, then create it manually. Restart FileMaker Web Publishing, and now the plugins should be ready to go.

Note that due to a bug which we and other plugin vendors have reported to FileMaker, web plugins do not work in FileMaker Web Publishing Engine 8.0v4 on Mac OS X. You will need to use a later version, like 9, or an earlier version, like 8.0v3. The Windows FileMaker Server 8.0v4 does not have this bug, and will work correctly.

The easiest way to test whether the plugin is working is to have a calculation which calls the version function of the plugin, and display that on an IWP layout. If it shows "?", then the plugin is not working. If it shows a number, then the plugin has been installed successfully.

### Install steps for FileMaker Server 9 or later

You do not need to do this step unless you plan on using the plugin with scheduled script triggering, a new feature in FileMaker Server 9. You will need an Enterprise License to use this feature.

1. Drag the plugin from the MAC or WIN folder into the FileMaker Server extensions folder. On Mac OS X, this is located at `/Library/FileMaker Server/Database Server/Extensions` folder. On Windows, this is at `C:\Program Files\FileMaker\FileMaker Server\Database Server\Extensions`.
2. In the Server Admin application, restart FileMaker Server by stoppping and starting it.
3. Go to `Configuration -> Database Server->Server Plug-ins` and check the box that says 'Enable FileMaker Server to use plug-ins', and then check the 'enabled' box for this plugin. Click the 'save' button and wait a few seconds to make sure that the 'enabled' check box stays checked. If it does not, then there was an error loading the plugin and you should contact us for help troubleshooting. You should now be able to write schedules that trigger scripts which use the plugin.

### Auto Update

360Works has created an AutoUpdate helper database which makes setting up Auto Update much easier. This file includes pre-configured plugin files which you can place on your server, and an auto-update script for each of our plugins which you can paste into your own solution.

You can get the AutoUpdate360Works file at fmp7://autoupdate.360works.com/AutoUpdate360Works. Follow the instructions included in the file to either host your own Auto Update server or pull the files from ours.

### Demo mode and Registering the plugin

Plugins will run in demo mode until they are registered. While running in Demo mode, the product will run for 2 hours every time you launch FileMaker / FileMaker Server / FileMaker Web Publishing Engine. The 2 hour time limit will reset every time you relaunch FileMaker. There is no expiration date when Demo mode stops working. There are no feature differences between the Demo version and the licensed version.

Once you have purchased the plugin, you can register it with the license key. Once a valid license key is entered, the product will run for as long as FileMaker is running. After FileMaker starts up with the plugin installed, open FileMaker preferences, click on the Plug-ins tab, select the plugin from the list, and click the Configure button. Enter your license key and company name in this dialog. You will only need to do this once on a given machine. Alternately, you can use the registration function to register the plugin during a startup script.

Note that if you are running the plugin with FileMaker Server / FileMaker Web Publishing Engine, you must use the registration function to register the plugin, since there is no preferences dialog on FileMaker Server to enter the license key and company name.

## Feedback

We love to hear your suggestions for improving our products! If you are experiencing problems with this plugin, or have a feature request, or are happy with it, we'd appreciate hearing about it. Send us a message on our website, or email us!

## Function Detail

### extractText ( data {; flags} )

Extracts text from a container file or URL pointing to a file. The supported file formats are

- PDF (`.pdf`)
- Word Documents (`.doc`)
- Rich Text Format (`.rtf`)
- Plain-text (`.txt`, `.csv`)
- HTML (`.html`, `.htm`)
- Microsoft Excel (`.xls`)

If you need support for an additional format, let us know! Contact us at www.360works.com or by sending an email using the link at the bottom of this page.

### Flags

You can customize the text extraction behavior by supplying optional flags as a second parameter. Multiple flags can be separated by a plus sign. The following flags are supported:

index
  Use this flag if the extracted text is only intended to be searched on, not displayed to the user. This usually results in faster indexing and smaller results, but less legibility. For PDF extraction, words may not be in the correct order. For Excel extraction, duplicate cell values are removed, and the values will not appear in the correct order.

### PDF extraction notes

If the PDF document contains form data, it will appear at the beginning of the extracted text. Each input in the form will appear on a separate line. The data will be formatted as:

`name=value`

Where `name` is the name of the field, and `value` is its value.

Parameters:

  `input` - container data or URL for a file to extract the text from.
  `flags` - flags to customize how text is extracted.

Returns: The text in a file, or ERROR if an error occurred. For some file formats, the returned text may only contain unique words.

### txrLastError

Returns defailed information about the last error generated by this plugin. If another plugin function returns the text "ERROR", call this function to get a user-presentable description of what went wrong.

Returns: Error text, or `null` if there was no error.

### txrLicenseInfo

Returns license information about the plugin.

### txrRegister ( licenseKey ; registeredTo )

Registers the plugin.

### txrVersion

Returns the version number of the plugin.