Enable searching in files

Text-based file searching/indexing (txt, html, etc.) is enabled by default. If you want to include searching PDF or Word documents then you need to do the following.

Searching in PDFs

 To enable search in PDFs you need to:

Install xpdf

Update the setting to point to xpdf

Once you have installed xpdf, you also need to set the correct path it in the Settings.

Test xpdf from command line

Test to see if xpdf is working by running the following command from the command line:

$ /path_to_xpdf/pdftotext -raw file_read.pdf file_write.txt;

Test  xpdf from command line using PHP and included test file:

$ cd /path/to/kbp_directory
$ php -r "system('/path_to_xpdf/pdftotext -raw admin/extra/file_extractors/extract_test.pdf file_write.txt');"


Searching in Word 2007/2010, Excel 2007/2010 or Open Office document files

To enable search in .docx, .xslx and .odt documents you need to:


Searching in Word 2003 and below files

 To enable search in Word documents you need to:

Install catdoc

Install Antiword

Update the setting to point to catdoc

Once you have installed catdoc, you also need to set the correct path it in the Settings.

Test catdoc from command line

Test to see if catdoc is working by running the following command from the command line:

$ /path_to_catdoc/catdoc -w file_read.doc;

Test catdoc from command line using PHP and included test file:

$ cd /path/to/kbp_directory 
$ php -r "system('/path_to_catdoc/catdoc -w admin/extra/file_extractors/extract_test.doc');"


Test antiword from command line

Test to see if antiword is working by running the following command from the command line:

$ /path_to_ antiword/antiword -t file_read.doc;

Test antiword from command line using PHP and included test file:

$ cd /path/to/kbp_directory 
$ php -r "system('/path_to_ antiword/antiword -t admin/extra/file_extractors/extract_test.doc');"


Turning PDF or Word search off

If you don't want to allow searching on PDF or Word documents, change the setting in XPDF installation path or catdoc installation path to OFF



Article ID: 224
Last updated: 1 Mar, 2018
Revision: 9
User Manual v8.0 -> Files -> Enable searching in files
https://www.kbpublisher.com/kb/enable-searching-in-files_224.html