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Text search

There are two parts to text searching. First is the UI component that is presented to the user. Second is an API guide to perform the text search functionality.

Add text search to iOS viewer

The PTTextSearchViewController class allows the user to enter and search text in a document. Search results are automatically highlighted in the document and a toolbar with navigation buttons allows searching forward or backward through the document. The core text search functionality is provided by the PTPDFViewCtrl's text search methods.

The search view controller is part of the Tools library, so make sure you have added the Tools library to your project.

Showing a text search view controller

To create and set up a text search view controller, supply a PTPDFViewCtrl instance to the PTTextSearchViewController designated initializer:

1let textSearchViewController = PTTextSearchViewController(pdfViewCtrl: pdfViewCtrl)
2textSearchViewController.delegate = self
3
4let navigationController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: textSearchViewController)
5navigationController.modalPresentationStyle = .custom
6
7self.present(navigationController, animated: true, completion: nil)

1// Initialize search view controller with a PTPDFViewCtrl instance.
2PTTextSearchViewController *textSearchViewController = [[PTTextSearchViewController alloc] initWithPDFViewCtrl:pdfViewCtrl];
3textSearchViewController.delegate = self;
4
5UINavigationController *navigationController = [[UINavigationController alloc] initWithRootViewController:textSearchViewController];
6navigationController.modalPresentationStyle = UIModalPresentationCustom;
7
8[self presentViewController:navigationController animated:YES completion:nil];

The search view controller does not create its own top navigation bar, so it must be pushed onto a navigation controller's stack.

Search results list view

The PTTextSearchViewController also presents the search results in a UITableView for fast and easy navigation. Selecting any result in the table view will immediately navigate to that result and highlight it.

Search options

The PTTextSearchViewController interface also allows the user to refine the search to be case-sensitive, or to match whole words only:

The text search view controller delegate

The PTTextSearchViewControllerDelegate protocol allows the adopting class (usually the containing view controller, as in this guide) to be notified when the view controller has been dismissed. This can be used to show or hide other content as appropriate.

Text search API for iOS

To search for text in a PDF using regular expression and then apply a link annotation on the highlighted result.

In this example, we add a link annotation but any other types of annotations can be applied here such as redaction annotations in the case of a search and redact workflow.

1PTPDFDoc *doc = [[PTPDFDoc alloc] initWithFilepath: filename];
2PTTextSearch *txt_search = [[PTTextSearch alloc] init];
3unsigned int mode = e_ptwhole_word | e_ptpage_stop;
4NSString *pattern = @"";
5
6//use regular expression to find credit card number
7mode |= e_ptreg_expression | e_pthighlight;
8[txt_search SetMode: mode];
9pattern = @"\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}"; //or "(\\d{4}-){3}\\d{4}"
10[txt_search SetPattern: pattern];
11
12//call Begin() method to initialize the text search.
13[txt_search Begin: doc pattern: pattern mode: mode start_page: -1 end_page: -1];
14PTSearchResult *result = [txt_search Run];
15
16if ( result ) 
17{
18  //add a link annotation based on the location of the found instance
19  PTHighlights *hlts = [result GetHighlights];
20  [hlts Begin: doc];
21  while ( [hlts HasNext] )
22  {
23    PTPage *cur_page = [doc GetPage: [hlts GetCurrentPageNumber]];
24    PTVectorQuadPoint *quads = [hlts GetCurrentQuads];
25    int i = 0;
26    for ( ; i < [quads size]; ++i )
27    {
28      //assume each quad is an axis-aligned rectangle
29      PTQuadPoint *q = [quads get: i];
30      double x1 = MIN(MIN(MIN([[q getP1] getX], [[q getP2] getX]), [[q getP3] getX]), [[q getP4] getX]);
31      double x2 = MAX(MAX(MAX([[q getP1] getX], [[q getP2] getX]), [[q getP3] getX]), [[q getP4] getX]);
32      double y1 = MIN(MIN(MIN([[q getP1] getY], [[q getP2] getY]), [[q getP3] getY]), [[q getP4] getY]);
33      double y2 = MAX(MAX(MAX([[q getP1] getY], [[q getP2] getY]), [[q getP3] getY]), [[q getP4] getY]);
34      PTPDFRect * rect = [[PTPDFRect alloc] initWithX1: x1 y1: y1 x2: x2 y2: y2];
35      PTAction *action = [PTAction CreateURI: [doc GetSDFDoc] uri: @"http://www.apryse.com"];
36
37      PTLink *hyper_link = [PTLink CreateWithAction: [doc GetSDFDoc] pos: rect action: action];
38      [cur_page AnnotPushBack: hyper_link];
39    }
40    [hlts Next];
41  }
42}

1let doc: PTPDFDoc! = PTPDFDoc(filepath: filename)
2let txt_search: PTTextSearch! = PTTextSearch()
3var mode = e_ptwhole_word.rawValue | e_ptpage_stop.rawValue
4var pattern = ""
5
6//use regular expression to find credit card number
7mode |= e_ptreg_expression.rawValue | e_pthighlight.rawValue
8txt_search.setMode(mode)
9pattern = "\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}-\\d{4}" //or "(\\d{4}-){3}\\d{4}"
10txt_search.setPattern(pattern)
11
12//call Begin() method to initialize the text search.
13txt_search.begin(doc, pattern: pattern, mode: mode, start_page: -1, end_page: -1)
14let result: PTSearchResult! = txt_search.run()
15
16if (result != nil) {
17  //add a link annotation based on the location of the found instance
18  let hlts: PTHighlights = result.getHighlights()
19  hlts.begin(doc)
20  while hlts.hasNext() {
21    let cur_page: PTPage = doc.getPage(UInt32(hlts.getCurrentPageNumber()))
22    let quads: PTVectorQuadPoint = hlts.getCurrentQuads()
23    var i: Int = 0
24    
25    while i < quads.size() {
26      //assume each quad is an axis-aligned rectangle
27      let q: PTQuadPoint = quads.get(Int32(i))
28      let x1: Double = min(min(min(q.getP1().getX(), q.getP2().getX()), q.getP3().getX()), q.getP4().getX())
29      let x2: Double = max(max(max(q.getP1().getX(), q.getP2().getX()), q.getP3().getX()), q.getP4().getX())
30      let y1: Double = min(min(min(q.getP1().getY(), q.getP2().getY()), q.getP3().getY()), q.getP4().getY())
31      let y2: Double = max(max(max(q.getP1().getY(), q.getP2().getY()), q.getP3().getY()), q.getP4().getY())
32      let rect = PTPDFRect(x1: x1, y1: y1, x2: x2, y2: y2)
33      let action = PTAction.createURI(doc.getSDFDoc(), uri: "http://www.apryse.com")
34      let hyper_link = PTLink.create(withAction: doc.getSDFDoc(), pos: rect, action: action)
35      cur_page.annotPushBack(hyper_link)
36      i += 1
37    }
38    hlts.next()
39}

Search PDF files for text
Full code sample which shows how to use TextSearch to search text on PDF pages using regular expressions.

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