How to extract hyperlink information PDFBox

Question

I am trying to extract the hyperlink information from a PDF using PDFBox but I am unsure how to get

for( Object p : pages ) {
    PDPage page = (PDPage)p;

    List<?> annotations = page.getAnnotations();
    for( Object a : annotations ) {
        PDAnnotation annotation = (PDAnnotation)a;

        if( annotation instanceof PDAnnotationLink ) {
            PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink)annotation;
            System.out.println(link.toString());
            System.out.println(link.getDestination());

        }
    }

}

I want to extract the url of the hyperlink destination and the text of the hyperlink. How can one do this?

Thanks

Conglomerate

Answer 1

Use this code from the PrintURLs sample code from the source code download:

for( PDPage page : doc.getPages() )
{
    pageNum++;
    PDFTextStripperByArea stripper = new PDFTextStripperByArea();
    List<PDAnnotation> annotations = page.getAnnotations();
    //first setup text extraction regions
    for( int j=0; j<annotations.size(); j++ )
    {
        PDAnnotation annot = annotations.get(j);
        if( annot instanceof PDAnnotationLink )
        {
            PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink)annot;
            PDRectangle rect = link.getRectangle();
            //need to reposition link rectangle to match text space
            float x = rect.getLowerLeftX();
            float y = rect.getUpperRightY();
            float width = rect.getWidth();
            float height = rect.getHeight();
            int rotation = page.getRotation();
            if( rotation == 0 )
            {
                PDRectangle pageSize = page.getMediaBox();
                y = pageSize.getHeight() - y;
            }
            else if( rotation == 90 )
            {
                //do nothing
            }

            Rectangle2D.Float awtRect = new Rectangle2D.Float( x,y,width,height );
            stripper.addRegion( "" + j, awtRect );
        }
    }

    stripper.extractRegions( page );

    for( int j=0; j<annotations.size(); j++ )
    {
        PDAnnotation annot = annotations.get(j);
        if( annot instanceof PDAnnotationLink )
        {
            PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink)annot;
            PDAction action = link.getAction();
            String urlText = stripper.getTextForRegion( "" + j );
            if( action instanceof PDActionURI )
            {
                PDActionURI uri = (PDActionURI)action;
                System.out.println( "Page " + pageNum +":'" + urlText.trim() + "'=" + uri.getURI() );
            }
        }
    }
}

It works in two parts, one is getting the URL which is easy, the other is getting the URL text, which is done with a text extraction at the rectangle of the annotation.

Angulate

This piece of code nicely extracting the external links on the pdf. But it seems like it does not extract links to internal pages. For an example, on 3rd page of my pdf it contains a link to page 10. I need to get that info as well. Any idea of how to do it? – Reform

@ShiranSEkanayake please look at the other response. The bottom part (with PDPageDestination) should do what you want. I didn't test it, but it looks good to me. – Angulate

Answer 2

We must get hyperlink information and internal link(ex. move page....). I using code below:

int pageNum = 0;
            for (PDPage page : originalPDF.getPages()) {
                pageNum++;
                List<PDAnnotation> annotations = page.getAnnotations();
                for (PDAnnotation annot : annotations) {
                    if (annot instanceof PDAnnotationLink) {
                        // get dimension of annottations
                        PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink) annot;
                        // get link action include link url and internal link
                        PDAction action = link.getAction();
                        // get link internal some case specal
                        PDDestination pDestination = link.getDestination();

                        if (action != null) {
                            if (action instanceof PDActionURI || action instanceof PDActionGoTo) {
                                if (action instanceof PDActionURI) {
                                    // get uri link
                                    PDActionURI uri = (PDActionURI) action;
                                    System.out.println("uri link:" + uri.getURI());
                                } else {
                                    if (action instanceof PDActionGoTo) {
                                        // get internal link
                                        PDDestination destination = ((PDActionGoTo) action).getDestination();
                                        PDPageDestination pageDestination;
                                        if (destination instanceof PDPageDestination) {
                                            pageDestination = (PDPageDestination) destination;
                                        } else {
                                            if (destination instanceof PDNamedDestination) {
                                                pageDestination = originalPDF.getDocumentCatalog().findNamedDestinationPage((PDNamedDestination) destination);
                                            } else {
                                                // error handling
                                                break;
                                            }
                                        }

                                        if (pageDestination != null) {
                                            System.out.println("page move: " + (pageDestination.retrievePageNumber() + 1));
                                        }
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        } else {
                            if (pDestination != null) {
                                PDPageDestination pageDestination;
                                if (pDestination instanceof PDPageDestination) {
                                    pageDestination = (PDPageDestination) pDestination;
                                } else {
                                    if (pDestination instanceof PDNamedDestination) {
                                        pageDestination = originalPDF.getDocumentCatalog().findNamedDestinationPage((PDNamedDestination) pDestination);
                                    } else {
                                        // error handling
                                        break;
                                    }
                                }

                                if (pageDestination != null) {
                                    System.out.println("page move: " + (pageDestination.retrievePageNumber() + 1));
                                }
                            } else {
                                //    
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }

            }

Zooid

Answer 3

03/21/2023
I have Just tested today and it work. but there are couple of set up need to do. this is how i did it.
[dependency]
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.apache.pdfbox</groupId>
        <artifactId>pdfbox</artifactId>
        <version>2.0.27</version>
    </dependency>

Imports:-
import java.awt.geom.Rectangle2D;
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.List;

import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDDocument;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.PDPage;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.common.PDRectangle;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.action.PDAction;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.action.PDActionURI;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.annotation.PDAnnotation;
import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.interactive.annotation.PDAnnotationLink;
import org.apache.pdfbox.text.PDFTextStripperByArea;

public class Test_newSome {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
// File path = open pdf file on MSEdge and copy url 
        URL url = new URL("file:///C:/Users/PcuserName/Downloads/Credentials%20Email%20-%20Mar21FN%20Mar21094806LN.pdf");
        InputStream is = url.openStream();
        BufferedInputStream filePase = new BufferedInputStream(is);
        PDDocument doc = null;

        doc = PDDocument.load(filePase);

        for (PDPage page : doc.getPages()) {
            int pageNum = 0;
            pageNum++;
            PDFTextStripperByArea stripper = new PDFTextStripperByArea();
            List<PDAnnotation> annotations = page.getAnnotations();
            // first setup text extraction regions
            for (int j = 0; j < annotations.size(); j++) {
                PDAnnotation annot = annotations.get(j);
                if (annot instanceof PDAnnotationLink) {
                    PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink) annot;
                    PDRectangle rect = link.getRectangle();
                    // need to reposition link rectangle to match text space
                    float x = rect.getLowerLeftX();
                    float y = rect.getUpperRightY();
                    float width = rect.getWidth();
                    float height = rect.getHeight();
                    int rotation = page.getRotation();
                    if (rotation == 0) {
                        PDRectangle pageSize = page.getMediaBox();
                        y = pageSize.getHeight() - y;
                    } else if (rotation == 90) {
                        // do nothing
                    }

                    Rectangle2D.Float awtRect = new Rectangle2D.Float(x, y, width, height);
                    stripper.addRegion("" + j, awtRect);
                }
            }

            stripper.extractRegions(page);

            for (int j = 0; j < annotations.size(); j++) {
                PDAnnotation annot = annotations.get(j);
                if (annot instanceof PDAnnotationLink) {
                    PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink) annot;
                    PDAction action = link.getAction();
                    String urlText = stripper.getTextForRegion("" + j);
                    if (action instanceof PDActionURI) {
                        PDActionURI uri = (PDActionURI) action;
                        System.out.println("Page " + pageNum + ":'" + urlText.trim() + "'=" + uri.getURI());

                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Collyrium

Answer 4

If you need a simple links extractor, follow snippet

public List<String> extractLinks(String url) {
    try{
        InputStream pdfStream = new URL(url).openStream();
        List<String> links = new ArrayList<>();
        try (PDDocument document = PDDocument.load(pdfStream)) {
            document.getPages().forEach(page -> {
                try {
                    List<PDAnnotation> annotations = page.getAnnotations();
                    for (PDAnnotation annotation : annotations) {
                        if (annotation instanceof PDAnnotationLink) {
                            PDAnnotationLink link = (PDAnnotationLink) annotation;
                            if (link.getAction() instanceof PDActionURI) {
                                PDActionURI uri = (PDActionURI) link.getAction();
                                links.add(uri.getURI());
                            }
                        }
                    }
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            });
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return links;
    }catch (Exception e){
        LOGGER.error("Error to extract links");
        return new ArrayList<>();
    }
}

Dorotea