[poppler] How to read textbox positions?

suzuki toshiya mpsuzuki at hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Wed Jan 3 06:38:19 UTC 2018


Dear Adam,

Thank you for the technical information on the difference of
std::shared_ptr and std::unique_ptr. Just I've tried to replace
the vector of the pointers to that of the unique_ptrs, and
remove the next_xxx methods.

I attached the revised patch (gzipped) to the master, and
here I quote the revised part from my last revision, for
convenience to take a look on it.

Regards,
mpsuzuki

diff --git a/cpp/poppler-private.h b/cpp/poppler-private.h
index 726068a..2cedd1e 100644
--- a/cpp/poppler-private.h
+++ b/cpp/poppler-private.h
@@ -72,12 +72,11 @@ class text_box_data
 {
 public:
     text_box_data()
-    : next_text_box(0), has_space_after(false)
+    : has_space_after(false)
     {
     }
     ustring text;
     rectf bbox;
-    text_box *next_text_box;
     std::vector<rectf> char_bboxes;
     bool has_space_after;
 };
diff --git a/cpp/poppler-page.h b/cpp/poppler-page.h
index 18af213..3013997 100644
--- a/cpp/poppler-page.h
+++ b/cpp/poppler-page.h
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
 #include "poppler-global.h"
 #include "poppler-rectangle.h"

+#include <memory>
+
 namespace poppler
 {

@@ -33,12 +35,10 @@ class POPPLER_CPP_EXPORT text_box {
 	~text_box();
 	ustring   text() const;
 	rectf     bbox() const;
-	text_box *next_text_box() const;
-	text_box *next_word() { return this->next_text_box(); };
 	rectf     char_bbox(int i) const;
 	bool      has_space_after() const;
     private:
-	text_box_data* m_data;
+	std::unique_ptr<text_box_data> m_data;
 };

 class document;
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ public:
     ustring text(const rectf &rect = rectf()) const;
     ustring text(const rectf &rect, text_layout_enum layout_mode) const;

-    std::vector<text_box*> text_list(rotation_enum rotation) const;
+    std::vector<std::unique_ptr<text_box>> text_list(rotation_enum rotation) const;

 private:
     page(document_private *doc, int index);
diff --git a/cpp/poppler-page.cpp b/cpp/poppler-page.cpp
index 9461ab9..5da2e1d 100644
--- a/cpp/poppler-page.cpp
+++ b/cpp/poppler-page.cpp
@@ -291,14 +291,13 @@ ustring page::text(const rectf &r, text_layout_enum
layout_mode) const
  */
 text_box::text_box(const ustring& text, const rectf &bbox)
 {
-    m_data = new text_box_data();
+    m_data = std::unique_ptr<text_box_data>(new text_box_data());
     m_data->text = text;
     m_data->bbox = bbox;
 }

 text_box::~text_box()
 {
-    delete m_data;
 }

 ustring text_box::text() const
@@ -311,11 +310,6 @@ rectf text_box::bbox() const
     return m_data->bbox;
 }

-text_box* text_box::next_text_box() const
-{
-    return m_data->next_text_box;
-}
-
 rectf text_box::char_bbox(int i) const
 {
     return m_data->char_bboxes[i];
@@ -326,10 +320,10 @@ bool text_box::has_space_after() const
     return m_data->has_space_after;
 }

-std::vector<text_box*> page::text_list(rotation_enum rotate) const
+std::vector<std::unique_ptr<text_box>> page::text_list(rotation_enum rotate) const
 {
     TextOutputDev *output_dev;
-    std::vector<text_box*>  output_list;
+    std::vector<std::unique_ptr<text_box>>  output_list;
     const int rotation_value = (int)rotate * 90;

     /* config values are same with Qt5 Page::TextList() */
@@ -366,7 +360,7 @@ std::vector<text_box*> page::text_list(rotation_enum rotate)
const
 	double xMin, yMin, xMax, yMax;
 	word->getBBox(&xMin, &yMin, &xMax, &yMax);

-	text_box* tb = new text_box(ustr, rectf(xMin, yMin, xMax-xMin, yMax-yMin));
+	std::unique_ptr<text_box> tb = std::unique_ptr<text_box>(new text_box(ustr,
rectf(xMin, yMin, xMax-xMin, yMax-yMin)));
 	tb->m_data->has_space_after = (word->hasSpaceAfter() == gTrue);

 	tb->m_data->char_bboxes.reserve(word->getLength());
@@ -375,10 +369,7 @@ std::vector<text_box*> page::text_list(rotation_enum
rotate) const
 	    tb->m_data->char_bboxes.push_back(rectf(xMin, yMin, xMax-xMin, yMax-yMin));
 	}

-	if (output_list.size() > 0)
-	    output_list.back()->m_data->next_text_box = tb;
-
-	output_list.push_back(tb);
+	output_list.push_back(std::move(tb));
     }
     delete word_list;
     delete output_dev;
diff --git a/cpp/tests/poppler-dump.cpp b/cpp/tests/poppler-dump.cpp
index 09b180d..d26a0ef 100644
--- a/cpp/tests/poppler-dump.cpp
+++ b/cpp/tests/poppler-dump.cpp
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ static void print_page_text_list(poppler::page *p)
         std::cout << std::endl;
         return;
     }
-    std::vector<poppler::text_box*> text_list = p->text_list(poppler::rotate_0);
+    std::vector<std::unique_ptr<poppler::text_box>> text_list =
p->text_list(poppler::rotate_0);

     std::cout << "---" << std::endl;
     for (size_t i = 0; i < text_list.size(); i ++) {
@@ -343,7 +343,6 @@ static void print_page_text_list(poppler::page *p)
         std::cout << "( x=" << bbox.x() << " y=" << bbox.y() << " w=" <<
bbox.width() << " h=" << bbox.height() << " )";
         std::cout << std::endl;

-        delete text_list[i];
     }
     std::cout << "---" << std::endl;
 }




Adam Reichold wrote:
> Hello mpsuzuki,
> 
> std::shared_ptr was introduced in C++11 and Poppler does use C++11 only
> since a relatively short time, so I guess there just was no time to use
> it anywhere.
> 
> In any case it is a pretty heavy-handed solution due to the atomic
> memory accesses on the reference counter which will slow down even
> single-threaded programs which do not need it. Hence I would suggest
> starting with std::unique_ptr to get a move-only type.
> 
> Best regards, Adam.
> 
> Am 02.01.2018 um 08:19 schrieb suzuki toshiya:
>> Dear Albert, Adam,
>>
>> Thank you for the helpful review. I should have more
>> training on C++... Please let me spend to improve the
>> patch.
>>
>>> (Another easy option albeit with some
>>> overhead to get automatic destruction would be to wrap the actual data
>>> inside a std::shared_ptr and hence use reference counting.)
>> Yeah, from some posts in stackoverflow, I found about
>> shared_ptr... But it seems that current poppler does
>> not use shared_ptr at all. Is this a coding policy?
>>
>> Regards,
>> mpsuzuki
>>
>> Adam Reichold wrote:
>>> Hello
>>>
>>> Am 02.01.2018 um 01:06 schrieb Albert Astals Cid:
>>>> El diumenge, 31 de desembre de 2017, a les 0:45:16 CET, suzuki toshiya va 
>>>> escriure:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've tried to implement the suggestion, I attached my current patch.
>>>>>
>>>>> As suggested, the most part is just copied from Qt frontend and renamed,
>>>>> except of one point: TextBox.nextWord() looks slightly confusing,
>>>>> because the returned object is a pointer to TextBox. I wrote
>>>>> text_box.next_text_box() and a macro text_box.next_word() which
>>>>> calls next_text_box() internally.
>>>>>
>>>>> Another point I want to discuss is the design of the list give by
>>>>> poppler::page::text_list(). In Qt frontend, Page::textList() returns
>>>>> QList<TextBox*>. For similarity, current patch returns
>>>>> std::vector<text_box*> for similarity to Qt frontend.
>>>>>
>>>>> But, if we return the vector of pointers, the client should destruct
>>>>> the objects pointed by the vector, before destructing vector itself.
>>>>> Using a vector of text_box (not the pointer but the object itself),
>>>>> like std::vector<text_box>, could be better, because the destructor
>>>>> of the vector would internally call the destructor for text_box object.
>>>>> (Qt has qDeleteAll(), but I think std::vector does not have such).
>>>>> If I'm misunderstanding about C++, please correct.
>>>> First you need to fix the text_box class, you either need to make it 
>>>> uncopiable (and thus making your suggestion not possible) or you need to make 
>>>> the copy and assignment operators not break your class since at the moment the 
>>>> default operators will just copy the pointer and everything will break because 
>>>> you will end up with a dangling pointer.
>>>>
>>>> If you go for the second option you'll want the move constructor and move 
>>>> operator too.
>>> Should the first option also be viable if text_box becomes a move-only
>>> type, i.e. no copying but move construction and assignment? I think
>>> std::vector can handle it. (Another easy option albeit with some
>>> overhead to get automatic destruction would be to wrap the actual data
>>> inside a std::shared_ptr and hence use reference counting.)
>>>
>>> Best regards, Adam.
>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>   Albert
>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> mpsuzuki
>>>>>
>>>>> Albert Astals Cid wrote:
>>>>>> El dimecres, 27 de desembre de 2017, a les 12:26:25 CET, Jeroen Ooms va
>>>>>>
>>>>>> escriure:
>>>>>>> Is there a method in poppler-cpp to extract text from a pdf document,
>>>>>>> including the position of each text box? Currently we use page->text()
>>>>>>> with page::physical_layout which gives all text per page, but I need
>>>>>>> more detailed information about each text box per page.
>>>>>> You want to code the variant of qt5 frontend Poppler::Page::textList() for
>>>>>> cpp frontend, it shouldn't be that hard getting inspiration (i.e.
>>>>>> almost-copying) the code, do you have time for it?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   Albert
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> poppler mailing list
>>>>>>> poppler at lists.freedesktop.org
>>>>>>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/poppler
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> poppler mailing list
>>>>>> poppler at lists.freedesktop.org
>>>>>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/poppler
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> poppler mailing list
>>>> poppler at lists.freedesktop.org
>>>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/poppler
>>>>
>>
> 
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