How to extract content from pdf file in react-native

Question

I am working on a personal project where I want to have a functionality where I can pick up a pdf file from the file system and read the content of it by ANYHOW.

I tried every possible library out there but nothing works and most of them no support any more whatsoever.

I am testing on ios by the way.

an example of my standpoint would be like:

<View style={styles.buttonPdfContainer}>
                <Image style={styles.pdfIcon} source={require('../resources/pdf.png')}/>
                <TouchableOpacity onPress={() => {
                                    // navigation.navigate('Info')
                                    var RNFS = require('react-native-fs');
                                    const pdf = require('pdf-parse');

                                    let dataBuffer = RNFS.readFileSync('path to PDF file...');

                                    pdf(dataBuffer).then(function(data) {

                                        // number of pages
                                        console.log(data.numpages);
                                        // number of rendered pages
                                        console.log(data.numrender);
                                        // PDF info
                                        console.log(data.info);
                                        // PDF metadata
                                        console.log(data.metadata); 
                                        // PDF.js version
                                        // check https://mozilla.github.io/pdf.js/getting_started/
                                        console.log(data.version);
                                        // PDF text
                                        console.log(data.text); 

                                    });
                                }}>
                    <Text style={styles.manualText}>with Notenspiegel pdf</Text>
                </TouchableOpacity>
            </View>

running this code for example yields in -> null is not an object (evaluating RNFSManager.RNFSFileTypeRegular)

any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I have just fixed this issue. You need to do

npm unlink react-native-fs //If react-native < 0.60.x
npm uninstall react-native-fs
npm install react-native-fs
npx react-native run-android