Natively Support PDF as Input

[MarshallG]

I have had multiple instances of needing to parse a set of PDF files. While I realize that this has been discussed previously with workarounds here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Knowledge-Base/Can-Alteryx-Parse-A-Word-Doc-Or-PDF/ta-p/115...

having a native PDF input tool would help me significantly. I don't have admin rights to my computer (at work) so downloading a new app to then use the "Run Command" tool is inconvenient, requires approval from IT, etc. So, it would save me (and I'm sure others) time both from an Alteryx workflow standpoint each time I need it, but also from an initial use to get the PDFtoText program installed.

[GiseleM]

Hi, did you ever find a solution to this? I share your concerns and currently need to dynamically parse volumes of PDF files.  

@BenMoss introduced me to a PDF Input tool here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Extracting-Cleansing-Normalizing-Parsi..., but I'm getting multiple errors and assume this is because the tool is not 'native'???

The guidance provided in A Particularly Problematic Parsing Example is incredibly helpful for the dynamic parsing portion of my project but it deals with text files as the original inputs. I'd like to avoid having to convert all of my PDFs to text first.

Any updates or additional guidance is much appreciated!

[StephenF]

The back of store PDF reader component did not work for me. Microsoft word can read my PDF, why can't alteryx?

PDFs are a standard office file format for decades, this should be out of the box.

I could get excel to read nasty scanned image PDFs with their OCR plugin more then a decade ago, here I just want a proper table to be lifted out of a PDF...

[KylieF]

Hi All!

Thank you for your feedback! I'm excited to say the ability to bring in PDFs to Alteryx has been achieved through our new Intelligence Suite of tools! This suite is available for purchase with our 2020.2 release, which can be downloaded here. If you're interested in trying out a demo please reach out to your account executive for an evaluation license key!

[StephenF]

They have implemented this as part of a PAID bundle of other stuff I have no interest in using.

https://help.alteryx.com/current/designer/alteryx-intelligence-suite

This should be in the core product. 😞