+1 Niall
On Feb 1, 2008 2:18 PM, Jukka Zitting <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Incubator PMC, > > Please vote on accepting the PDFBox project for incubation. The full > PDFBox proposal is available at the end of this message and as a wiki > page at http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PDFBoxProposal. We ask the > Incubator PMC to sponsor the PDFBox podling, with myself, Jeremias > Maerki, and Niall Pemberton as the mentors. > > The vote is open for the next 72 hours and only votes from the > Incubator PMC are binding. > > [ ] +1 Accept PDFBox as a new podling > [ ] -1 Do not accept the new podling (provide reason, please) > > Here's my +1 > > BR, > > Jukka Zitting > > ---- > > = PDFBox = > > === Abstract === > > PDFBox is an open source Java PDF library for working with PDF documents. > > === Proposal === > > The PDFBox library allows creation of new PDF documents, manipulation > of existing documents and the ability to extract content from > documents. PDFBox also includes several command line utilities. Future > development plans include extending PDFBox with advanced data > extraction and high level PDF creation functionality. > > In addition to PDFBox, this proposal also covers the !FontBox and > !JempBox companion libraries. !FontBox is a Java font library used to > obtain low level information from font files. !JempBox is a Java > library that implements Adobe's XMP specification. All these > components would be incubated as a single Apache PDFBox podling > project. > > === Background === > > The PDFBox project started in 2002 and was originally written by Ben > Litchfield in 2002 and currently lives on SourceForge. The initial > purpose of PDFBox was to extract text content to be indexed by the > Lucene search engine. In addition to text extraction the library also > supports a low level API for PDF creation and manipulation. In the > past, several developers have helped develop specific features in > PDFBox but none have continued once their specific needs where met. > > In 2006 discussions began with the FOP team to collaborate on a single > PDF library within the Apache organization. New projects have > expressed interest in advancing the functionality of PDFBox. > > Recently, Tika also expressed interest in advancing the content > extraction capabilities of PDFBox. > > The !FontBox and !JempBox libraries have no dependencies to PDFBox, > but their primary purpose is to support PDFBox and the development > community is largely overlapping. It makes sense to include all three > libraries in a single project. > > === Rationale === > > The PDF document format is a common format found on internet and > across industries as a way of sharing documents. Several Apache > projects utilize PDF technologies but there is not a single > independent PDF library within the Apache organization. > > The Apache XML Graphics project (FOP/Batik) has a write-only PDF > library and is in need of PDF parsing functionality. Many features > overlap those of PDFBox. This is currently a duplication of effort, > bringing PDFBox into Apache and combining our efforts will result in a > more robust PDF library that will be able to support many more use > cases for working with PDF technologies. > > !FontBox, FOP and Batik all contain font loading/handling code that > could likely be merged into a single common library either within the > PDFBox podling or outside it. > > === Initial Goals === > > The initial goals are: > > * Advanced text extraction techniques > * Increase community involvement > * Cooperation with existing Apache projects such as XML Graphics > * Increasing support for PDF document features > * Adding a high level API for document creation > * Adding a streaming API for document creation > * PDF/A creation and validation functionality > * Review licensing of both bundled and external dependencies > * Manage export control notices for cryptographic features > * Figure out how to handle font handling code across !FontBox, FOP, and > Batik > * Replace !JempBox with Adobe's XMP library > > == Current Status == > > === Meritocracy === > > Not all initial committers are familiar with the meritocracy > principles of Apache. It is expected that the committers that are not > will learn the meritocracy rules and they will be followed through the > life of the project. > > === Community === > > PDFBox has existed for several years on SourceForge and has an active > community and continues to grow each day. There are hundreds of > existing projects that utilize the current version of PDFBox. > > === Core Developers === > > Ben Litchfield is the main developer on this project although it is > expected that developers from a variety of existing Apache projects > will become part of the team. > > === Alignment === > > The ability to search PDF documents is a basic requirement for any > enterprise search solution. PDFBox provides the basic content that is > needed for content indexing. This functionality aligns with the those > of Lucene, Nutch, Tika and UIMA and all users of these projects will > benefit from continued development of PDFBox. > > PDFBox shares similar font loading and handling needs as FOP and > Batik, and the code in the !FontBox companion library could well be > merged with similar code in the other projects. > > == Known Risks == > > === Orphaned products === > > PDFBox has been in development for over 5 years. The rate of > development has varied, but the PDFBox user community has grown each > year. PDFBox implements the PDF specification, which is highly > utilized by companies across the world. The need for a PDF library is > strong and is unlikely to change in the near future. > > === "Competing" formats === > > In recent times, additional paged document formats have been developed > (or are in development) that have similar goals/functionality: > > * Microsoft's [http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/xpsspec.mspx XPS] > (XML-based ZIP container, proprietary core-functionality) > * Adobe's [http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/mars/ Mars] (XML-based > ZIP container, largely based on open standards, extending them where > necessary) > > === Inexperience with Open Source === > > All developers have experience with Open Source projects. > > === Homogenous Developers === > > The initial set of committers is diverse and the project is likely to > attract new developers. > > === Reliance on Salaried Developers === > > PDFBox is not the primary job for any of the initial committers. > > === Relationships with Other Apache Products === > > PDFBox has relationships with the following Apache Products > > * [http://lucene.apache.org/java/ Apache Lucene] Lucene users > typically integrate with PDFBox to add PDF indexing capabilities. > * [http://lucene.apache.org/nutch/ Lucene Nutch] Nutch currently > utilizes PDFBox to index PDF documents. > * [http://incubator.apache.org/tika/ Tika] Tika currently utilizes > PDFBox for extracting PDF content. > * [http://incubator.apache.org/uima/ Apache UIMA] UIMA analyzes > unstructured content and would benefit from PDF content. > * [http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/ Apache FOP] and > [http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/ Apache Batik] There's an > experimental plug-in (currently hosted outside of the project) for FOP > that uses PDFBox to support embedding of existing PDFs in XSL-FO > documents for PDF output. Both Batik and FOP have code to parse fonts > which !FontBox needs to do, too. > > === A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand === > > Many existing Apache developers are already familiar with PDFBox. > PDFBox was initially written to compliment the functionality of Lucene > and has worked with it's developers over the past several years. > PDFBox will benefit from closer cooperation with several existing > Apache projects. > > == Documentation == > > * PDFBox ([http://www.pdfbox.org/]) > * !FontBox ([http://www.fontbox.org/]) > * !JempBox ([http://www.jempbox.org/]) > > == Initial Source == > > Initial source will come from the existing SourceForge repositories of > the PDFBox, !FontBox, and !JempBox projects. > > == Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan == > > The initial IP submission will be done as a software grant to the ASF. > > == External Dependencies == > > The "Adobe AFM License" and the "SUN JAI" licenses described below > need to be reviewed to ensure they comply with Apache license > standards. > > ||'''Library'''||'''License'''||'''Description'''|| > ||Adobe AFM||Adobe AFM License||Resources for extracting font > encoding. Bundled inside PDFBox jar file.|| > ||Bouncycastle||BSD Variant||Support for encrypting/decrypting PDF > documents.|| > ||IKVM||BSD Variant [1]||Support of PDFBox on .NET platform|| > ||junit||CPL||Unit Testing Framework|| > ||Lucene||ASL||Provide classes for easy Lucene integration|| > ||JAI-CMM||Sun JAI||Provides support from color spaces|| > > ''[1] IKVM itself is BSD but contains either GNU Classpath or the > OpenJDK class library (both GPL with exception). This may need to be > reviewed, too.'' > > == Cryptography == > > PDFBox implements the RC4 encryption algorithm and utilizes Bouncy > Castle for additional encryption routines. > > == Required Resources == > > Mailing lists > > * [EMAIL PROTECTED] > * [EMAIL PROTECTED] > * [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subversion Directory > > * https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/pdfbox > > Issue Tracking > > * JIRA PDFBox (PDFBOX) > > Other Resources > > * none > > == Initial Committers == > > || '''Name''' || '''Email''' || > '''CLA''' || > || Ben Litchfield || ben at benlitchfield dot com || No > || > || Daniel Wilson || williamstonconsulting at gmail dot com || No > || > || Philipp Koch || pkoch at apache dot org || > Yes || > > == Affiliations == > > || '''Name''' || '''Affiliation''' || > || Ben Litchfield || Independent || > || Daniel Wilson || DV Brown Company || > || Philipp Koch || Day Software || > > == Sponsors == > > Champion > > * Jukka Zitting > > Nominated Mentors > > * Jukka Zitting > * Jeremias Maerki > * Niall Pemberton > > Sponsoring Entity > > * Apache Incubator PMC > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
