Hello again Monks,

I have a task at hand to take all kinds of file types and convert them to text, or extract as much text from them as possible for indexing purposes. Can anyone tell me if there is a perl Framework (via module) already built that will help with such a task? Basically, I would like to take a bunch of files of varying types (PDF, DOC, PPT, HTML, etc) and feed them into a framework that will help extract the text out of each file. I don't want a simple strings extraction, I would like something that identifies file types and using the framework will determine what is needed to best extract data from a given file. Ideally, I would like it all to be perl, so it isn't relying on tools that are specific to an operating system, but understand if that is not possible. Otherwise, I would prefer to stick with Linux tools, if this route is needed.

I understand if nothing exists. I have been thinking of a plan for a while, but wanted to know if anything already existed.

Thank you in advance for any guidance provided.