diff --git a/text/README.txt b/text/README.txt
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+++ b/text/README.txt
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+=================================================
+Text transformations, e.g. for full-text indexing
+=================================================
+
+  ($Id$)
+
+  >>> import os
+  >>> from cybertools import text
+  >>> directory = os.path.dirname(text.__file__)
+  >>> fn = os.path.sep.join((directory, 'testfiles', 'mary.pdf'))
+  >>> f = open(fn)
+
+  >>> from cybertools.text.pdf import PdfTransform
+  >>> transform = PdfTransform(None)
+  >>> words = transform(f).split()
+  >>> len(words)
+  89
+  >>> u'lamb' in words
+  True
diff --git a/text/__init__.py b/text/__init__.py
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+++ b/text/__init__.py
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+"""
+$Id$
+"""
diff --git a/text/base.py b/text/base.py
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+++ b/text/base.py
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+#
+#  Copyright (c) 2006 Helmut Merz helmutm@cy55.de
+#
+#  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+#  (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#  GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+#  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+#
+
+"""
+Base classes for text transformations.
+
+Based on code provided by zc.index.
+
+$Id$
+"""
+
+
+__docformat__ = "reStructuredText"
+
+import os, shutil, sys, tempfile
+from zope.interface import implements
+from cybertools.text.interfaces import ITextTransform, IFileTransform
+
+def haveProgram(name):
+    """Return true if the program `name` is available."""
+    if sys.platform.lower().startswith("win"):
+        extensions = (".com", ".exe", ".bat")
+    else:
+        extensions = ("",)
+    execpath = os.environ.get("PATH", "").split(os.path.pathsep)
+    for path in execpath:
+        for ext in extensions:
+            fn = os.path.join(path, name + ext)
+            if os.path.isfile(fn):
+                return True
+    return False
+
+
+class BaseTransform(object):
+
+    implements(ITextTransform)
+
+    def __init__(self, context):
+        self.context = context
+        self.text = None
+
+    def __call__(self, f):
+        if self.text is None:
+            fr = open(f, 'r')
+            self.text = fr.read()
+            fr.close()
+        return self.text
+
+
+class BaseFileTransform(BaseTransform):
+
+    implements(IFileTransform)
+
+    def __call__(self, fr):
+        if self.text is None:
+            #fr = f.open("rb")
+            dirname = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+            filename = os.path.join(dirname, "temp" + self.extension)
+            try:
+                fw = open(filename, "wb")
+                shutil.copyfileobj(fr, fw)
+                #fr.close()
+                fw.close()
+                text = self.extract(dirname, filename)
+            finally:
+                shutil.rmtree(dirname)
+            self.text = text
+        return self.text
+
+    def extract(self, dirname, filename):
+        raise ValueError('Method extract() has to be implemented by subclass.')
+
diff --git a/text/interfaces.py b/text/interfaces.py
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/text/interfaces.py
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+#
+#  Copyright (c) 2006 Helmut Merz helmutm@cy55.de
+#
+#  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+#  (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#  GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+#  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
+#
+
+"""
+interface definitions for text transformations.
+
+$Id$
+"""
+
+from zope.interface import Interface
+
+
+class ITextTransform(Interface):
+
+    def __call__(f):
+        """ Transform the content of file f to plain text and return
+            the result as unicode.
+        """
+
+
+class IFileTransform(ITextTransform):
+    """ A transformation that uses an intermediate disk file.
+    """
+
+    def extract(dirname, filename):
+        """ Extract text contents from the file specified by dirnam, filename,
+            using some external programm, and return the result as unicode.
+        """
diff --git a/text/pdf.py b/text/pdf.py
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+++ b/text/pdf.py
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+"""Searchable text support for Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
+
+This uses the pdftotext command from xpdf to perform the extraction.
+
+"""
+__docformat__ = "reStructuredText"
+
+import os, sys
+
+from cybertools.text import base
+
+
+class PdfTransform(base.BaseFileTransform):
+
+    extension = ".pdf"
+
+    def extract(self, directory, filename):
+        if not base.haveProgram("pdftotext"):
+            print 'Warning: pdftotext is not available'
+            return u''
+        txtfile = os.path.join(directory, "words.txt")
+        st = os.system("pdftotext -enc UTF-8 %s %s" % (filename, txtfile))
+        f = open(txtfile, "rb")
+        data = f.read()
+        f.close()
+        return unicode(data, "utf-8")
diff --git a/text/testfiles/mary.pdf b/text/testfiles/mary.pdf
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index 0000000..381d054
Binary files /dev/null and b/text/testfiles/mary.pdf differ
diff --git a/text/tests.py b/text/tests.py
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/text/tests.py
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+#! /usr/bin/python
+
+"""
+Tests for the 'cybertools.text' package.
+
+$Id$
+"""
+
+import unittest, doctest
+from zope.testing.doctestunit import DocFileSuite
+from cybertools.text import pdf
+
+class Test(unittest.TestCase):
+    "Basic tests for the text package."
+
+    def testBasicStuff(self):
+        pass
+
+
+def test_suite():
+    flags = doctest.NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE | doctest.ELLIPSIS
+    return unittest.TestSuite((
+        unittest.makeSuite(Test),
+        DocFileSuite('README.txt', optionflags=flags),
+        ))
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main(defaultTest='test_suite')