Undefined method with Composer library and CodeIgniter - php

Question

I'm working on a project and it's getting a little too hard for me...
I explain.
I need to parse PDF files with PHP, to analyse the content of those files. To do that, I use pdfparser.org library.
I firstly tried to include this library as usually, without any result.
After having read all the Internet, since this library requires Composer to be installed (and on my web hosting I can't get Composer installed), I have applied the Composer process on my Windows PC. I got the "vendor" folder with the "autoload.php" file. Fine !!
Then, I have tried to include it properly in CodeIgniter. The solution I chose is :
Creating a file "Pdfparser.php" in application/libraries/
class Pdfparser
{
public function __construct()
{
require_once APPPATH."/third_party/pdfparser.php";
}
}
Then, I add the PdfParser "Composer" application in application/third_party/, and in the /third_party/pdfparser.php I simply put :
if (!defined('pdfparser')) {
define('pdfparser', dirname(__FILE__) . '/');
require(pdfparser . 'pdfparser/autoload.php');
}
Then, I add this library to CodeIgniter /application/config/autoload.php as :
$autoload['libraries'] = array('pagination', 'form_validation','email','upload','pdfparser');
Finally, I call it in my function in application/controllers/Admin.php :
$parser = new Pdfparser();
$pdf = $parser->parseFile(myfile.pdf);
$full_text = $pdf->getText();
(This 4. block of code is directly taken from official Documentation here : http://www.pdfparser.org/documentation, and just adapted).
But now, I break the Internet... I have this error :
PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined method PdfParser::parseFile() in /path/application/controllers/Admin.php on line 3083
After having looked CodeIgniter documentation, I try to add the Composer autoloader to the core... in application/config/autoload.php I put :
$config['composer_autoload'] = APPPATH . "/third_party/pdfparser/autoload.php";
Of course, it doest not work. And I'm lost...

Answer 1

Use composer properly. $config['composer_autoload'] = TRUE; and inside your application folder run composer install smalot/pdfparser . Then inside your controller it should run, if not use Use :)
use Smalot\PdfParser;
class My_controller extends CI_Controller {
}

Answer 2

When using composer, to include a library in your project you do something like that :
composer install smalot/pdfparser
Then, to include the newly installed library, you only need to include the "autoload.php" file provided by composer :
<?php
include 'vendor/autoload.php';
$parser = new Pdfparser();
$pdf = $parser->parseFile(myfile.pdf);
$full_text = $pdf->getText();
var_dump($full_text);
Nothing more.

Answer 3

Replace your code
class Pdfparser
{
public function __construct()
{
require_once APPPATH."/third_party/pdfparser.php";
}
}
with
<?php
require_once APPPATH."/third_party/pdfparser.php";
class Pdfparser
{
public function __construct()
{
}
}
Include outside of your class.
Rather than using autoloading you can load library like this...
$this->load->library('library_name');
Example:
$this->load->library('pdfparser');