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Posted to general@incubator.apache.org by Jukka Zitting <ju...@gmail.com> on 2008/01/29 18:20:59 UTC

Re: [DISCUSS] PDFBox proposal

Hi,

We're getting closer to finalizing the PDFBox proposal [1] (current
wiki source included below). I plan to call a vote on the proposal in
a few days, so any questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. If
you're interested, there's also a vacant spot for a third mentor.

[1] http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PDFBoxProposal

BR,

Jukka Zitting

----

Proposal Draft

= 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

 * pdfbox-dev@incubator.apache.org
 * pdfbox-commits@incubator.apache.org
 * pdfbox-private@incubator.apache.org

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
 * ...

Sponsoring Entity

 * Apache Incubator PMC

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Re: [DISCUSS] PDFBox proposal

Posted by Upayavira <uv...@odoko.co.uk>.
On Tue, 2008-01-29 at 21:20 +0000, Niall Pemberton wrote:
> I would be happy to be a mentor for PDFBox - not done mentoring before
> so if you can get someone more experienced then I'll bow out no
> problem. Also I also haven't used PDFBox or even looked at it, but I
> am interested in it (use iText alot) - so not sure whether thats a -ve
> or not wrt mentoring.

Your willingness to monitor is a big plus point. There are others here
who can guide you where needed. If a more experienced mentor volunteers,
you can always share the job - how else would you learn it?

Mentoring is about watching and guiding the podling's relationship with
the ASF. You don't need to specifically know the code to do that - but
you need to be prepared to monitor the lists and watch for anything that
might be a concern (e.g "hey, I just committed this cool new GPL
library...")

So, I say go for it.

Regards, Upayavira

> I haven't looked at PDFBox (use iText alot) but I am interested in it
> and am willing to be a mentor.
> 
> On Jan 29, 2008 5:20 PM, Jukka Zitting <ju...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > We're getting closer to finalizing the PDFBox proposal [1] (current
> > wiki source included below). I plan to call a vote on the proposal in
> > a few days, so any questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. If
> > you're interested, there's also a vacant spot for a third mentor.
> >
> > [1] http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PDFBoxProposal
> >
> > BR,
> >
> > Jukka Zitting
> >
> > ----
> >
> > Proposal Draft
> >
> > = 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
> >
> >  * pdfbox-dev@incubator.apache.org
> >  * pdfbox-commits@incubator.apache.org
> >  * pdfbox-private@incubator.apache.org
> >
> > 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
> >  * ...
> >
> > Sponsoring Entity
> >
> >  * Apache Incubator PMC
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@incubator.apache.org
> > For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@incubator.apache.org
> >
> >
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: general-unsubscribe@incubator.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: general-help@incubator.apache.org
> 


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Re: [DISCUSS] PDFBox proposal

Posted by Jukka Zitting <ju...@gmail.com>.
Hi,

On Jan 29, 2008 11:20 PM, Niall Pemberton <ni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I would be happy to be a mentor for PDFBox - not done mentoring before
> so if you can get someone more experienced then I'll bow out no
> problem. Also I also haven't used PDFBox or even looked at it, but I
> am interested in it (use iText alot) - so not sure whether thats a -ve
> or not wrt mentoring.

It would be great to have you on board! Just add yourself to the list
of mentors on the proposal wiki page.

BR,

Jukka Zitting

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Re: [DISCUSS] PDFBox proposal

Posted by Niall Pemberton <ni...@gmail.com>.
I would be happy to be a mentor for PDFBox - not done mentoring before
so if you can get someone more experienced then I'll bow out no
problem. Also I also haven't used PDFBox or even looked at it, but I
am interested in it (use iText alot) - so not sure whether thats a -ve
or not wrt mentoring.

Niall

I haven't looked at PDFBox (use iText alot) but I am interested in it
and am willing to be a mentor.

On Jan 29, 2008 5:20 PM, Jukka Zitting <ju...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We're getting closer to finalizing the PDFBox proposal [1] (current
> wiki source included below). I plan to call a vote on the proposal in
> a few days, so any questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. If
> you're interested, there's also a vacant spot for a third mentor.
>
> [1] http://wiki.apache.org/incubator/PDFBoxProposal
>
> BR,
>
> Jukka Zitting
>
> ----
>
> Proposal Draft
>
> = 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
>
>  * pdfbox-dev@incubator.apache.org
>  * pdfbox-commits@incubator.apache.org
>  * pdfbox-private@incubator.apache.org
>
> 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
>  * ...
>
> Sponsoring Entity
>
>  * Apache Incubator PMC
>
>
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