README

Laravel (or just plain PHP) class for calling https://ocr.space/ free API

This package provides an independent implementation of an OCR.space API client for Laravel (or PHP) applications

OCR.API is a free/paid API for the OCR.space online service that converts images of text documents in text strings using OCR technologies

Requirements

• PHP >= 5.6.4
• A valid key from OCR API (registration needed)

Installation

To get OCR.space API just use the require command of composer or edit manually your composer.json, adding the require block (then you should run composer update):

$ composer require jfuentestgn/ocr-space

{
    "require": {
        "jfuentestgn/ocr-space": "dev-master"
    }
}

After install the package, if you want to use it in a Laravel application, you should register the service provider. Add the OcrServiceProvider class to the list of providers in config/app.php:

  'providers' => [
    ....
    JFuentesTgn\OcrSpace\OcrServiceProvider::class,
    ...
    ]

If you want to use the Facade version of the service, you could add an alias in config/app.php:

  'aliases' => [
    ....
    'OCR' => JFuentesTgn\OcrSpace\OcrFacade::class, 
    ...
    ]

Configuration

This package requires an API key to work. First of all, register in the OCR API site to get a valid KEY

Publish vendor assets to get a local copy of the config file:

$ php artisan vendor:publish --provider=JFuentesTgn\\OcrSpace\\OcrServiceProvider

This will create a config/ocrspace.php file in your app. Edit this file and update the API key configuration property

Usage

In Laravel, you can use the OcrAPI class service as any other injected service. As an exemple:

use JFuentesTgn\OcrSpace\OcrAPI;

class TestController extends Controller 
{

  public function processImage(Request $request, OcrAPI $ocr)
  {
    // You can use the $ocr instance to call OCR.space web service
    $response = $ocr->parseImageFile($imageFile);
  }
}

If you prefer to use the facade interface, you can do just this:

  $response = OCR::parseImageFile($imageFile);

Laravel is not a requirement for this package. If you need to use it outside a Laravel app, you can just create an instance of the API as with any other class:

  $ocr = new OcrAPI($apiKey);
  $response = $ocr->parseImageFile($imageFile);

In this case you MUST pass your API key as a parameter to the constructor

The response (JFuentesTgn\OcrSpace\OcrResponse) object returned by the OcrAPI methods maps JSON response from OCR.space online service in an object oriented way.

This is an example of how to read the service response:

$image = 'snap_005.jpg';
$response = $ocr->parseImageFile($image);
if ($response->length() == 1) {
  $text = $response->items(0)->text();
}

Credits

This package is maintained by Juan Fuentes

OCR.space is a service of a9t9 software GmbH. They are also in github

This package is an independent development that is in no way linked to a9t9 software. I want to acknowledge a9t9 for put this OCR service online

License

Laravel OCR.space API is licensed under The MIT License (MIT).