Toxy 2.6 Skill

Toxy is a .NET data/text extraction framework (similar to Apache Tika for Java). It supports cross-platform text and data extraction from many popular file formats. Always use Toxy 2.6.0 (NuGet package Toxy, targeting netstandard2.0 or netstandard2.1).

Key Changes in 2.6

• Upgraded to .NET Standard 2.1 support (in addition to 2.0)
• Added stream-based parsing (ParserContext now accepts Stream directly)
• Added EPUB parser (implements IDocumentParser)
• Removed unused StreamReader references (cleaner API)
• All parsers now live in Toxy namespace

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Installation

<!-- .csproj -->
<PackageReference Include="Toxy" Version="2.6.0" />

Or via CLI:

dotnet add package Toxy --version 2.6.0

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Core Concepts

ParserContext

The entry point for all parsing. Accepts either a file path or a Stream (new in 2.6):

// From file path
var context = new ParserContext("path/to/file.docx");

// From stream (new in 2.6)
using var stream = File.OpenRead("path/to/file.docx");
var context = new ParserContext(stream, "docx"); // must supply format hint

Parser Factory

Use ParserFactory to auto-detect format and return the correct parser:

var parser = ParserFactory.CreateDocument(context);    // for document types
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateSpreadsheet(context); // for spreadsheet types
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateEmail(context);       // for email/contact types

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Toxy Object Types

Object	Description	Formats
ToxyDocument	Paragraphs + metadata	docx, pdf, txt, epub, html, rtf, odt
ToxySpreadsheet	Rows/cells per sheet	xlsx, xls, csv, ods
ToxyEmail	Email fields	eml, msg
ToxyBusinessCard	Contact fields	vcf
ToxyDom	DOM tree	html, xml
ToxyMetadata	Key/value metadata	any file

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Usage Patterns

Extract Text from a Word Document

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("report.docx");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateDocument(context);
ToxyDocument doc = parser.Parse();

foreach (var paragraph in doc.Paragraphs)
{
    Console.WriteLine(paragraph.Text);
}

Extract Data from Excel

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("data.xlsx");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateSpreadsheet(context);
ToxySpreadsheet sheet = parser.Parse();

foreach (var table in sheet.Tables)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Sheet: {table.Name}");
    foreach (var row in table.Rows)
    {
        foreach (var cell in row.Cells)
        {
            Console.Write($"{cell.Value}\t");
        }
        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

Parse from a Stream (New in 2.6)

using Toxy;

// Works with any stream source (MemoryStream, HttpResponseStream, etc.)
using var stream = File.OpenRead("document.pdf");
var context = new ParserContext(stream, "pdf");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateDocument(context);
ToxyDocument doc = parser.Parse();
Console.WriteLine(doc.Paragraphs[0].Text);

Parse PDF

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("file.pdf");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateDocument(context);
ToxyDocument doc = parser.Parse();

foreach (var para in doc.Paragraphs)
    Console.WriteLine(para.Text);

Parse EPUB (New in 2.6)

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("book.epub");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateDocument(context);
ToxyDocument doc = parser.Parse();

foreach (var para in doc.Paragraphs)
    Console.WriteLine(para.Text);

Parse Email

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("message.eml");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateEmail(context);
ToxyEmail email = parser.Parse();

Console.WriteLine($"From: {email.From}");
Console.WriteLine($"Subject: {email.Subject}");
Console.WriteLine($"Body: {email.Body}");

Parse Business Card (VCF)

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("contact.vcf");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateEmail(context); // VCF uses email parser factory
ToxyBusinessCard card = (ToxyBusinessCard)parser.Parse();

Console.WriteLine(card.FullName);
Console.WriteLine(card.Email);

Extract Metadata

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("file.pdf");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateMetadata(context);
ToxyMetadata meta = parser.Parse();

foreach (var key in meta.Keys)
    Console.WriteLine($"{key}: {meta[key]}");

Parse HTML as DOM

using Toxy;

var context = new ParserContext("page.html");
var parser = ParserFactory.CreateDom(context);
ToxyDom dom = parser.Parse();

// Access DOM nodes
Console.WriteLine(dom.Root.InnerText);

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Supported Formats Summary

Format	Extension(s)	Parser Type
Word (Open XML)	.docx	Document
Word (Legacy)	.doc	Document
PDF	.pdf	Document
Plain Text	.txt	Document
Rich Text	.rtf	Document
EPUB	.epub	Document (new in 2.6)
HTML	.html, .htm	Document / Dom
OpenDocument Text	.odt	Document
Excel (Open XML)	.xlsx	Spreadsheet
Excel (Legacy)	.xls	Spreadsheet
CSV	.csv	Spreadsheet
OpenDocument Sheet	.ods	Spreadsheet
Email	.eml, .msg	Email
Business Card	.vcf	Email (returns ToxyBusinessCard)
Any	*	Metadata

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Tips & Best Practices

• Auto-detection: When using a file path, Toxy detects format from the extension automatically. When using a stream, always provide the format hint string (e.g., "pdf", "docx").
• Error handling: Wrap parse calls in try/catch — unsupported formats throw NotSupportedException.
• Large files: Use stream-based parsing to avoid loading entire files into memory.
• Cross-platform: Toxy targets netstandard2.0/2.1, so it works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• No IFilter dependency: Unlike old Windows-based approaches, Toxy does not require IFilter COM components.

For deeper reference on specific parsers and the class hierarchy, see references/api.md.