How to read PDF creation & modification date in NodeJS

Problem:

You have a PDF file from which you want to know the creation and modification date: Not the dates stored in the file itself but those from the PDF metadata.

Solution:

This solution assumes you use NodeJS version 8+ which supports async/await.
You can use pdfjs to read these dates. First install it using

npm install pdfjs-dist

Then use this code to extract the dates.

const pdfjs = require('pdfjs-dist');

async function readPDFDates() {
  const pdf = await pdfjs.getDocument('mypdf.pdf');
  const metadata = await pdf.getMetadata();

  const modDate = new Date(metadata.metadata._metadata['xmp:modifydate']);
  const createDate = new Date(metadata.metadata._metadata['xmp:createdate']);
  return [modDate, createDate]
}

readPDFDates().then(([modDate, createDate]) => {
    console.log(`Creation date: ${createDate}`)
    console.log(`Modification date: ${modDate}`)
}).catch(err => {
    console.error(`Error while reading PDF: ${err}`)
})

The PDF files I’ve seen use ISO8601-style formatting, but without a timezone specification. The code therefore assumes that the times are in the local timezone.

Note: metadata is e.g. the following object (not all attributes are present for all PDFs):

{ info: 
   { PDFFormatVersion: '1.5',
     IsAcroFormPresent: false,
     IsXFAPresent: false,
     Title: 'Microsoft Word - mypdf',
     Author: 'uli',
     Creator: 'PScript5.dll Version 5.2.2',
     Producer: 'Acrobat Distiller 9.3.0 (Windows)',
     CreationDate: 'D:20100209100924+01\'00\'',
     ModDate: 'D:20100209100924+01\'00\'' },
  metadata: 
   Metadata {
     _metadata: 
      { 'dc:format': 'application/pdf',
        'dc:creator': 'peter',
        'dc:title': 'Microsoft Word - mypdf',
        'xmp:createdate': '2010-02-09T10:09:24+01:00',
        'xmp:creatortool': 'PScript5.dll Version 5.2.2',
        'xmp:modifydate': '2010-02-09T10:09:24+01:00',
        'pdf:producer': 'Acrobat Distiller 9.3.0 (Windows)',
        'xmpmm:documentid': 'uuid:2fd66f45-5f2a-4dd6-8cb0-297ce85ee9e1',
        'xmpmm:instanceid': 'uuid:f6e62218-4b40-47c7-837b-6cb1e6e90995' } },