Convert Word doc docx and Excel xls xlsx to PDF with PHP

Question

I am looking for a way to convert Word and Excel files to PDF using PHP   The reason for this  is I need to be able to combine files of various formats into one document  I know that if I am able to convert everything to PDF I can then merge the PDFs into one file using PDFMerger  which uses fpdf    I am already able to create PDFs from other file types   images  but am stuck with Word Docs   I think I would possibly be able to convert the Excel files using the PHPExcel library that I already use to create Excel files from html code    I do not use the Zend Framework  so am hoping that someone will be able to point me in the right direction   Alternatively  if there is a way to create image  jpg  files from the Word documents  that would be workable   Thanks for any help

User · Answer

Well my 2 cents when it comes to the topic word 2007 docx, word 97-2004 doc, pdf and all other types of MS Office wishing to be "converted from y to z but in real they don't wanna be". In my experience so far, conversion with LibreOffice or OpenOffice can't be relied on. Though .doc documents tend to be better supported than word 2007's .docx. In general it's very hard to convert the .docx to .doc without breaking anything.

.docx also tend to be extremely useful for templating where .doc is not for being binary.

The conversion from .doc to PDF was most of the time quite reliable. If you can still influence the design or content of the word document then this might be satisfying, but in my situation documents were supplied from foreign companies where even after generating the .docx templates, in some scenario's, the generated .docx had to be slightly modified with supplement text before it was generated to a PDF.

WINDOWS BASED!

All this hiccup made me come to the conclusion that the only true reliable conversion method I found was using the COM class in PHP and let the MS Word or Excel Application do all the work for you. I'll just give an example on converting .docx to .doc and/or PDF. If you do not have MS Office installed, you can download a trial version of 60 days which would give you enough room for testing purposes.

the COM.net extension is by default commented out in the php.ini, just search for the line php_com_dotnet.dll and uncomment it like so

  extension=php_com_dotnet.dll

Restart the web server (IIS is not a pre, Apache will work just as well).

The code below is a demonstration on how easy it is.

  $word = new COM("Word.Application") or die ("Could not initialise Object.");
  // set it to 1 to see the MS Word window (the actual opening of the document)
  $word->Visible = 0;
  // recommend to set to 0, disables alerts like "Do you want MS Word to be the default .. etc"
  $word->DisplayAlerts = 0;
  // open the word 2007-2013 document 
  $word->Documents->Open('yourdocument.docx');
  // save it as word 2003
  $word->ActiveDocument->SaveAs('newdocument.doc');
  // convert word 2007-2013 to PDF
  $word->ActiveDocument->ExportAsFixedFormat('yourdocument.pdf', 17, false, 0, 0, 0, 0, 7, true, true, 2, true, true, false);
  // quit the Word process
  $word->Quit(false);
  // clean up
  unset($word);

This is just a small demonstration. I can just say that if it comes to conversion, this was the only real reliable option I could use and even recommend.

User · Answer

The easiest way to do this in my experience is with the Cloudmersive free native PHP library  just call convertDocumentDocxToPdf    lt  php require once   DIR       vendor autoload php        Configure API key authorization  Apikey  config   Swagger Client Configuration  getDefaultConfiguration  - gt setApiKey  Apikey    YOUR API KEY        apiInstance   new Swagger Client Api ConvertDocumentApi        new GuzzleHttp Client         config     input file     path to file txt       SplFileObject   Input file to perform the operation on   try        result    apiInstance- gt convertDocumentDocxToPdf  input file       print r  result     catch  Exception  e        echo  Exception when calling ConvertDocumentApi- gt convertDocumentDocxToPdf      e- gt getMessage    PHP EOL      gt    Be sure to replace  input file with the appropriate file path   You can also configure it to use a byte array if you prefer to do it that way   The result will be the bytes of the converted PDF file

User · Answer

I successfully put a portable version of libreoffice on my host s webserver  which I call with PHP to do a commandline conversion from  docx  etc  to pdf  on the fly  I do not have admin rights on my host s webserver  Here is my blog post of what I did   http   geekswithblogs net robertphyatt archive 2011 11 19 converting- docx-to-pdf-or- doc-to-pdf-or- doc aspx  Yay  Convert directly from  docx or  odt to  pdf using PHP with LibreOffice  OpenOffice s successor

User · Answer

1  I am using WAMP   2  I have installed Open Office  from apache http   www openoffice org download     3   output dir    C  wamp www projectfolder    this is my project folder where i want to create output file   4  I have already placed my input file here C  wamp www projectfolder wordfile docx    Then I Run My Code    given below    lt  php     set time limit 0       function MakePropertyValue  name  value  osm        oStruct    osm- gt Bridge GetStruct  com sun star beans PropertyValue         oStruct- gt Name    name       oStruct- gt Value    value      return  oStruct            function word2pdf  doc url   output url          Invoke the OpenOffice org service manager      osm   new COM  com sun star ServiceManager   or die   Please be sure that OpenOffice org is installed  n          Set the application to remain hidden to avoid flashing the document onscreen      args   array MakePropertyValue  Hidden  true  osm          Launch the desktop      oDesktop    osm- gt createInstance  com sun star frame Desktop          Load the  doc file  and pass in the  Hidden  property from above      oWriterDoc    oDesktop- gt loadComponentFromURL  doc url   blank   0   args         Set up the arguments for the PDF output      export args   array MakePropertyValue  FilterName   writer pdf Export   osm          print r  export args         Write out the PDF      oWriterDoc- gt storeToURL  output url  export args        oWriterDoc- gt close true               output dir    C  wamp www projectfolder         doc file    C  wamp www projectfolder wordfile docx        pdf file    outputfile name pdf         output file    output dir    pdf file       doc file    file         doc file       output file    file         output file      word2pdf  doc file  output file         gt

User · Answer

I have found some solution after so much googling  You can also try it if tired to search for a good solution  For common using SOAP API  You need username and password to make SOAP request on https   www livedocx com Make registration using this https   www livedocx com user account registration aspx and follow the steps accordingly  Use below code in your  php file   ini set   soap wsdl cache enabled   0       you will get this username and pass while register define   USERNAME    Username     define   PASSWORD    Password        SOAP WSDL endpoint define   ENDPOINT    https   api livedocx com 2 1 mailmerge asmx wsdl         Define timezone date default timezone set  Europe Berlin     soap   new SoapClient ENDPOINT    soap- gt LogIn      array           username    gt  USERNAME           password    gt  PASSWORD           data   file get contents  test doc     soap- gt SetLocalTemplate      array           template    gt  base64 encode  data            format      gt   doc            soap- gt CreateDocument     result    soap- gt RetrieveDocument      array           format    gt   pdf            data    result- gt RetrieveDocumentResult  file put contents  tree pdf   base64 decode  data     soap- gt LogOut    unset  soap    Follow this link for more information http   www phplivedocx org  For Ubuntu  OpenOffice and Unoconv installation Required  from command prompt  apt-get remove --purge unoconv git clone https   github com dagwieers unoconv cd unoconv sudo make install   Now add below code in your PHP script and make sure file should be executable   shell exec   usr bin unoconv -f pdf  folder test docx    shell exec   usr bin unoconv -f pdf  folder sachin png     Hope this solution help you

User · Answer

I found a solution to my issue and after a request  will post it here to help others  Apologies if I missed any details  it s been a while since I worked on this solution   The first thing that is required is to install Openoffice org on the server  I requested my hosting provider to install the open office RPM on my VPS  This can be done through WHM directly   Now that the server has the capability to handle MS Office files you are able to convert the files by executing command line instructions via PHP  To handle this  I found PyODConverter  https   github com mirkonasato pyodconverter  I created a directory on the server and placed the PyODConverter python file within it  I also created a plain text file above the web root  I named it  adocpdf    with the following command line instructions in it   directory  1 filename  2 extension  3 SERVICE  soffice  if     ps ax grep -v grep grep -c  SERVICE   -lt 1    then  unset DISPLAY  usr bin soffice -headless -accept  socket host 127 0 0 1 port 8100 urp   -nofirststartwizard  amp   sleep 5s fi python  home website python DocumentConverter py  home website  directory filename extension  home website  directory filename pdf   This checks that the openoffice org libraries are running and then calls the PyODConverter script to process the file and output it as a PDF  The 3 variables on the first three lines are provided when the script is executed from with a PHP file  The delay   sleep 5s   is used to ensure that openoffice org has enough to time to initiate if required  I have used this for months now and the 5s gap seems to give enough breathing room   The script will create a PDF version of the document in the same directory as the original   Finally  initiating the conversion of a Word   Excel file from within PHP  I have it within a function that checks if the file we are dealing with is a word   excel document        use openoffice org  output   array     return var   0  exec   opt adocpdf   directory    filename    extension     output   return var     This PHP function is called once the Word   Excel file has been uploaded to the server  The 3 variables in the exec   call relate directly to the 3 at the start of the plain text script above  Note that the  directory variable requires no leading forward slash if the file for conversion is within the web root   OK  that s it  Hopefully this will be useful to someone and save them the difficulties and learning curve I faced

User · Answer

Anyone who is looking to do this in Ubuntu linux using php -  Ubuntu comes with libre office installed default  Anyone can use the shell command to use the headless libre office for this   shell exec   usr bin libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf writer pdf Export --outdir  var www html demo public html src var output  var www html demo public html src var source sample doc      Hope it helps others like me

User · Answer

Open Office   LibreOffice based solutions will do an OK job  but don t expect your PDFs to resemble your source files if they were created in MS-Office  A PDF that looks 90  like the original is not considered to be acceptable in many fields   The only way to make sure your PDFs look exactly like the originals is to use a solution that uses the official MS-Office DLLs under the hood  If you are running your PHP solution on non-Windows based servers then it requires an additional Windows Server  This may be a showstopper  but if you really care about the look and feel of your PDFs you may not have an option   Have a look at this blog post  It shows how to use PHP to convert MS-Office files with a high level of fidelity    Disclaimer  I wrote this blog post and worked on a related commercial product  so consider me biased  However  it appears to be a great solution for the PHP people I work with

User · Answer

Have you tried http   www phpdocx com   Plus  it can be hosted on your server too

User · Answer

Step 1  Install  Apache OpenOffice 4 1 2  in your system Step 2  Download  unoconv  library from github or any where else      -  C  Program Files  x86  OpenOffice 4 program python exe   Path of open office install directory      -  D  wamp www doc to pdf libobasis4 4-pyuno unoconv   Path of library folder      -  D  wamp www doc to pdf files    pdf File name     path and file name of pdf       -  D  wamp www doc to pdf files    doc file name   Path of your document file    If pdf not created than last step is Go to - Control Panel All Control Panel Items Administrative Tools-  services-  find  wampapache  -  right click and click on property -  click on logon tab Than check checkbox of allow service to interact with desktop  Create sample  php file and put below code and run on wamp or xampp server   result   exec   C  Program Files  x86  OpenOffice 4 program python exe  D  wamp www doc to pdf libobasis4 4-pyuno unoconv -f pdf -o D  wamp www doc to pdf files    pdf File name   D  wamp www doc to pdf files    doc file name     This code working for me in windows-8 operating system

User · Answer

Another way to do this  is using directly a parameter on the libreoffice command  libreoffice --convert-to pdf  path to file  doc docx    ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Explanation ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----   First you need to download and install LibreOffice  Can be downloaded from Here Now open your terminal   command prompt then go to libreOffice root  for windows it may be OS Program Files LibreOffice program here you ll find an executable soffice exe  Here you can convert it directly by the above mentioned commands or you may also use    soffice in place of libreoffice

User · Answer

For a PHP-specific you could try PHPWord - this library is written in pure PHP and provides a set of classes to write to and read from different document file formats  including  doc and  docx   The main drawback is that the quality of converted files can be quite variable   Alternatively if you want a higher quality option you could use a file conversion API like Zamzar  You can use it to convert a wide range of office formats  and others  into PDF  and you can call from any platform  Windows  Linux  OS X etc    PHP code to convert a file would look like this    lt  php  endpoint    https   api zamzar com v1 jobs    apiKey    API KEY    sourceFilePath     my doc      Or docx xls xlsx etc  targetFormat    pdf     postData   array     source file    gt   sourceFile     target format    gt   targetFormat      ch   curl init    curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT URL   endpoint   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT CUSTOMREQUEST   POST    curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT POSTFIELDS   postData   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT SAFE UPLOAD  false   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT RETURNTRANSFER  true   curl setopt  ch  CURLOPT USERPWD   apiKey          body   curl exec  ch   curl close  ch     response   json decode  body  true   print r  response     gt    Full disclosure  I m the lead developer for the Zamzar API

[php] Convert Word doc, docx and Excel xls, xlsx to PDF with PHP

WINDOWS BASED!

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