[php] Reading/Writing a MS Word file in PHP

Is it possible to read and write Word (2003 and 2007) files in PHP without using a COM object? I know that I can:

$file = fopen('c:\file.doc', 'w+');
fwrite($file, $text);
fclose();

but Word will read it as an HTML file not a native .doc file.

One way to manipulate Word files with PHP that you may find interesting is with the help of PHPDocX. You may see how it works having a look at its online tutorial. You can insert or extract contents or even merge multiple Word files into a asingle one.

Most probably you won't be able to read Word documents without COM.

Writing was covered in this topic

Most probably you won't be able to read Word documents without COM.

Writing was covered in this topic

Would the .rtf format work for your purposes? .rtf can easily be converted to and from .doc format, but it is written in plaintext (with control commands embedded). This is how I plan to integrate my application with Word documents.

www.phplivedocx.org is a SOAP based service that means that you always need to be online for testing the Files also does not have enough examples for its use . Strangely I found only after 2 days of downloading (requires additionaly zend framework too) that its a SOAP based program(cursed me !!!)...I think without COM its just not possible on a Linux server and the only idea is to change the doc file in another usable file which PHP can parse...

phpLiveDocx is a Zend Framework component and can read and write DOC and DOCX files in PHP on Linux, Windows and Mac.

See the project web site at:

http://www.phplivedocx.org

this works with vs < office 2007 and its pure PHP, no COM crap, still trying to figure 2007

<?php



/*****************************************************************
This approach uses detection of NUL (chr(00)) and end line (chr(13))
to decide where the text is:
- divide the file contents up by chr(13)
- reject any slices containing a NUL
- stitch the rest together again
- clean up with a regular expression
*****************************************************************/

function parseWord($userDoc) 
{
    $fileHandle = fopen($userDoc, "r");
    $line = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($userDoc));   
    $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
    $outtext = "";
    foreach($lines as $thisline)
      {
        $pos = strpos($thisline, chr(0x00));
        if (($pos !== FALSE)||(strlen($thisline)==0))
          {
          } else {
            $outtext .= $thisline." ";
          }
      }
     $outtext = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\.\-\n\r\t@\/\_\(\)]/","",$outtext);
    return $outtext;
} 

$userDoc = "cv.doc";

$text = parseWord($userDoc);
echo $text;


?>

Would the .rtf format work for your purposes? .rtf can easily be converted to and from .doc format, but it is written in plaintext (with control commands embedded). This is how I plan to integrate my application with Word documents.

I have the same case I guess I am going to use a cheap 50 mega windows based hosting with free domain to use it to convert my files on, for PHP server. And linking them is easy. All you need is make an ASP.NET page that recieves the doc file via post and replies it via HTTP so simple CURL would do it.

Just updating the code

<?php

/*****************************************************************
This approach uses detection of NUL (chr(00)) and end line (chr(13))
to decide where the text is:
- divide the file contents up by chr(13)
- reject any slices containing a NUL
- stitch the rest together again
- clean up with a regular expression
*****************************************************************/

function parseWord($userDoc) 
{
    $fileHandle = fopen($userDoc, "r");
    $word_text = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($userDoc));
    $line = "";
    $tam = filesize($userDoc);
    $nulos = 0;
    $caracteres = 0;
    for($i=1536; $i<$tam; $i++)
    {
        $line .= $word_text[$i];

        if( $word_text[$i] == 0)
        {
            $nulos++;
        }
        else
        {
            $nulos=0;
            $caracteres++;
        }

        if( $nulos>1996)
        {   
            break;  
        }
    }

    //echo $caracteres;

    $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
    //$outtext = "<pre>";

    $outtext = "";
    foreach($lines as $thisline)
    {
        $tam = strlen($thisline);
        if( !$tam )
        {
            continue;
        }

        $new_line = ""; 
        for($i=0; $i<$tam; $i++)
        {
            $onechar = $thisline[$i];
            if( $onechar > chr(240) )
            {
                continue;
            }

            if( $onechar >= chr(0x20) )
            {
                $caracteres++;
                $new_line .= $onechar;
            }

            if( $onechar == chr(0x14) )
            {
                $new_line .= "</a>";
            }

            if( $onechar == chr(0x07) )
            {
                $new_line .= "\t";
                if( isset($thisline[$i+1]) )
                {
                    if( $thisline[$i+1] == chr(0x07) )
                    {
                        $new_line .= "\n";
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        //troca por hiperlink
        $new_line = str_replace("HYPERLINK" ,"<a href=",$new_line); 
        $new_line = str_replace("\o" ,">",$new_line); 
        $new_line .= "\n";

        //link de imagens
        $new_line = str_replace("INCLUDEPICTURE" ,"<br><img src=",$new_line); 
        $new_line = str_replace("\*" ,"><br>",$new_line); 
        $new_line = str_replace("MERGEFORMATINET" ,"",$new_line); 


        $outtext .= nl2br($new_line);
    }

 return $outtext;
} 

$userDoc = "custo.doc";
$userDoc = "Cultura.doc";
$text = parseWord($userDoc);

echo $text;


?>

2007 might be a bit complicated as well.

The .docx format is a zip file that contains a few folders with other files in them for formatting and other stuff.

Rename a .docx file to .zip and you'll see what I mean.

So if you can work within zip files in PHP, you should be on the right path.

I don't know what you are going to use it for, but I needed .doc support for search indexing; What I did was use a little commandline tool called "catdoc"; This transfers the contents of the Word document to plain text so it can be indexed. If you need to keep formatting and stuff this is not your tool.

I don't know about reading native Word documents in PHP, but if you want to write a Word document in PHP, WordprocessingML (aka WordML) might be a good solution. All you have to do is create an XML document in the correct format. I believe Word 2003 and 2007 both support WordML.

2007 might be a bit complicated as well.

The .docx format is a zip file that contains a few folders with other files in them for formatting and other stuff.

Rename a .docx file to .zip and you'll see what I mean.

So if you can work within zip files in PHP, you should be on the right path.

I don't know about reading native Word documents in PHP, but if you want to write a Word document in PHP, WordprocessingML (aka WordML) might be a good solution. All you have to do is create an XML document in the correct format. I believe Word 2003 and 2007 both support WordML.

even i'm working on same kind of project [An Onlinw Word Processor]! But i've choosen c#.net and ASP.net. But through the survey i did; i got to know that

By Using Open XML SDK and VSTO [Visual Studio Tools For Office]

we may easily work with a word file manipulate them and even convert internally to different into several formats such as .odt,.pdf,.docx etc..

So, goto msdn.microsoft.com and be thorough about the office development tab. Its the easiest way to do this as all functions we need to implement are already available in .net!!

But as u want to do ur project in PHP, u can do it in Visual Studio and .net as PHP is also one of the .net Compliant Language!!

this works with vs < office 2007 and its pure PHP, no COM crap, still trying to figure 2007

<?php



/*****************************************************************
This approach uses detection of NUL (chr(00)) and end line (chr(13))
to decide where the text is:
- divide the file contents up by chr(13)
- reject any slices containing a NUL
- stitch the rest together again
- clean up with a regular expression
*****************************************************************/

function parseWord($userDoc) 
{
    $fileHandle = fopen($userDoc, "r");
    $line = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($userDoc));   
    $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
    $outtext = "";
    foreach($lines as $thisline)
      {
        $pos = strpos($thisline, chr(0x00));
        if (($pos !== FALSE)||(strlen($thisline)==0))
          {
          } else {
            $outtext .= $thisline." ";
          }
      }
     $outtext = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\.\-\n\r\t@\/\_\(\)]/","",$outtext);
    return $outtext;
} 

$userDoc = "cv.doc";

$text = parseWord($userDoc);
echo $text;


?>

I don't know what you are going to use it for, but I needed .doc support for search indexing; What I did was use a little commandline tool called "catdoc"; This transfers the contents of the Word document to plain text so it can be indexed. If you need to keep formatting and stuff this is not your tool.

I don't know about reading native Word documents in PHP, but if you want to write a Word document in PHP, WordprocessingML (aka WordML) might be a good solution. All you have to do is create an XML document in the correct format. I believe Word 2003 and 2007 both support WordML.

this works with vs < office 2007 and its pure PHP, no COM crap, still trying to figure 2007

<?php



/*****************************************************************
This approach uses detection of NUL (chr(00)) and end line (chr(13))
to decide where the text is:
- divide the file contents up by chr(13)
- reject any slices containing a NUL
- stitch the rest together again
- clean up with a regular expression
*****************************************************************/

function parseWord($userDoc) 
{
    $fileHandle = fopen($userDoc, "r");
    $line = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($userDoc));   
    $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
    $outtext = "";
    foreach($lines as $thisline)
      {
        $pos = strpos($thisline, chr(0x00));
        if (($pos !== FALSE)||(strlen($thisline)==0))
          {
          } else {
            $outtext .= $thisline." ";
          }
      }
     $outtext = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\.\-\n\r\t@\/\_\(\)]/","",$outtext);
    return $outtext;
} 

$userDoc = "cv.doc";

$text = parseWord($userDoc);
echo $text;


?>

even i'm working on same kind of project [An Onlinw Word Processor]! But i've choosen c#.net and ASP.net. But through the survey i did; i got to know that

By Using Open XML SDK and VSTO [Visual Studio Tools For Office]

we may easily work with a word file manipulate them and even convert internally to different into several formats such as .odt,.pdf,.docx etc..

So, goto msdn.microsoft.com and be thorough about the office development tab. Its the easiest way to do this as all functions we need to implement are already available in .net!!

But as u want to do ur project in PHP, u can do it in Visual Studio and .net as PHP is also one of the .net Compliant Language!!

phpLiveDocx is a Zend Framework component and can read and write DOC and DOCX files in PHP on Linux, Windows and Mac.

See the project web site at:

http://www.phplivedocx.org

I don't know what you are going to use it for, but I needed .doc support for search indexing; What I did was use a little commandline tool called "catdoc"; This transfers the contents of the Word document to plain text so it can be indexed. If you need to keep formatting and stuff this is not your tool.

Office 2007 .docx should be possible since it's an XML standard. Word 2003 most likely requires COM to read, even with the standards now published by MS, since those standards are huge. I haven't seen many libraries written to match them yet.

You can use Antiword, it is a free MS Word reader for Linux and most popular OS.

$document_file = 'c:\file.doc';
$text_from_doc = shell_exec('/usr/local/bin/antiword '.$document_file);

Most probably you won't be able to read Word documents without COM.

Writing was covered in this topic

Office 2007 .docx should be possible since it's an XML standard. Word 2003 most likely requires COM to read, even with the standards now published by MS, since those standards are huge. I haven't seen many libraries written to match them yet.

Would the .rtf format work for your purposes? .rtf can easily be converted to and from .doc format, but it is written in plaintext (with control commands embedded). This is how I plan to integrate my application with Word documents.

2007 might be a bit complicated as well.

The .docx format is a zip file that contains a few folders with other files in them for formatting and other stuff.

Rename a .docx file to .zip and you'll see what I mean.

So if you can work within zip files in PHP, you should be on the right path.

Source gotten from

Use following class directly to read word document

class DocxConversion{
    private $filename;

    public function __construct($filePath) {
        $this->filename = $filePath;
    }

    private function read_doc() {
        $fileHandle = fopen($this->filename, "r");
        $line = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($this->filename));   
        $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
        $outtext = "";
        foreach($lines as $thisline)
          {
            $pos = strpos($thisline, chr(0x00));
            if (($pos !== FALSE)||(strlen($thisline)==0))
              {
              } else {
                $outtext .= $thisline." ";
              }
          }
         $outtext = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\.\-\n\r\t@\/\_\(\)]/","",$outtext);
        return $outtext;
    }

    private function read_docx(){

        $striped_content = '';
        $content = '';

        $zip = zip_open($this->filename);

        if (!$zip || is_numeric($zip)) return false;

        while ($zip_entry = zip_read($zip)) {

            if (zip_entry_open($zip, $zip_entry) == FALSE) continue;

            if (zip_entry_name($zip_entry) != "word/document.xml") continue;

            $content .= zip_entry_read($zip_entry, zip_entry_filesize($zip_entry));

            zip_entry_close($zip_entry);
        }// end while

        zip_close($zip);

        $content = str_replace('</w:r></w:p></w:tc><w:tc>', " ", $content);
        $content = str_replace('</w:r></w:p>', "\r\n", $content);
        $striped_content = strip_tags($content);

        return $striped_content;
    }

 /************************excel sheet************************************/

function xlsx_to_text($input_file){
    $xml_filename = "xl/sharedStrings.xml"; //content file name
    $zip_handle = new ZipArchive;
    $output_text = "";
    if(true === $zip_handle->open($input_file)){
        if(($xml_index = $zip_handle->locateName($xml_filename)) !== false){
            $xml_datas = $zip_handle->getFromIndex($xml_index);
            $xml_handle = DOMDocument::loadXML($xml_datas, LIBXML_NOENT | LIBXML_XINCLUDE | LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_NOWARNING);
            $output_text = strip_tags($xml_handle->saveXML());
        }else{
            $output_text .="";
        }
        $zip_handle->close();
    }else{
    $output_text .="";
    }
    return $output_text;
}

/*************************power point files*****************************/
function pptx_to_text($input_file){
    $zip_handle = new ZipArchive;
    $output_text = "";
    if(true === $zip_handle->open($input_file)){
        $slide_number = 1; //loop through slide files
        while(($xml_index = $zip_handle->locateName("ppt/slides/slide".$slide_number.".xml")) !== false){
            $xml_datas = $zip_handle->getFromIndex($xml_index);
            $xml_handle = DOMDocument::loadXML($xml_datas, LIBXML_NOENT | LIBXML_XINCLUDE | LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_NOWARNING);
            $output_text .= strip_tags($xml_handle->saveXML());
            $slide_number++;
        }
        if($slide_number == 1){
            $output_text .="";
        }
        $zip_handle->close();
    }else{
    $output_text .="";
    }
    return $output_text;
}


    public function convertToText() {

        if(isset($this->filename) && !file_exists($this->filename)) {
            return "File Not exists";
        }

        $fileArray = pathinfo($this->filename);
        $file_ext  = $fileArray['extension'];
        if($file_ext == "doc" || $file_ext == "docx" || $file_ext == "xlsx" || $file_ext == "pptx")
        {
            if($file_ext == "doc") {
                return $this->read_doc();
            } elseif($file_ext == "docx") {
                return $this->read_docx();
            } elseif($file_ext == "xlsx") {
                return $this->xlsx_to_text();
            }elseif($file_ext == "pptx") {
                return $this->pptx_to_text();
            }
        } else {
            return "Invalid File Type";
        }
    }

}

$docObj = new DocxConversion("test.docx"); //replace your document name with correct extension doc or docx 
echo $docText= $docObj->convertToText();

I don't know what you are going to use it for, but I needed .doc support for search indexing; What I did was use a little commandline tool called "catdoc"; This transfers the contents of the Word document to plain text so it can be indexed. If you need to keep formatting and stuff this is not your tool.

Source gotten from

Use following class directly to read word document

class DocxConversion{
    private $filename;

    public function __construct($filePath) {
        $this->filename = $filePath;
    }

    private function read_doc() {
        $fileHandle = fopen($this->filename, "r");
        $line = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($this->filename));   
        $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
        $outtext = "";
        foreach($lines as $thisline)
          {
            $pos = strpos($thisline, chr(0x00));
            if (($pos !== FALSE)||(strlen($thisline)==0))
              {
              } else {
                $outtext .= $thisline." ";
              }
          }
         $outtext = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\.\-\n\r\t@\/\_\(\)]/","",$outtext);
        return $outtext;
    }

    private function read_docx(){

        $striped_content = '';
        $content = '';

        $zip = zip_open($this->filename);

        if (!$zip || is_numeric($zip)) return false;

        while ($zip_entry = zip_read($zip)) {

            if (zip_entry_open($zip, $zip_entry) == FALSE) continue;

            if (zip_entry_name($zip_entry) != "word/document.xml") continue;

            $content .= zip_entry_read($zip_entry, zip_entry_filesize($zip_entry));

            zip_entry_close($zip_entry);
        }// end while

        zip_close($zip);

        $content = str_replace('</w:r></w:p></w:tc><w:tc>', " ", $content);
        $content = str_replace('</w:r></w:p>', "\r\n", $content);
        $striped_content = strip_tags($content);

        return $striped_content;
    }

 /************************excel sheet************************************/

function xlsx_to_text($input_file){
    $xml_filename = "xl/sharedStrings.xml"; //content file name
    $zip_handle = new ZipArchive;
    $output_text = "";
    if(true === $zip_handle->open($input_file)){
        if(($xml_index = $zip_handle->locateName($xml_filename)) !== false){
            $xml_datas = $zip_handle->getFromIndex($xml_index);
            $xml_handle = DOMDocument::loadXML($xml_datas, LIBXML_NOENT | LIBXML_XINCLUDE | LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_NOWARNING);
            $output_text = strip_tags($xml_handle->saveXML());
        }else{
            $output_text .="";
        }
        $zip_handle->close();
    }else{
    $output_text .="";
    }
    return $output_text;
}

/*************************power point files*****************************/
function pptx_to_text($input_file){
    $zip_handle = new ZipArchive;
    $output_text = "";
    if(true === $zip_handle->open($input_file)){
        $slide_number = 1; //loop through slide files
        while(($xml_index = $zip_handle->locateName("ppt/slides/slide".$slide_number.".xml")) !== false){
            $xml_datas = $zip_handle->getFromIndex($xml_index);
            $xml_handle = DOMDocument::loadXML($xml_datas, LIBXML_NOENT | LIBXML_XINCLUDE | LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_NOWARNING);
            $output_text .= strip_tags($xml_handle->saveXML());
            $slide_number++;
        }
        if($slide_number == 1){
            $output_text .="";
        }
        $zip_handle->close();
    }else{
    $output_text .="";
    }
    return $output_text;
}


    public function convertToText() {

        if(isset($this->filename) && !file_exists($this->filename)) {
            return "File Not exists";
        }

        $fileArray = pathinfo($this->filename);
        $file_ext  = $fileArray['extension'];
        if($file_ext == "doc" || $file_ext == "docx" || $file_ext == "xlsx" || $file_ext == "pptx")
        {
            if($file_ext == "doc") {
                return $this->read_doc();
            } elseif($file_ext == "docx") {
                return $this->read_docx();
            } elseif($file_ext == "xlsx") {
                return $this->xlsx_to_text();
            }elseif($file_ext == "pptx") {
                return $this->pptx_to_text();
            }
        } else {
            return "Invalid File Type";
        }
    }

}

$docObj = new DocxConversion("test.docx"); //replace your document name with correct extension doc or docx 
echo $docText= $docObj->convertToText();

2007 might be a bit complicated as well.

The .docx format is a zip file that contains a few folders with other files in them for formatting and other stuff.

Rename a .docx file to .zip and you'll see what I mean.

So if you can work within zip files in PHP, you should be on the right path.

www.phplivedocx.org is a SOAP based service that means that you always need to be online for testing the Files also does not have enough examples for its use . Strangely I found only after 2 days of downloading (requires additionaly zend framework too) that its a SOAP based program(cursed me !!!)...I think without COM its just not possible on a Linux server and the only idea is to change the doc file in another usable file which PHP can parse...

I don't know about reading native Word documents in PHP, but if you want to write a Word document in PHP, WordprocessingML (aka WordML) might be a good solution. All you have to do is create an XML document in the correct format. I believe Word 2003 and 2007 both support WordML.

You can use Antiword, it is a free MS Word reader for Linux and most popular OS.

$document_file = 'c:\file.doc';
$text_from_doc = shell_exec('/usr/local/bin/antiword '.$document_file);

Most probably you won't be able to read Word documents without COM.

Writing was covered in this topic

Just updating the code

<?php

/*****************************************************************
This approach uses detection of NUL (chr(00)) and end line (chr(13))
to decide where the text is:
- divide the file contents up by chr(13)
- reject any slices containing a NUL
- stitch the rest together again
- clean up with a regular expression
*****************************************************************/

function parseWord($userDoc) 
{
    $fileHandle = fopen($userDoc, "r");
    $word_text = @fread($fileHandle, filesize($userDoc));
    $line = "";
    $tam = filesize($userDoc);
    $nulos = 0;
    $caracteres = 0;
    for($i=1536; $i<$tam; $i++)
    {
        $line .= $word_text[$i];

        if( $word_text[$i] == 0)
        {
            $nulos++;
        }
        else
        {
            $nulos=0;
            $caracteres++;
        }

        if( $nulos>1996)
        {   
            break;  
        }
    }

    //echo $caracteres;

    $lines = explode(chr(0x0D),$line);
    //$outtext = "<pre>";

    $outtext = "";
    foreach($lines as $thisline)
    {
        $tam = strlen($thisline);
        if( !$tam )
        {
            continue;
        }

        $new_line = ""; 
        for($i=0; $i<$tam; $i++)
        {
            $onechar = $thisline[$i];
            if( $onechar > chr(240) )
            {
                continue;
            }

            if( $onechar >= chr(0x20) )
            {
                $caracteres++;
                $new_line .= $onechar;
            }

            if( $onechar == chr(0x14) )
            {
                $new_line .= "</a>";
            }

            if( $onechar == chr(0x07) )
            {
                $new_line .= "\t";
                if( isset($thisline[$i+1]) )
                {
                    if( $thisline[$i+1] == chr(0x07) )
                    {
                        $new_line .= "\n";
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        //troca por hiperlink
        $new_line = str_replace("HYPERLINK" ,"<a href=",$new_line); 
        $new_line = str_replace("\o" ,">",$new_line); 
        $new_line .= "\n";

        //link de imagens
        $new_line = str_replace("INCLUDEPICTURE" ,"<br><img src=",$new_line); 
        $new_line = str_replace("\*" ,"><br>",$new_line); 
        $new_line = str_replace("MERGEFORMATINET" ,"",$new_line); 


        $outtext .= nl2br($new_line);
    }

 return $outtext;
} 

$userDoc = "custo.doc";
$userDoc = "Cultura.doc";
$text = parseWord($userDoc);

echo $text;


?>

Would the .rtf format work for your purposes? .rtf can easily be converted to and from .doc format, but it is written in plaintext (with control commands embedded). This is how I plan to integrate my application with Word documents.

One way to manipulate Word files with PHP that you may find interesting is with the help of PHPDocX. You may see how it works having a look at its online tutorial. You can insert or extract contents or even merge multiple Word files into a asingle one.

Office 2007 .docx should be possible since it's an XML standard. Word 2003 most likely requires COM to read, even with the standards now published by MS, since those standards are huge. I haven't seen many libraries written to match them yet.

I have the same case I guess I am going to use a cheap 50 mega windows based hosting with free domain to use it to convert my files on, for PHP server. And linking them is easy. All you need is make an ASP.NET page that recieves the doc file via post and replies it via HTTP so simple CURL would do it.