How do I convert RTF to PDF from my PHP web page using OpenOffice?

Question

My OS is Windows XP, and I'm using IIS 5.1 and PHP 5.2.9. I'm trying to call a PHP script from my PHP page in order to convert an RTF doc to a PDF, using OpenOffice. The script works just fine when I call it directly from the command line, but I'm not having any success getting the very same script to work when launched from my PHP web page.

When I call the script from my PHP page, the page hangs, eventually showing an error, and I've noted that I can see in the Task Manager where the soffice.bin and soffice.exe processes are running under my IIS user name.

This is the error:

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'com_exception' with message 'Failed to create COM object `com.sun.star.ServiceManager': Server execution failed ' in C:\WEB_ROOT\SoftwareContract\WordToPdf.php:14 Stack trace: #0 C:\WEB_ROOT\SoftwareContract\WordToPdf.php(14): com->com('com.sun.star.Se...') #1 C:\WEB_ROOT\SoftwareContract\Index.php(11): word2pdf('file:///C:/web_...', 'file:///C:/web_...') #2 {main} thrown in C:\WEB_ROOT\SoftwareContract\WordToPdf.php on line 14

I've double-checked permissions for my IIS user in these areas:

C:\PHP
C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3
C:\Program Files\Java
C:\WEB_ROOT ---- location for my php code

In each case, my IIS user has these permissions: Read and Execute, List Folder Contents, Read. And in each case there are no "denys" checked to offset the permissions. I also gave the IIS user write permissions for the Web_Root folder where the php code resides.

This is the php which calls the conversion function, WordToPdf:

<?php
require_once('WordToPdf.php');

$output_dir = 'C:/web_root/softwarecontract/';
$doc_file = 'C:/web_root/softwarecontract/testdoc.rtf';
$pdf_file = 'output.pdf';
$output_file = $output_dir . $pdf_file;
$doc_file = "file:///" . $doc_file;
$output_file = "file:///" . $output_file;
word2pdf($doc_file,$output_file);
?>

And this is WordToPdf.php:

<?php
set_time_limit(0);
function MakePropertyValue($name,$value,$osm)
{
    $oStruct = $osm->Bridge_GetStruct("com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue");
    $oStruct->Name = $name;
    $oStruct->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->createInstance("com.sun.star.frame.Desktop");
    //Load the .doc file, and pass in the "Hidden" property from above
    $oWriterDoc = $oDesktop->loadComponentFromURL($doc_url,"_blank", 0, $args);
    //Set up the arguments for the PDF output
    $export_args = array(MakePropertyValue("FilterName","writer_pdf_Export",$osm));
    //Write out the PDF
    $oWriterDoc->storeToURL($output_url,$export_args);
    $oWriterDoc->close(true);
}
?>

Are there any problems with my permissions, or any additional areas where I need to check permissions for the IIS user? Does anyone have an idea why IIS failed to create the COM object, if not a permissions issue?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

That sounds like open office needs to interact with the desktop and isn't allowed to since it was invoked by a service without the SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS flag.

Answer 2

Yay!!!! With the help of a super-duper brainiac here at work, I now have a solution that actually WORKS! Forget all the code I posted earlier, I'm not using any of it anymore. If anyone else needs to convert word docs to PDF from PHP on IIS here's what will work:

1) Install OpenOffice, of course

2) Go here:
http://www.artofsolving.com/opensource/pyodconverter, and download DocumentConverter.py

3) Place DocumentConverter.py in the same OpenOffice folder where soffice.exe resides, probably C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program

4) Start OpenOffice as a service:

a)You can do this from the command line:

soffice "-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;StarOffice.ServiceManager" -headless -norestore -nologo -nofirststartwizard

b) Or follow the directions on this website and setup OpenOffice as a windows service with the proper parameters: http://www.artofsolving.com/node/10

5) From PHP run this command:

exec('python "C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program\DocumentConverter.py" path_to_doc\test.doc path_to_output_pdf\test.pdf"');

Yay, what a neat and pretty solution!

Answer 3

HI, I was able to get DocumentConverter.py to work at the command line on linux, CentOS, but it will not run in PHP no matter what I do. I have changed permissions and put backslash and forward slash every which way. I might have to do the JODConverter instead but this should work. So what am I missing?