Word under PHP

[DMcG]

I am running Mailmerge using PHP and everything is working fine, except that the Word application is visible. I have tried setting it to hidden using

$word->Visible=0;

and

$word->Visible=FALSE;

but it is still showing. Any ideas?

(I am using Word 2003 under Windows XP)

[drew010]

Try this instead..
$word->Application->visible = 0;

but I would have to see the code that creates the object to really be sure.

[DMcG]

Here's the relevant bit of code:

$wordTable = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
$wordTable->Application->Visible=0;
$wordTable->Documents->Add();

(I've tried it here with the extra 'Application' call Drew suggested: before I just had

$wordTable->Visible=0;

)

[drew010]

so did setting application->visible to 0 not work either?

here is what I just tested in vb and it produced the desired results.

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim doc As Word.Application
    Set doc = New Word.Application
    ' document starts out invisible
    doc.Documents.Add 'add new document
    doc.Application.Visible = True 'word appears
    MsgBox "hello" 'pause and steal focus
    doc.Application.Visible = False 'word disappears
End Sub

[DMcG]

I've just copied your code and run it under Visual Basic and it worked fine. So its not likely to be a problem with my Word installation or settings..

Here is the the complete code for one of the routines. $result is obtained from a call like

$result=mysql_query("select * from employee");

and $tempheader and $tempdate are two temporry filenames such as

c:\temp\tempheader.doc
C:\temp\tempdata.doc

function CreateWordTable($result, $tempheader, $tempdata)
{
$intNum_of_fields = mysql_num_fields($result); //Get the number offields

$intNum_of_rows = mysql_num_rows($result); //Get the number of rows
//Create the header document

$wordTable = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
$wordTable->Visible=0;

$wordTable->Documents->Add();

//Create a temporary table in Word

$wordTable->ActiveDocument->Tables->Add($wordTable->Selection->Range,1,$intNum_of_fields);

for($intFieldCount=0; $intFieldCount < $intNum_of_fields; $intFieldCount++)
{
$columnName = mysql_field_name($result,$intFieldCount);
$wordTable->Selection->TypeText($columnName); //Write to the current cell
$wordTable->Selection->MoveRight(); //Tab to the next cell
}

//Save the temporary table Word file 
$wordTable->ActiveDocument->SaveAs($tempheader); 

//Closing word 
$wordTable->Documents->Close(); 
//$wordTable->Quit(); 

//Free the object
//$wordTable->Release();
//$wordTable = null;

//Create the data document 
//Open the word document that we will be using for a temporary table 

//$wordTable = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instanciateWord"); 
$wordTable->Documents->Add(); 

//Create a temporary table in Word 

$wordTable->ActiveDocument->Tables->Add($wordTable->Selection->Range,$intNum_of_rows,$intNum_of_fields); 

 $intRowCount = 0;     //Initialization 

//Start populating the table with data from the recordset
while($intRowCount < $intNum_of_rows)
{
$strResultArray = mysql_fetch_array($result);

      for($columnCount=0; $columnCount < $intNum_of_fields ; $columnCount++) 
      { 
          $wordTable->Selection->TypeText("$strResultArray[$columnCount]"); //Write to the current cell 
          $wordTable->Selection->MoveRight(); //Tab to the next cell 
      } 

$intRowCount++; 
 }    

 //Save the temporary table Word file 
 $wordTable->ActiveDocument->SaveAs($tempdata); 

 //Closing word 
 $wordTable->Documents->Close(); 
 $wordTable->Quit(); 

 //Free the object 
 $wordTable->Release(); 
 $wordTable = null; 
};

[drew010]

ok, in your function on the 5th line down,
change:
$wordTable = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
$wordTable->Visible=0;
$wordTable->Documents->Add();
to
$wordTable = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
$wordTable->Application->Visible= FALSE;
$wordTable->Documents->Add();

i think that would solve it. I cant test it because my windows server that has a php install doesnt have ms word on it and of course you cant use com on the unix machine.
i suppose if necessary I can copy the msword library dll's over.

[DMcG]

'Fraid not!

As I understand it, the whole thing should be invisible by default anyway, so I have no idea what is going on.

[drew010]

ok, ill copy the object library over to the windows server and see what happens when i try it.

ill post back in here.

[drew010]

well, i didnt have much luck testing it, i set error_reporting to E_ALL and I get a lof of errors when I try to add documents. failed exception Invoke() could not open macro storage....
I am only able to execute
$word = new COM("word.application") or die("couldnt instantiate word");
successfully, word didnt appear when i tried that.
if i try to add a document right after that i get a bunch of errors.

if you just run that one line do you see word appear?

[DMcG]

We are making progress!

If I just run the COM line and the Add document line, Word does not appear. It looks likely that it is connected with the Selection activities.

[DMcG]

By the way, I had the Invoke problem as well originally. The solution to that seemed to be to require authentication of the Web page! (More precisely, it is connected with the permissions associated with the account used to run IIS, I think)