Calling An Openoffice Macro With Php (Linux) - pls help

[hagen00]

Hi there,

i wrote an OpenOffice macro that i call from the following shell script when running Linux in console mode ie not with a GUI. If i call this shell from the terminal, the macro runs fine. I've installed an Xvfb server (note "-display :1.0") that has allowed me to do this.

Code for shell:

#!/bin/bash

/opt/OpenOffice.org1.1.4/program/soffice -display :1.0 -headless "macro:///IntellincLib.Conversions.convertjpg"

But now i try call the code from the following simple php script:

exec("PATH TO SCRIPT/convert_jpg");

I then enter ps -A to see what processes are running the following is displayed

? 00:00:00 convert_jpg
? 00:00:00 soffice.bin
? 00:00:00 soffice.bin <defunct>

So soffice obviously failed to do what it was supposed to do because it's <defunct> ie called the exit function. The shell convert_jpg however does seem to have been called since it is listed.

My questions:
+ Why is the php script hanging and not executing the shell? (which as already said, works fine when entered manually)

• Why would soffice.bin exit prematurely?

I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks!

hagen

[hagen00]

Right, a Linux guru called Ed sorted me out! I'll admit i'm a beginner, this is day 3 on linux only.

The problem was the following.

• Apache was running as user nobody and hence had no rights, so he created a user httpd and installed OpenOffice for that user

• We then had to set Apache's home directory in my bash script --> export HOME=/home/httpd

• Then the problem was that the folder wasn't writeable for httpd to which my jpgs were exported to

Sounds simple, but for a beginner like me to find this problem, impossible.

Thanks ed