openoffice from php

ponda

hi guys,

i've been trying to convert an openoffice document to pdf using an openoffice macro.
this works if i execute the php file from console although i have to start a X server on the client machine which is executing the command.
i'm using a linux server & a windows client.
Nothing happens if i run this file from browser.
i'd like to know what i've gotta do to successfully convert the document to pdf.

Thanx in advance.

jkurrle

If the client is windows, you could try and locate a pdf print driver. Install it and then "print" to a pdf file. That's normally what I do.

Hope this helps.

hagen00

Yup, that sounds exactly like my question last year. When executing the php file from the console, what user are you? Probably root. When the script is executed, the user will be the apache user (in my case www-data). What you need to do is the following..

Open up the apache.conf file and under User see what user apache is running at. If the user is "Nobody", create a user called www-data and make apache run as that user.
Install OOo for that user. I.e. su www-data and then launch OOo. That will take you through the OO set up.

If you have problems, let me know. I had the exact same issues.

PS On linux, never say "nothing happens". Check the logs, there will be something in there. (/var/log/apache2/error.log etc etc)

ponda

hi guys,

sorry for not having replied for so long, actually my client had not done what was required to be done according to hagen.

Now that it is done, the error in the error log file is -

/opt/openoffice.org2.0/program/soffice.bin X11 error: Can't open display:
Set DISPLAY environment variable, use -display option
or check permissions of your X-Server
(See "man X" resp. "man xhost" for details)

how do i overcome this now?

thanx.

hagen00

Post that file that you call from PHP. The way i do it is i call a bash script from php. You can use exec().

My bash script looks something like this (assuming your apache user is called www-data):

#!/bin/bash
export HOME=/home/www-data

/opt/openoffice.org2.0/program/soffice.bin -headless -display :0.0 "macro:///MyLib/Mod/Macro($1 $2)"

That's assuming you have X running on display :0.