Hallo.
My problem is to convert an odt file to pdf using php.

I wrote an article in odt and I'd want to download it in pdf from my site.

Excuse my bad english..., but I think you know those articles that has your name in the footer (for example).

I know "fpdf", but it doesn't convert from odt. Someone says to convert from odt to html then to pdf... but some others says NO!

Well, do you know a way? (may be also different from odt to pdf, e.g. from latex to pdf...;-)

Thanks in advance!
Pier

Why don't you just do the conversion within the office suite? Libre/Open Office has a converter to pdf.

Hi graemef,

as I said
I'm looking for a way to create dinamically pdf from a static source (my article) when a customer buy it from my ecommerce.

I don't know if is clear my issue...

Thanks a lot ;-)

You said that the article is in odt format (by which I am assuming open document text)
This document would be created by a program (possibly open office) and then saved in that format.

My suggestion is rather than save in that format (or in addition if you like) export it to pdf.

If that isn't helpful then I think that you need to explain why you need to do it dynamically rather than just once.

I think that graemef makes a good point. You can easily export your document in Libre Office to pdf and then save that on your web site.

Since the files saved are zipped xml files, I imagine that you could use xlst to process the odt file to a pdf, or run Libre Office in the headless node and use the API. But saving the document in PDF in the first place would make a lot more sense, since the pdf is what you want to deliver, you only need to convert it once.

to graemef:
yes I mean open document text.
Just because I'd want to write the customer's name on footer. That's the reason I mean "dinamically", it depends on online transaction (purchase, checkout, I don't know how I can say in the best way :-)

to jschiwal:
That seem to be on my direction: xlst to pdf, but is there a php converter?

Now I think is clear that I don't want to convert once but every purchase due to changing customer's name.

Thanks again.
Pier.

Hi

I think an easier way to do this would be to first export it as PDF, and then use pdftk to add the footer as background. The background pdf can be made with for example fpdf.

I found a php library handling open document files but it did something totally different.

There may be an Apache code project that provides an xslt to provide a pdf fpo object, but I wasn't able to find that.

If the source were LaTeX, TeX or Docbook, it would be easy to modify the source in a script and then produce a pdf using pdflatex or pdftex.

I think that Open Office Writer has a LaTeX export feature. I don't know how well the final results would be however. I looked in Libre Office Write and this feature doesn't exist.

One option is to modify the footer in a script (from the odt expanded source); recompress; and run openoffice in the background to load and export to pdf.

There are xml to LaTex and xml to TeX converters as well. You could use them instead of openoffice.

There is a writer2latex project on sourceforge. http://writer2latex.sourceforge.net/index.html

Ok, now I have to try your contributions!

1. from Guttorm: 2. from jschiwal: Theese are good solutions that I have to study... May be I'll need your help again if somethings goes wrong ;-)

See you, Pier.

The problem with saving inb pdf is that it is final. You cant edit the saved (pdf) file using OO/libre.

I usually keep my basic data in ODT / ODS and save as pdf when I want to distribute. You can put header/footer information - with current information like data/time etc.

OK

But as Guttorm pointed out there are other tools that will do the job for you. Such as pdftk

Hi, I'm back...
I'm tring the pdftk solution. This is a command line app. My problem is to be able to produce the final pdf via web (php). Is it possible to join this application with the php? I mean invoking programs outside the php server... (pdflatex is the same).

Bye.

Hi

You can run command line apps with PHP. See for example:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.exec.php