LiveDocx: Create DOCX, DOC, RTF and PDF

6 comments

function assocArrayToArrayOfArrayOfString($assoc) {
   $arrayKeys = array_keys($assoc);
   $arrayValues = array_values($assoc);
 
   return array($arrayKeys, $arrayValues);
}
 
function multiAssocArrayToArrayOfArrayOfString($multi) {
   $arrayKeys = array_keys($multi[0]);
   $arrayValues = array();
 
   foreach ($multi as $v) {
      $arrayValues[] = array_values($v);
   }
 
   $_arrayKeys = array();
   $_arrayKeys[0] = $arrayKeys;
 
   return array_merge($_arrayKeys, $arrayValues);
}
 
$USERNAME = "your username on the LiveDocx site";
$PASSWORD = "your password on the LiveDocx site";
$ENDPOINT = "https://api.livedocx.com/1.2/mailmerge.asmx?WSDL";
 
// Turn off WSDL caching
ini_set ('soap.wsdl_cache_enabled', 0);
 
// Define timezone
date_default_timezone_set('America/Toronto');
 
$soap = new SoapClient($ENDPOINT);
 
$soap->LogIn(
   array(
      'username' => $USERNAME,
      'password' => $PASSWORD
   )
);
 
$data = file_get_contents("your word template file");
 
$soap->SetLocalTemplate(
   array(
      'template' => base64_encode($data),
      'format'   => 'docx'  // change this to whatever your template is (i.e. doc/docx)
   )
);
 
// the data to populate the template with.  the fieldnames here should match the ones
// you defined in your template!
$data = array(
   'fieldname' => 'value',
   'fieldname2' => 'value2'
);
 
$soap->SetFieldValues(
   array (
      'fieldValues' => assocArrayToArrayOfArrayOfString($data)
   )
);
 
// Build the document
$soap->CreateDocument();
 
// Get document as PDF
$result = $soap->RetrieveDocument(
   array(
      'format' => strtoupper('PDF')
   )
);
 
$data = $result->RetrieveDocumentResult;
 
file_put_contents("OUTPUT_FILE", base64_decode($data));
 
$soap->LogOut();
unset($soap);

September 8th, 2009 at 9:25 am  

Posted in Discoveries, PHP

6 Responses to 'LiveDocx: Create DOCX, DOC, RTF and PDF'

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1. Hi James,

   Nice write-up of the whole LiveDocx topic. Also, thank you for testing the web service in the first place!

   I am not quite sure, what you mean by If you had fields in your document you wanted left out if they were empty you would be out of luck. If you want fields to disappear, just merge them with empty strings. Or am I missing something?

   Regards,
   Lucas

   

   Lucas

   8 Sep 09 at 11:16 am
2. Hi Lucas! Do you work for LiveDocx? Let me commend you on the great service!

   As for the leaving fields out… in my case I had several headings in my document, bolded, larger font. I use the mailmerge fields for the paragraph under each heading. In a case like this leaving the field blank doesn’t look right as the header is still there.

   Another example would be a table in a Word document. If I wanted to dynamically populate rows, or remove rows I don’t end up populating, I’m not sure this could be accomplished.

   Are there ways to apply formatting like bold and font size into the text I merge into the document? And looking at tables, any way to create/remove cells and rows on the fly?

   

   fdask

   8 Sep 09 at 11:55 am
3. Hi again,

   Thanks for exemplifying! I think, I can help you cope with these issues.

   Regarding the headings, let me point you to two articles I wrote a while ago:
   http://blog.livedocx.com/post/Using-INCLUDETEXT-Fieldse28093Part-1-Creating-Templates.aspx
   http://blog.livedocx.com/post/Using-INCLUDETEXT-Fieldse28093Part-2-Putting-It-All-To-Work.aspx

   Those articles explain how to use sub-templates to create your documents. By simply setting IgnoreSubTemplates(bool ignore) you can determine whether to include or exclude your sub-templates during the document creation process. Thus, you can easily omit a part of your template if you don’t have any data for it.

   As for tables, there is the concept of merge blocks. Simply think of a merge block as if it was a foreach loop. Firstly, you mark an area, e.g. a table row, of your template as merge block. Then, you submit a couple of datasets for that block, start the merging process and get a document that contains the submitted data iteratively merged into it. (I hope, this is correct English. Please bear with me, I’m German.)

   The LiveDocx MailMerge API does not – and will never – support merging formatted text into templates nor will it support applying formatting documents afterwards. We are working on expanding the LiveDocx service family with some more services. One of which will be used to work with formatted text.

   Last but not least, thank you for your kind words! I am indeed working for The Imaging Source, the company behind LiveDocx. It really makes me happy and proud to see the service, I helped building, is of use to somebody.

   Thanks,
   Lucas

   

   Lucas

   9 Sep 09 at 9:39 am
4. Thanks for the follow up Lucas. Based on your comments, I guess I was looking at the service the wrong way. Rather than using the LiveDocx service itself to do the complex tasks like omitting empty fields, etc, I should be using some of the Word mail merge features.

   I’ll look into this and hopefully add some new code samples into my post! Cheers.

   

   fdask

   9 Sep 09 at 5:34 pm
5. Hi,

   LiveDocx is a really good tool for creating documents.
   The only problem is that the free-service is often so overloaded, that you need to buy the premium-service if you want to use it. It’s a pity. I hope they can fix this.

   Regards Ron

   

   Ron Brendow

   16 Dec 09 at 2:29 am
6. Hey Ron,

   While I don’t use the service heavily (no more than once or twice a week), I have never encountered any issues with it! What sort of things are you experiencing? And have you emailed the company about them?

   Having a barely useable free version that serves as nothing more than a funnel to a paid service is a bad way to operate. Totally agree with you.

   

   fdask

   16 Dec 09 at 5:59 am

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