Hello all Thank you all for your feedback, both on and off list and in the ZF Wiki.
As far as I can see, I have implemented all requested changes and updated the Proposal page: http://framework.zend.com/wiki/display/ZFPROP/Zend_Service_LiveDocx A surprising number of people have asked whether it is possible to convert word processing documents between formats. For example, whether they can convert a DOC to a PDF or an RTF to DOC. Although originally this was not the intention of LiveDocx, I have spoken with the guys who implemented the backend and they are willing to add such a service. Indeed, they find it an exceptional idea! The moment this service becomes available, it will be added to the Zend_Service_LiveDocx_* family. I have started writing unit tests (some of which are available in the downloadable version): http://www.phplivedocx.org/downloads/ Full coverage should be available by the end of the week. Again, I would like to actively solicit feedback on the proposal and in general on the idea of using a web service to perform mail-merge and conversion processes in PHP. Thank you :-) Jonathan Maron On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Jonathan Maron <jonathan.a.ma...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello all > > Zend_Pdf is a great component to generate PDF files with ZF. If you > want to populate PDF templates with text, however, it can be very time > consuming to get the positioning of the text fields just right. I > wrote about this issue here: > > http://tinyurl.com/bym43f > > After having developed several ZF applications in which text had to be > inserted into PDF templates, I knew there must be a better way and > went about developing one. > > The result is a project called phpLiveDocx, which is an unofficial > component for ZF. (If it were to become official component some day, I > would be thrilled.) > > The idea is really simple: > > 1. You design a template in a word processing package (such as Open > Office or Word). In the template, you define any number of text > fields, into which data will be later inserted (same idea as > mail-merge). > > 2. Using phpLiveDocx, you assign data to the template. > > 3. You generate and save the populated document as a PDF, DOCX, DOC or RTF > file. > > The great advantage of this approach is that you uncouple the > formatting of the template and the position of the text fields. In > other words, should a designer change the layout of a template, there > is no need for a developer to update the positioning of the text > fields. > > Of course, the other great advantage is that you can save the > resulting document as DOCX, DOC or RTF, in addition to PDF. > > Here is a really basic example, which illustrates how phpLiveDocx works: > > http://tinyurl.com/ao9c2v > > (The template and resulting document can be download from the bottom > of the post.) > > Here is a very short getting started guide and download links: > > http://tinyurl.com/db23fc > > If you need any help or want to talk about phpLiveDocx, just follow up > here or post me a message: > > http://tinyurl.com/culdpj > > Thank you > > Jonathan Maron > http://www.phpLiveDocx.org >
