1. PHPConf Taiwan 2012
November 03, 2012 at 10:10.
Template-Based DOCX,
DOC & PDF Generation
with Zend Framework 2.
@JonathanMaron
E-Mail or Google+.

2. About Jonathan Maron
 Head of Web Development and Operations.
 I work for a software and hardware
manufacturer in Taipei, Germany and USA.
 We manufacture digital cameras for
industrial, scientific and medical applications.
 We author desktop and server software
components.
http://www.theimagingsource.com
http://www.textcontrol.com

3. New approach to generating
DOCX, DOC, PDF etc. files
with Zend Framework 2.

4. Creating PDFs with PHP
 HTML-to-PDF  Programmatic
approach: approach:
 domPDF.  Zend_Pdf.
 HtmlToPdf.  PDFlib.
 HTML_ToPDF.  FPDF.
 wkhtmltopdf.  Cpdf.
 etc.  etc.

5. Ralf Eggert quote
“I personally consider
the current version [of
Zend_Pdf] to be limited
in scope. It is extremely
difficult, if not impossible,
to achieve usable
results. At the moment,
developers, including
myself, are looking for
alternatives [...]”
PHP Magazin
February 2011 – March 2011, Ralf Eggert.

6. The template approach.

7. LiveDocx and Zend Framework 2
 LiveDocx is a SOAP-based document
generation service.
 ZendService_LiveDocx (New BSD license):
 PHP 5.3 implementation of LiveDocx.
 Easy-to-use PHP API to rich SOAP service.
 Native component of the Zend Framework 2.
 PHP 5 SoapClient and NuSOAP supported.
 All languages with SOAP are supported.

8. Sounds interesting.
But how does it work?

9. 3 steps of document generation
 STEP 1: In a word processor, create a template
containing merge-fields.
 STEP 2: Populate merge-fields in PHP.
 STEP 3: Write generated document* to disk.
* DOCX, DOC, HTML, RTF, PDF, TXT

10. Document generation process (1)
LiveDocx
Template
Document
Data
Template + Data = Document.

12. Step 1: Creating a template (2)

13. Steps 2 & 3: Assign data & create doc

15. Multiple output formats, one API

16. Sample 2:
Merging complex data structures.

18. Repeating blocks (loops)

20. Sample 3:
Merging image data.

21. Merging image data

23. Sample 4:
Exporting to one or
more image files.

24. Exporting to image files

25. Multiple output formats, one API

26. Working with templates:
Local vs. remote.

27. Using local templates
Specify template
in every request.

28. Using remote templates
Upload template once.
Reference template
in all subsequent
requests.

29. Supported file formats.

30. Supported template formats (input)
 DOCX - Office Open XML format.
 DOC - Microsoft Word DOC format.
 RTF - Rich text format.
 TXD - TX Text Control format.

31. Supported document formats (output)
 DOCX - Office Open XML format.
 DOC - Microsoft Word DOC format.
 HTML - XHTML 1.0 transitional format.
 RTF - Rich text format.
 PDF - Acrobat portable document format.
 TXD - TX Text Control format.
 TXT - ANSI plain text.

32. Supported image export formats
 Documents can also be exported to images:
 BMP - Bitmap image file format.
 GIF - Graphics interchange format.
 JPG - Joint photographic experts group format.
 PNG - Portable network graphics format.
 TIFF - Tagged image file format.

33. Supported image import formats
 Images can be imported from:
 BMP - Bitmap image file format.
 GIF - Graphics interchange format.
 JPG - Joint photographic experts group format.
 PNG - Portable network graphics format.
 TIFF - Tagged image file format.
 WMF - Windows meta file format.

34. Case study:
PHP Unconferences.

35. PHP Unconferences
 Well established unconferences about PHP.
 PHP Unconference Europe (Manchester, UK):
 1st year: 100 attendees in February 2011.
 PHP Unconference Hamburg (Germany):
 6th year: 320 attendees in August 2012.
 LiveDocx was used to create:
 Attendee badges (approx. 450 units).
 Vote posters (approx. 100 units).

40. Live demonstrations
 SAMPLE 1: license-agreement
 SAMPLE 2: telephone-bill
 SAMPLE 3: conference-pass
 SAMPLE 4: bitmaps

41. Get involved! Try it out yourself!
 ZendService_LiveDocx Web Site.
http://www.phplivedocx.org and http://goo.gl/oXUcf
 Download Demo VMware Virtual Machine
http://goo.gl/3aAGb (great way to get started)
 ZendService_LiveDocx Source and Demos.
https://github.com/jonathanmaron/ZendService_LiveDocx
 LiveDocx Web Site and Blog.
http://www.livedocx.com
 Sign up for a LiveDocx account.
https://www.livedocx.com/user/account_registration.aspx

42. Full-time web developer wanted!
 You love PHP, Zend Framework, HTML
and Javascript.
 You want to develop web applications with an
international team of specialists in Germany
and Taiwan.
 You want to work at our Taipei office
(Song-Shan District 10555, Taipei City).
 Interested? Talk to me!

43. Public / Hosted / Cloud
 LiveDocx Free is available for all to use.
Documentation and registration at www.livedocx.com.
 LiveDocx Premium hosted service is available.
TWD 1,140.00 per month.
 Cloud-based solutions in the pipeline.
AWS EC2 and Windows Azure. Pay-as-you-go model.