hello, world
", \& $doc\->page_break, \& "hello from another page
"); \& \& $doc\->create_section( \& page => {size => "21.0cm 29.7cm", \& margin => "1.2cm 2.4cm 2.3cm 2.4cm", \& page_numbers => 50, # initial page number within this section \& }, \& header => sprintf("Section 2, page %s of %s", \& $doc\->field(\*(AqPAGE\*(Aq), \& $doc\->field(\*(AqNUMPAGES\*(Aq)), \& footer => sprintf("printed at %s", \& $doc\->field(\*(AqPRINTDATE\*(Aq)), \& new_page => 1, # or \*(Aqleft\*(Aq, or \*(Aqright\*(Aq \& ); \& $doc\->write("this is the second section, look at header/footer"); \& \& $doc\->attach("my_image.gif", $path_to_my_image); \& $doc\->write("
");
\&
\& my $filename = $doc\->save_as("/path/to/some/file");
.Ve
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
.SS "Goal"
.IX Subsection "Goal"
The present module is one way to programatically generate documents
targeted for Microsoft Word (MsWord). It doesn't need
MsWord to be installed, and doesn't even require a Win32 machine
(which is why it is not in the \f(CW\*(C`Win32\*(C'\fR namespace).
.SS "MsWord and \s-1HTML\s0"
.IX Subsection "MsWord and HTML"
MsWord can read documents encoded in old native binary format, in Rich
Text Format (\s-1RTF\s0), in \s-1XML \s0(either \s-1ODF\s0 or \s-1OOXML\s0), or \*(-- maybe this is
less known \*(-- in \s-1HTML,\s0 with some special markup for pagination and
other MsWord-specific features. Such \s-1HTML\s0 documents are often in
several parts, because attachments like images or headers/footers need
to be in separate files; however, since it is more convenient to carry
all data in a single file, MsWord also supports the \*(L"\s-1MHTML\*(R"\s0 format (or
\&\*(L"\s-1MHT\*(R"\s0 for short), i.e. an encapsulation of a whole \s-1HTML\s0 tree into a
single file encoded in \s-1MIME\s0 multipart format. This format can be
generated interactively from MsWord by calling the \*(L"SaveAs\*(R" menu and
choosing the \fI.mht\fR extension.
.PP
Documents saved with a \fI.mht\fR extension will not directly reopen in
MsWord : when clicking on such documents, Windows chooses Internet
Explorer as the default display program. However, these documents can
be simply renamed with a \fI.doc\fR extension, and will then open
directly in MsWord. By the way, the same can be done with \s-1XML\s0 or \s-1RTF\s0
documents. That is to say, MsWord is able to recognize the internal
format of a file, without any dependency on the filename. There is
one unfortunate restriction, however : when the extension is \fI.docx\fR,
MsWord does not accept any internal format different from \s-1OOXML.\s0 So one has
to either stick with the \fI.doc\fR extension, or choose a specific extension
like \fI.mswhtml\fR and then associate this extension to the MsWord program :
to do so, type the following command in a windows console
.PP
.Vb 1
\& assoc .mswhtml=Word.Document.12 # for Office 2010, or .8 for Office 2003
.Ve
.SS "Features of the module"
.IX Subsection "Features of the module"
\&\f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR helps you to programatically generate
MsWord documents in \s-1MHT\s0 format. The advantage of this technique is
that one can rely on standard \s-1HTML\s0 mechanisms for layout control, such
as styles, tables, divs, etc. Of course this markup can be produced
using your favorite \s-1HTML\s0 templating module; the added value
of \f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR is to help building the
\&\s-1MIME\s0 multipart file, and provide some abstractions for
representing MsWord-specific features (headers, footers, fields, etc.).
.SS "Advantages of \s-1MHT\s0 format"
.IX Subsection "Advantages of MHT format"
The \s-1MHT\s0 format is probably the most convenient
way for programmatic document generation, because
.IP "\(bu" 4
unlike Excel, MsWord native binary format (used in versions up to 2003)
is unpublished and therefore cannot be generated without the MsWord executable.
.IP "\(bu" 4
remote control of the MsWord program through an \s-1OLE\s0 connection,
as in Win32::Word::Writer, requires a
local installation of Microsoft Office, and is not well
suited for server-side generation because the MsWord program might hang
or might open dialog boxes that require user input.
.IP "\(bu" 4
generation of documents in \s-1RTF\s0 is possible, but
authoring the models requires deep knowledge of the \s-1RTF\s0 structure
\&\-\-\- see RTF::Writer.
.IP "\(bu" 4
authoring models in \s-1XML\s0 also requires
deep knowledge of the \s-1XML\s0 structure.
.Sp
Instead of working directly at the \s-1XML\s0 level, one could use the
OpenOffice::OODoc distribution on \s-1CPAN,\s0 which provides programmatic
access to the \*(L"\s-1ODF\*(R" XML\s0 format used by OpenOffice. MsWord is able to
read and produce such \s-1ODF\s0 files, but this is not fully satisfactory
because in that mode many MsWord features are disabled or restricted.
.Sp
The \s-1XML\s0 format used by MsWord is called \*(L"\s-1OOXML\*(R"\s0; to
my knowledge, there is no \s-1CPAN\s0 module providing an \s-1API\s0 to
this format.
.PP
By contrast, \f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR allows you to
produce documents even with little knowledge of MsWord.
Besides, since the content is in \s-1HTML,\s0 it can be assembled
with any \s-1HTML\s0 tool, and therefore also requires little knowledge
of Perl.
.PP
One word of warning, however : opening \s-1MHT\s0 documents in MsWord is
a bit slower than native binary or \s-1RTF\s0 documents, because MsWord needs to
parse the \s-1HTML,\s0 compute the layout and convert it into its internal
representation. Therefore \s-1MHT\s0 format is not recommended for very
large documents.
.SS "Usage"
.IX Subsection "Usage"
\&\f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR is used in production
at Geneva courts of law, for generating thousands of documents
per day, from hundreds of models, with an architecture of
reusable document parts implemented by Template Toolkit mechanisms
(macros, blocks and views).
.SH "METHODS"
.IX Header "METHODS"
\&\fBGeneral convention\fR : method names that start
with a \fIverb\fR may change the internal state of the
writer object (for example \*(L"write\*(R", \*(L"create_section\*(R");
method names that are \fInouns\fR return data without modifying
the internal state (for example \*(L"field\*(R", \*(L"content\*(R", page_break).
.SS "new"
.IX Subsection "new"
.Vb 1
\& my $doc = MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\->new(%params);
.Ve
.PP
Creates a new writer object. Optional parameters are :
.IP "title" 4
.IX Item "title"
document title
.IP "head" 4
.IX Item "head"
any \s-1HTML\s0 declarations you may want to include in the
\&\f(CW\*(C`head\*(C'\fR part of the generated document (for example
inline \s-1CSS\s0 styles or links to attached stylesheets).
.IP "hf_head" 4
.IX Item "hf_head"
any \s-1HTML\s0 declarations you may want to include in the
\&\f(CW\*(C`head\*(C'\fR part of the \fIheaders and footers\fR \s-1HTML\s0 document
(MsWord requires headers and footers to be
specified as \f(CW\*(C`div\*(C'\fRs in a separate \s-1HTML\s0 document).
.IP "WordDocument" 4
.IX Item "WordDocument"
a hashref of options to include as an \s-1XML\s0 island in the
\&\s-1HTML \s0\f(CW\*(C`head\*(C'\fR, corresponding to various options in the
MsWord \*(L"Tools/Options\*(R" panel. These will be included
in a \s-1XML\s0 element named \f(CW\*(C`hello, world
"); .Ve .PP Adds some \s-1HTML\s0 into the document body. .SS "attach" .IX Subsection "attach" .Vb 3 \& $doc\->attach($localname, $filename); \& $doc\->attach($localname, "<", \e$content); \& $doc\->attach($localname, "<&", $filehandle); .Ve .PP Adds an attachment into the document; the attachment will be encoded as a \s-1MIME\s0 part and will be accessible under \f(CW\*(C`files/$localname\*(C'\fR. .PP The remaining arguments to \f(CW\*(C`attach\*(C'\fR specify the source of the attachment; they are directly passed to \*(L"open\*(R" in perlfunc and therefore have the same \&\s-1API\s0 flexibility : you can specify a filename, a reference to a memory variable, a reference to another filehandle, etc. .SS "create_section" .IX Subsection "create_section" .Vb 10 \& $doc\->create_section( \& page => {size => "21.0cm 29.7cm", \& margin => "1.2cm 2.4cm 2.3cm 2.4cm"}, \& header => sprintf("Section 2, page %s of %s", \& $doc\->field(\*(AqPAGE\*(Aq), \& $doc\->field(\*(AqNUMPAGES\*(Aq)), \& footer => sprintf("printed at %s", \& $doc\->field(\*(AqPRINTDATE\*(Aq)), \& new_page => 1, # or \*(Aqleft\*(Aq, or \*(Aqright\*(Aq \& ); .Ve .PP Opens a new section within the document (or, if this is called before any \*(L"write\*(R", setups pagination parameters for the first section). Subsequent calls to the \*(L"write\*(R" method will add content to that section, until the next \*(L"create_section\*(R" call. .PP Pagination parameters are all optional and may be given either as a hash or as a hashref; accepted parameters are : .IP "page" 4 .IX Item "page" Hashref of \s-1CSS\s0 page styles, such as : .RS 4 .IP "size" 4 .IX Item "size" Paper size (for example \f(CW\*(C`21cm 29.7cm\*(C'\fR) .IP "margin" 4 .IX Item "margin" Margins (top right bottom left). .IP "header_margin" 4 .IX Item "header_margin" Margin for header .IP "footer_margin" 4 .IX Item "footer_margin" Margin for footer .IP "page_numbers" 4 .IX Item "page_numbers" Initial value for page numbers within this section .IP "paper_source" 4 .IX Item "paper_source" Parameters for paper source within this section (values for these parameters must be reverse engineered from MsWord \s-1HTML \s0 output) .RE .RS 4 .RE .IP "header" 4 .IX Item "header" Header content (in \s-1HTML\s0) .IP "first_header" 4 .IX Item "first_header" Header content for the first page of that section. .IP "footer" 4 .IX Item "footer" Footer content (in \s-1HTML\s0). .IP "first_footer" 4 .IX Item "first_footer" Footer content for the first page. .IP "new_page" 4 .IX Item "new_page" If true, a page break will be inserted before the new section. If the argument is the word \f(CW\*(Aqleft\*(Aq\fR or \f(CW\*(Aqright\*(Aq\fR, one or two page breaks will be inserted so that the next page is formatted as a left (right) page. .SS "save_as" .IX Subsection "save_as" .Vb 1 \& my $filename = $doc\->save_as("/path/to/some/file"); .Ve .PP Generates the \s-1MIME\s0 document and saves it at the given location. If no extension is present, file extension \fI.doc\fR will be added by default to the filename; this is returned as the result from the method call. .SS "content" .IX Subsection "content" Returns the whole MIME-encoded document as a single string; this is used internally by the \*(L"save_as\*(R" method. Direct call is useful if you don't want to save the document into a file, but want to do something else like embedding it in a message or a \s-1ZIP\s0 file, or returning it as an \s-1HTTP\s0 response. .SS "page_break" .IX Subsection "page_break" .Vb 3 \& my $html = $doc\->page_break; \& my $html = $doc\->page_break(\*(Aqleft\*(Aq); \& my $html = $doc\->page_break(\*(Aqright\*(Aq); .Ve .PP Returns \s-1HTML\s0 markup for encoding a page break. If an argument \f(CW\*(Aqleft\*(Aq\fR or \f(CW\*(Aqright\*(Aq\fR is given, one or two page breaks will be inserted so that the next page is formatted as a left (right) page. .SS "tab" .IX Subsection "tab" .Vb 1 \& my $html = $doc\->tab($n_tabs); .Ve .PP Returns \s-1HTML\s0 markup for encoding one or several tabs. If \f(CW$n_tab\fR is omitted, it defaults to 1. .SS "field" .IX Subsection "field" .Vb 2 \& my $html = $doc\->field($fieldname, $args, $content, \& $prevent_html_entity_encoding); .Ve .PP Returns \s-1HTML\s0 markup for a MsWord field. .PP Optional \f(CW$args\fR is a string with arguments or flags for the field. See MsWord help documentation for the list of field names and their associated arguments or flags. .PP Optional \f(CW$content\fR is the initial displayed content for the field (because unfortunately MsWord does not immediately compute the field content when opening the document; users will have to explicitly request to update all fields, by selecting the whole document and then hitting the F9 key). .PP Optional \f(CW$prevent_html_entity_encoding\fR is a boolean that prevents the automatic translation of \f(CW\*(C`<\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`>\*(C'\fR and \&\f(CW\*(C`&\*(C'\fR characters into \s-1HTML\s0 entities \f(CW<\fR, \f(CW>\fR and \&\f(CW\*(C`&\*(C'\fR. This is useful if you want to insert some rich text. .PP Here are some examples : .PP .Vb 6 \& my $header = sprintf "%s of %s", $doc\->field(\*(AqPAGE\*(Aq), \& $doc\->field(\*(AqNUMPAGES\*(Aq); \& my $footer = sprintf "created at %s, printed at %s", \& doc\->field(CREATEDATE => \*(Aq\e\e@ "d MM yyyy"\*(Aq), \& doc\->field(PRINTDATE => \*(Aq\e\e@ "dddd d MMMM yyyy" \e\e* Upper\*(Aq); \& my $quoted = $doc\->field(\*(AqQUOTE\*(Aq, \*(Aq"hello, world"\*(Aq, \*(Aqhello, world\*(Aq); .Ve .SS "quote" .IX Subsection "quote" .Vb 1 \& my $html = $doc\->quote($text, $prevent_html_entity_encoding); .Ve .PP Shortcut to produce a \s-1QUOTE\s0 field (see last field example just above). .PP The optional \f(CW$prevent_html_entity_encoding\fR argument is explained in the \&\*(L"field\*(R" method. .SH "AUTHORING MHT DOCUMENTS" .IX Header "AUTHORING MHT DOCUMENTS" .SS "\s-1HTML\s0 for MsWord" .IX Subsection "HTML for MsWord" MsWord does not support the full \s-1HTML\s0 and \s-1CSS\s0 standard, so authoring \s-1MHT\s0 documents requires some trial and error. Basic divs, spans, paragraphs and tables, are reasonably supported, together with their common \s-1CSS\s0 properties; but fancier features like floats, absolute positioning, etc. may yield some surprises. .PP To specify widths and heights, you will get better results by using \s-1CSS\s0 properties rather than attributes of the \&\s-1HTML\s0 table model. .PP In case of difficulties for implementing specific features, try to see what MsWord does with that feature when saving a document in \s-1HTML\s0 format (plain \s-1HTM,\s0 not \s-1MHT\s0!). The generated \s-1HTML\s0 is quite verbose, but after eliminating unnecessary tags one can sometimes figure out which are the key tags (they start with \f(CW\*(C`o:\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`w:\*(C'\fR) or the key attributes (they start with \f(CW\*(C`mso\-\*(C'\fR) which correspond to the desired functionality. .SS "Collaboration with the Template Toolkit" .IX Subsection "Collaboration with the Template Toolkit" The Template Toolkit (\s-1TT\s0 for short) is a very helpful tool for generating the \s-1HTML.\s0 Below are some hints about collaboration between the two modules. .PP \fIClient code calls both \s-1TT\s0 and Word::HTML::Writer\fR .IX Subsection "Client code calls both TT and Word::HTML::Writer" .PP The first mode is to use the Template Toolkit for generating various document parts, and then assemble them into \f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR. .PP .Vb 6 \& use Template; \& my $tmpl_app = Template\->new(%options); \& $tmpl_app\->process("doctmpl/html_head.tt", \e%data, \emy $html_head); \& $tmpl_app\->process("doctmpl/body.tt", \e%data, \emy $body); \& $tmpl_app\->process("doctmpl/header.tt", \e%data, \emy $header); \& $tmpl_app\->process("doctmpl/footer.tt", \e%data, \emy $footer); \& \& use MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer; \& my $doc = MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\->new( \& title => $data{title}, \& head => $html_head, \& ); \& $doc\->create_section( \& header => $header, \& footer => $footer, \& ); \& $doc\->write($body); \& $doc\->save_as("/path/to/some/file"); .Ve .PP This architecture is straightforward, but various document parts are split into several templates, which might be inconvenient when maintaining a large body of document templates. .PP \fI\s-1HTML\s0 parts as blocks in a single template\fR .IX Subsection "HTML parts as blocks in a single template" .PP Document parts might also be encoded as blocks within one single template : .PP .Vb 3 \& [% BLOCK html_head %] \& \& [% END; # BLOCK html_head %] \& \& [% BLOCK body %] \& Hello, world \& [% END; # BLOCK body %] \& \& etc. .Ve .PP Then the client code calls each block in turn to gather the various parts : .PP .Vb 7 \& use Template::Context; \& my $tmpl_ctxt = Template::Context\->new(%options); \& my $tmpl = $tmpl_ctxt\->template("doctmpl/all_blocks.tt"); \& my $html_head = $tmpl_ctxt\->process($tmpl\->blocks\->{html_head}, \e%data); \& my $body = $tmpl_ctxt\->process($tmpl\->blocks\->{body}, \e%data); \& my $header = $tmpl_ctxt\->process($tmpl\->blocks\->{header}, \e%data); \& my $footer = $tmpl_ctxt\->process($tmpl\->blocks\->{footer}, \e%data); \& \& # assemble into MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer, same as before .Ve .PP \fITemplate toolkit calls MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\fR .IX Subsection "Template toolkit calls MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer" .PP Now let's look at a different architecture: the client code calls the Template toolkit, which in turn calls \&\f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR. .PP The most common way to call modules from \s-1TT\s0 is to use a \fI\s-1TT\s0 plugin\fR; but since there is currently no \s-1TT\s0 plugin for \f(CW\*(C`MsOffice::Word::HTML::Writer\*(C'\fR, we will just tell \s-1TT\s0 that templates can load regular Perl modules, by turning on the \f(CW\*(C`LOAD_PERL\*(C'\fR option. .PP The client code looks like any other \s-1TT\s0 application; but the output of the process method is a fully-fledged \s-1MHT\s0 document, instead of plain \s-1HTML.\s0 .PP .Vb 3 \& use Template; \& my $tmpl_app = Template\->new(LOAD_PERL => 1, %other_options); \& $tmpl_app\->process("doc_template.tt", \e%data, \emy $msword_doc); .Ve .PP Within \f(CW\*(C`doc_template.tt\*(C'\fR, we have .PP .Vb 1 \& [% # main entry point \& \& # gather various parts \& SET html_head = PROCESS html_head; \& SET header = PROCESS header; \& SET footer = PROCESS footer; \& SET body = PROCESS body; \& \& # create Word::HTML::Writer object \& USE msword = MsOffice.Word.HTML.Writer(head=html_head); \& \& # setup section format \& CALL msword.create_section( \& page => {size => "21.0cm 29.7cm", \& margin => "1cm 2.5cm 1cm 2.5cm", \& header_margin => "1cm", \& footer_margin => "0cm",}, \& header => header, \& footer => footer \& ); \& \& # write the body \& CALL msword.write(body); \& \& # return the MIME\-encoded MsWord document \& msword.content(); %] \& \& [% BLOCK html_head %] \& ... .Ve .PP \fIInheritance through \s-1TT\s0 views\fR .IX Subsection "Inheritance through TT views" .PP The above architecture can be refined one step further, by using \s-1TT\s0 views to encapsulate documents. Views have an inheritance mechanism, so it becomes possible to define families of document templates, that inherit properties or methods from common ancestors. Let us start with \fIgeneric_letter.tt2\fR, a generic letter template : .PP .Vb 2 \& [% VIEW generic_letter \& title="Generic letter template"; \& \& BLOCK main; \& USE msword = MsOffice.Word.HTML.Writer( \& title => view.title, \& head => view.html_head(), \& ); \& view.write_body(); \& msword.content(); \& END; # BLOCK main \& \& BLOCK write_body; \& CALL msword.create_section( \& page => {size => "21.0cm 29.7cm", \& margin => "1cm 2.5cm 1cm 2.5cm"}, \& header => view.header(), \& footer => view.footer() \& ); \& CALL msword.write(view.body()); \& END; # BLOCK write_body \& \& BLOCK body; \& view.letter_head(); \& view.letter_body(); \& END; # BLOCK body \& \& BLOCK letter_body; %] \& Generic letter body; please override BLOCK letter_body in subviews \& [% END; # BLOCK letter_body; \& \& # ... other blocks for header, footer, letter_head, etc. \& \& END; # VIEW generic_letter \& \& [% # call main() method if this templated was loaded directly \& letter.main() UNLESS component.caller %] .Ve .PP This is quite similar to an object-oriented class : assignments within the view are like object attributes (i.e. the \f(CW\*(C`title\*(C'\fR variable), and blocks within the view are like methods. .PP After the end of the view, we call the \f(CW\*(C`main\*(C'\fR method, but only if that view was called directly from client code. If the view is inherited, as displayed below, then the call to \f(CW\*(C`main\*(C'\fR will be from the subview. .PP Now we can define a specific letter template that inherits from the generic letter and overrides the \f(CW\*(C`letter_body\*(C'\fR block : .PP .Vb 1 \& [% PROCESS generic_letter.tt2; # loads the parent view \& \& VIEW advertisement; \& \& BLOCK letter_body; %] \& \&Dear [% receiver.name %],
\&You have won a wonderful [% article %]. \& Just call us at [% sender.phone %].
\&Best regards,
\& [% view.signature(name => sender.name ) %] \& \& [% END; # BLOCK letter_body \& END; # VIEW advertisement \& \& advertisement.main() UNLESS component.caller %] .Ve .SH "TO DO" .IX Header "TO DO" Many features could be added; for example: .PP .Vb 5 \& \- link same header/footers across several sections \& \- multiple columns \& \- watermarks (I tried hard to reverse engineer MsWord behaviour, \& but it still doesn\*(Aqt work ... couldn\*(Aqt figure out all details \& of VML markup) .Ve .PP Contributions welcome! .SH "AUTHOR" .IX Header "AUTHOR" Laurent Dami, \f(CW\*(C`