PDF conversion with ruby/linux

Ruby
1

Unfortunately I have a project which has the requirement that users may
submit several different document types (currently at least .doc and
.ppt) which should be converted on the fly to pdf available for
immediate preview. Can anyone point me in the direction of a library or
SDK that would allow me to do this with Ruby on a linux box? There is a
budget for this aspect of the project so commercial products are viable.

Thanks,

tfw

2

Floyd W. wrote:

Unfortunately I have a project which has the requirement that users may
submit several different document types (currently at least .doc and
.ppt) which should be converted on the fly to pdf available for
immediate preview. Can anyone point me in the direction of a library or
SDK that would allow me to do this with Ruby on a linux box? There is a
budget for this aspect of the project so commercial products are viable.

There’s a tutorial over on xml.com for doing it with an OpenOffice macro
from the command line, which presumably you could kick off from a Ruby
script.

It’s here:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2006/01/11/from-microsoft-to-openoffice.html

I don’t know how good Impress is at reading .ppt, but it’s worth a shot.
I was evaluating it for .doc to .html, but then I found wvWare and
used that instead.

3

I didn’t even think of open office–a very interesting alternative that
I think just may end up working out. Thanks a lot for the tip.

tfw

4

Floyd W. wrote:

I didn’t even think of open office–a very interesting alternative that
I think just may end up working out. Thanks a lot for the tip.

No worries. It’s also got an RPC interface which might help, but I
don’t know if there’s a Ruby binding to it.