How to read content of Word file in Php?

Question

I am trying to read content of Word file. I used code below but it is giving warning as Warning: fread() [function.fread]: Length parameter must be greater than 0

$filename=$file->getFilename();
$ext = pathinfo($filename, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
if($ext=='docx')
{
$fname = fopen($filename, 'r');
if (is_readable($filename)) 
{
$content = fread($fname,filesize($filename));
echo $content;
} 
else 
{
echo 'The file is not readable.';
}
fclose($fname);
}

The error message indicates you're trying to read a file that either doesn't exist or is 0 bytes. — AD7six, Jul 29 '13 at 22:45
What is the purpose of trying to read the file? Do you want to extract content from it and manipulate it, or simply read it from one place and write it to another? You can read the content into a variable using file_get_contents(), but whether or not that would work for you depends on what you want to do with it once you've read it. — Nick Coons, Jul 29 '13 at 23:38

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 29 '13 at 22:44

0

Word document isn't the same as a text file (it's more like xml / binary file), so you can't just use echo and expects it to output the file.

There's a library for that though...called Docvert

Docvert

answered Jul 29 '13 at 22:44

Kylie

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 29 '13 at 22:45

0

Try to open the file in binary mode , using the 'b' flag , like this :

fopen($filename, 'rb')

answered Jul 29 '13 at 22:45

user2375682

1

make sure that your path is correct , you see filesize() function use absolute path something like that C:\wamp\www\app\files\test.doc , if it's relative path the function can't find this file. – user2375682 Jul 29 '13 at 23:09

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 29 '13 at 22:48

A docx file is binary, not text, and you'll have to read it as a binary file.

You don't state what version of word, but since your code sample used docx, I'll assume that you're using the newer Word format files.

One thing for you to be aware of is that these newer Word files, as well as Excel and PowerPoint, are stored as compressed files. The file itself is really a ZIP compatible compressed file. If you copy one of these files and add a .zip extension to it, you'll see that you can open it as a compressed file, and that you can traverse it's various folders.

What you read from the file depends on what you intend to do with it.

How to read content of Word file in Php?

3 Answers3