Practical phpdocx

HTML and CSS

Introduction

One of the most remarkable features of phpdocx is the possibility of working directly with HTML and CSS to create contents.

Just write the HTML code and its styles and you will get a Word format conversion with great quality and similarity with the original code.

HTML and CSS to WordML

embedHTML is the method to add HTML to a document:

public function embedHTML($html = '<html><body></body></html>', $options = array())

In the $html parameter, write the HTML and CSS you want to transform to WordML; either the styles in the head or inline in the tags. The second parameter, $options, is an array of options. The most important options are:

isFile: boolean to set if the HTML is in a file. By default, it is a string.
downloadImages: if true, download the images.
parseAnchors: if true, parse anchor links
parseCSSVars: if true, parse CSS variables.
parseDivs: parses divs as paragraphs or tables.
wordStyles: array to associate to a class or id Word styles. It must be used along with the strictWordStyles option of this same method.

For example, to add a HTML code with inline styles:

$html = '<h1 style="color: #b70000">An embedHTML() example</h1>';
$html .= '<p>We draw a table with border and rawspans and colspans:</p>';
$html .= '<table border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse">
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td style="background-color: yellow">1_1</td>
        <td rowspan="3" colspan="2">1_2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Some random text.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>
            <ul>
                <li>One</li>
                <li>Two <b>and a half</b></li>
            </ul>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>3_2</td>
        <td>3_3</td>
        <td>3_3</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
</table>';

$docx->embedHTML($html);

CSS can be included as inline CSS, internal CSS or external CSS.

Replacing variables in templates

When working with a template, replaceVariableByHTML allows to replace a placeholder with HTML:

public function replaceVariableByHTML($var, $type = 'block', $html = '<html><body></body></html>', $options = array())

This HTML code is transformed into a WordML before replacing the placeholder.

The available parameters are:

$var: name of the placeholder
$type: block or inline
$html: HTML/CSS
$options: extra options

After loading the template, an easy replacement would be:

$docx->replaceVariableByHTML('VAR', 'inline', '<p style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 11px">phpdocx</p>');

This code changes the placeholder VAR by a paragraph with the text “phpdocx”.

Tips and tricks

If the CSS styles are shown in the document instead of being transformed, that's because Tidy must be installed or enabled.

When adding HTML with images, it is advisable to enable the parameter downloadImages. It is important too to make sure that the paths are defined as absolute instead of relative.

HTML Extended

Premium licenses include HTML Extended and CSS Extended features to invoke phpdocx methods with custom HTML tags and apply custom styles not supported by standard HTML tags and CSS styles. Thus, it is possible to insert headers, footers, comments, table of contents, cross-references, sections and many other contents. All integrated with the supported HTML tags and CSS styles.

E.g.: you can insert a TOC with headings generated with HTML tags (H1, H1 and H3) or through a custom tag:

// add a table of contents
$html = '<phpdocx_tablecontents data-autoUpdate="true" data-stylesTOC="../../files/crazyTOC.docx"/>';
$docx->embedHTML($html, array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

// add HTML headings
$html = '
    <h1 style="color: #b70000">1st level heading</h1>
    <h2 style="color: #b70000">2nd level heading</h2>
    <h3 style="color: #b70000">3rd level heading</h3>
';
$docx->embedHTML($html);

// add phpdocx headings
$html = '
    <phpdocx_heading data-text="Custom heading" data-level="2" />
';
$docx->embedHTML($html, array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

Headers and footers:

$html = '
    <head>
        <style>
            p {font-style: italic;}
            p.header {font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;}
            div.footer {font-size: 10px;}
        </style>
    </head>
    <phpdocx_header data-type="default">
        <p class="header">
            Custom header <strong>with strong style</strong>
            <phpdocx_link data-text="External link" data-url="http://www.google.es" />
        </p>
    </phpdocx_header>
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>
    <phpdocx_footer>
        <div class="footer">
            <table border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="600">
                <tbody>
                    <tr width="600">
                        <td>Cell A</td>
                        <td><img src="image.png" width="35" height="35" style="vertical-align: -15px"></p></td>
                        <td><phpdocx_pagenumber data-target="defaultFooter" data-type="page-of" data-textAlign="right" /></td>
                    </tr>
                </tbody>
            </table>
        </div>
    </phpdocx_footer>
';

$docx->embedHTML($html, array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

And just almost any other content:

$html = '
    <phpdocx_break data-type="page" data-number="2" />
    <phpdocx_link data-text="My Link" data-url="#bookmark_name" />
    <p>
        <span>More text content </span>
        <phpdocx_link data-text="External link" data-url="http://www.google.es" />
    </p>
    <phpdocx_break data-type="line" data-number="5" />
    <phpdocx_crossreference data-text="My cross-reference" data-type="bookmark" data-referenceName="bookmark_name" />
    <p style="text-align: right;font-weight: bold;font-family: Arial;">
        <phpdocx_dateandhour data-dateFormat="dd\' of \'MMMM\' of \'yyyy\' at \'H:mm"/>
    </p>
';
$docx->embedHTML($html, array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

The flexibility of this feature also allows to customize the tags for each supported content, e.g., to define "header" and "footer" as tags to create headers and footers, instead of the default tags phpdocx_header and phpdocx_footer:

HTMLExtended::$tagsBlock['header'] = 'addHeader';
HTMLExtended::$tagsBlock['footer'] = 'addFooter';

$html = '
    <head>
        <style>
            p {font-style: italic;}
            p.header {font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;}
            div.footer {font-size: 10px;}
        </style>
    </head>
    <header data-type="default">
        <p class="header">
            Custom header <strong>with strong style</strong>
            <phpdocx_link data-text="External link" data-url="http://www.google.es" />
        </p>
    </header>
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>
    <footer>
        <div class="footer">
            <table border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="600">
                <tbody>
                    <tr width="600">
                        <td>Cell A</td>
                        <td><img src="image.png" width="35" height="35" style="vertical-align: -15px"></p></td>
                        <td><phpdocx_pagenumber data-target="defaultFooter" data-type="page-of" data-textAlign="right" /></td>
                    </tr>
                </tbody>
            </table>
        </div>
    </footer>
';

$docx->embedHTML($html, array('useHTMLExtended' => true));

HTML Extended and CSS Extended also have an extra set of methods and options designed to make conversions more flexible and efficient:

addBaseCSS: defines a base CSS for all HTML conversions.
stylesReplacementType: available for the replaceVariableByHTML method, allows using the original placeholder styles (pPr y rPr) instead of the ones defined by the imported HTML and CSS or mix template placeholder and HTML/CSS styles.
support overwriting styles in level lists: create lists with different styles in the same levels.
extraHTMLExtendedOptions: transform additional contents just like tabs.
embed TTF fonts using @font-face rules.

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