libreoffice-convert

The libreoffice-convert module provides a convert function to transform office documents into different formats. Since the base module uses callbacks, it is recommended to promisify it using util.promisify to use async/await syntax.

To convert a file:

1. Read the input file into a Buffer.
2. Call the conversion function with the input Buffer, the target extension (e.g., .pdf), and an optional filter.
3. The function returns a Buffer containing the converted file content.

'use strict';

const path = require('path');
const fs = require('fs').promises;
const libre = require('libreoffice-convert');

// Promisify the convert method for async/await usage
libre.convertAsync = require('util').promisify(libre.convert);

async function main() {
    const ext = '.pdf';
    const inputPath = path.join(__dirname, '/resources/example.docx');
    const outputPath = path.join(__dirname, `/resources/example${ext}`);

    // Read file into a Buffer
    const docxBuf = await fs.readFile(inputPath);

    // Convert it to pdf format with undefined filter
    // The third argument is the LibreOffice filter
    let pdfBuf = await libre.convertAsync(docxBuf, ext, undefined);
    
    // Save the resulting Buffer to a file
    await fs.writeFile(outputPath, pdfBuf);
}

main().catch(function (err) {
    console.log(`Error converting file: ${err}`);
});

Use convertWithOptions when you need to provide specific configuration for the temporary directory, execution, or LibreOffice binary paths.

Parameters:

• document (Buffer): The source document buffer.
• format (string): The target format.
• filter (string, optional): LibreOffice filter string.
• options (Object, optional): Configuration object containing:
  • tmpOptions (Object): Options passed to the tmp library for creating temporary directories.
  • asyncOptions (Object): Options for the internal retry logic (e.g., times, interval).
  • execOptions (Object): Options passed to child_process.execFile.
  • fileName (string): The name used for the temporary source file (defaults to 'source').
  • sofficeAdditionalArgs (Array<string>): Additional command-line arguments to pass to the soffice binary.
  • sofficeBinaryPaths (Array<string>): Custom paths to search for the soffice binary. If not provided, the library searches standard locations for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
• callback (function): A callback function that receives (err, result). result is the Buffer of the converted document.

const { convertWithOptions } = require('libreoffice-convert');

const options = {
    fileName: 'my-document.odt',
    sofficeAdditionalArgs: ['--no-sandbox'],
    asyncOptions: {
        times: 5,
        interval: 500
    }
};

convertWithOptions(inputBuffer, 'pdf', '', options, (err, outputBuffer) => {
    // handle result
});