How to get the number of pages in a Word Document on linux?

Question

I saw this question PHP - Get number of pages in a Word document . I also need to determine the pages count from given word file (doc/docx). I tried to investigate phplivedocx/ZF (@hobodave linked to those in the original post answers), but I lost my hands and legs there. I can't use any outer web service either (like DOC2PDF sites, and then count the pages in the PDF version, or so...).

Simply: Is there any php code (using ZF or anything else in PHP, excluding COM object or other execution-files, such 'AbiWord'; I'm using shared Linux server, without exec or similar function), to find the pages count of word file?

EDIT: The word versions that about to be supported are Microsoft-Word 2003 & 2007.

To which file-format standard(s) of a msword file are you referring to? Please add the specification if you want to get specific answers. — hakre

Paul Norman Paul Norman · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-01T21:01:44

Getting the number of pages for docx files is very easy:

function get_num_pages_docx($filename)
{
    $zip = new ZipArchive();

    if($zip->open($filename) === true)
    {  
        if(($index = $zip->locateName('docProps/app.xml')) !== false)
        {
            $data = $zip->getFromIndex($index);
            $zip->close();

            $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
            return $xml->Pages;
        }

        $zip->close();
    }

    return false;
}

For 97-2003 format it's certainly challenging, but by no means impossible. The number of pages is stored in the SummaryInformation section of the document, but due to the OLE format of the files that makes it a pain to find. The structure is defined extremely thoroughly (though badly imo) here and simpler here. I looked at this for an hour today, but didn't get very far! (not a level of abstraction I'm used to), but output the hex to better understand the structure:

function get_num_pages_doc($filename) 
{
    $handle = fopen($filename, 'r');
    $line = @fread($handle, filesize($filename));

    echo '<div style="font-family: courier new;">';

        $hex = bin2hex($line);
        $hex_array = str_split($hex, 4);
        $i = 0;
        $line = 0;
        $collection = '';
        foreach($hex_array as $key => $string)
        {
            $collection .= hex_ascii($string);
            $i++;

            if($i == 1)
            {
                echo '<b>'.sprintf('%05X', $line).'0:</b> ';
            }

            echo strtoupper($string).' ';

            if($i == 8)
            {
                echo ' '.$collection.' <br />'."\n";
                $collection = '';
                $i = 0;

                $line += 1;
            }
        }

    echo '</div>';

    exit();
}

function hex_ascii($string, $html_safe = true)
{
    $return = '';

    $conv = array($string);
    if(strlen($string) > 2)
    {
        $conv = str_split($string, 2);
    }

    foreach($conv as $string)
    {
        $num = hexdec($string);

        $ascii = '.';
        if($num > 32)
        {   
            $ascii = unichr($num);
        }

        if($html_safe AND ($num == 62 OR $num == 60))
        {
            $return .= htmlentities($ascii);
        }
        else
        {
            $return .= $ascii;
        }
    }

    return $return;
}

function unichr($intval)
{
    return mb_convert_encoding(pack('n', $intval), 'UTF-8', 'UTF-16BE');
}

which will out put code where you can find the sections such as:

007000: 0500 5300 7500 6D00 6D00 6100 7200 7900 ..S.u.m.m.a.r.y.
007010: 4900 6E00 6600 6F00 7200 6D00 6100 7400 I.n.f.o.r.m.a.t.
007020: 6900 6F00 6E00 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 i.o.n...........
007030: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................

Which will allow you to see the referencing info such as:

007040: 2800 0201 FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF FFFF (...ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
007050: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
007060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................
007070: 0000 0000 2500 0000 0010 0000 0000 0000 ....%...........

Which will allow you to determine properties described:

_ab = ("SummaryInformation") 
_cb = 0028
_mse = 02 (STGTY_STREAM) 
_bflags = 01 (DE_BLACK) 
_sidLeftSib = FFFF FFFF 
_sidRightSib = FFFF FFFF (none) 
_sidChild = FFFF FFFF (n/a for STGTY_STREAM) 
_clsid = 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 (n/a) 
_dwUserFlags = 0000 0000 (n/a) 
_time[0] = CreateTime = 0000 0000 0000 0000 (n/a) 
_time[1] = ModifyTime = 0000 0000 0000 0000 (n/a)
_startSect = 0000 0000 
_ulSize = 0000 1000 
_dptPropType = 0000 (n/a)

Which will let you find the relevant section of code, unpack it and get the page number. Of course this is the hard bit that I just don't have time for, but should set you in the right direction.

M$ don't make it easy!

How to get the number of pages in a Word Document on linux?

4 Answers