Practical phppptx

Set-up, download and configuration

Introduction

phppptx is a software library designed to generate PPTX presentations. It allows to create, update and modify MS PowerPoint files, where you can add slides, text contents, tables, images, charts, audios, videos, links and so on, transform HTML/CSS contents, change settings, transform to PDF and many other operations.

The presentation generation tasks, as well as template working and conversion plugin features, are fully compatible with Linux, Windows and macOS operating systems, as well as with other PHP environments.

There are several methods and options for generating presentations with phppptx, either using its basic functionality for creating presentations, update existing files, converting HTML and CSS, or protecting your files with passwords, encrypting and signing them or converting to PDF.

Whether it is necessary to create a single presentation or hundreds of thousands, phppptx is the perfect tool for the job.

All phppptx paid licenses are open source, meaning that it is possible to modify the code of all classes. Software redistribution is not allowed.

Download

phppptx is a PHP code programmed proprietary product. There are three available licenses:

Basic

The Basic license generates presentations, works with templates, converts HTML and CSS and sets settings.

It allows to use the data library in a sub-domain, for example www.domain.com or docs.domain.com.

Advanced

The Advanced license includes the Basic features, plus the Indexer class to get information from presentations, the conversion plugin to convert PPTX to PDF, PPT and other multiple format files, and other extra methods and classes.

You'll be able to use the data library in one domain and all its subdomains, for example www.domain.com and any other subdomain (*.domain.com) such as www.domain.com and docs.domain.com

Premium

The Premium license includes the Advanced features, plus encryption and protection features, a stream mode to improve the performance, digital sign features, additional options to theme charts and other extra functionalities.

It allows to use the data library in an IP, and all the domains it serves, or a domain and all its subdomains.

Besides executing phppptx in the subdomain/domain or IP address acquired, the three licenses allow you to execute it in localhost (127.0.0.1) and private networks (classes A, B and C).

Set-up

The phppptx set up is really simple. After purchasing the chosen license, download the ZIP package from the MY PHPPPTX page and copy the files to the server path where you will use the data/software library.

You can extract this package with any file compression tool or graphic application like 7-Zip, WinZip or WinRAR.

For Linux, execute the following command in a terminal:

$ unzip phppptx.zip

Replacing phppptx.zip with the downloaded package name.

After extracting the content of the package, you'll see the following files and directories:

check.php: Dependencies and permissions checking file
classes: Software library main classes
config: Set up files
examples: Set/group of included examples
LICENSE: License file
Readme.txt: Version information and change log

To integrate phppptx with Composer please check the documentation available on Integrate phppptx with Composer projects.

Configuration

Each phppptx license is associated to a product key, which you need to add to the phppptxconfig.ini file in the config folder. A product key is not required for the Trial package.

The phppptxconfig.ini file contains the following information:

[settings]
; right to left languages config
;rtl = "true"

; if true, generate the PPTX as stream instead of saving it to the file system. Only available for Premium licenses
;stream="true"

[license]
; phppptx license code
code = ""
; subdomain (Basic license), domain (Advanced license) or IP (Premium license)
value = ""

[transform]
; transform options. Only available for Advanced and Premium licenses

; libreoffice, mspowerpoint
;method = "libreoffice"

; libreoffice installation path, absolute path
;path = "/opt/libreoffice/program/soffice"

; custom HOME folder; allows setting a custom HOME folder when doing the transformations using LibreOffice
;home_folder = ""

To start using the software library, it is required to add the license code and the purchased subdomain/domain/IP in the "license" section, for example:

[license]
; phppptx license code
code = ""
; subdomain (Basic license), domain (Advanced license) or IP (Premium license)
value = ""

Checking that everything works properly

Before including phppptx in your own development, framework or CMS, it is recommendable to test the software library standalone. The check.php file is available for this purpose, it checks via web and CLI mode the dependencies and required access rights.

Also, it is advisable to execute one of the included examples using the PHP CLI mode.

For example, execute the sample_1.php example available in the path examples/Contents/addText:

php sample_1.php

It generates a PHP file with a text content.

Common issues

License error

phppptx only runs with the purchased license, localhost and private networks. If, when using the library, the 'There is not a valid license' exception appears, check that the URL where phppptx runs matches the purchased license.

Some specific file is missing

Not all files and directories included in phppptx are necessary to run the library, but a few of them are mandatory. The essential files for proper phppptx functioning are: classes and config, along with the files contained by these ones.

Permission issues

All necessary files of the previous point must have reading access rights for the user that executes the scripts.

Destination folder for generated PPTX files also must have read and write access for the user that generates the files.

Next - Creating a new presentation