how to use php to include an image in a word file?

Question

Somebody has asked me to make an app in php that will generate a .doc file with an image and a few tables in it. My first approach was:

<?php
function data_uri($file, $mime) 
{  
  $contents = file_get_contents($file);
  $base64   = base64_encode($contents); 
  return ('data:' . $mime . ';base64,' . $base64);
}
$file = 'new.doc';
$fh = fopen($file,'w');
$uri = data_uri('pic.png','image/png');
fwrite($fh,'<table border="1"><tr><td><b>something</b></td><td>something else</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td></tr></table>
<br/><img src="'.$uri.'" alt="some text" />
<br/>
<table border="1"><tr><td><b>ceva</b></td><td>altceva</td></tr><tr><td></td><td></td></tr></table>');
fclose($fh);
?>

This uses the data uri technique of embedding an image.

This will generate an html file that will be rendered ok in web browsers but the image is missing in Microsoft Office Word, at least in the standard setup. Then, while editing the file with Word, i've replace the image with an image from file and Microsoft Word changed the contents of the file into Open XML and added a folder, new_files where he put the imported image (which was a .png), a .gif version of the image and a xml file:

<xml xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">
  <o:MainFile HRef="../new.doc" /> 
  <o:File HRef="image001.jpg" /> 
  <o:File HRef="filelist.xml" /> 
</xml>

Now this isn't good enough either since i want this to be all kept in a single .doc file. Is there a way to embed an image in an OpenXML-formatted .doc file?

Answer 1

look here http://www.tkachenko.com/blog/archives/000106.html

<w:pict>
    <v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" ...>
    ... VML shape template definition ...
    </v:shapetype>
    <w:binData w:name="wordml://02000001.jpg">
    ... Base64 encoded image goes here ...
    </w:binData>
    <v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" 
      style="width:212.4pt;height:159pt">
         <v:imagedata src="wordml://02000001.jpg" 
           o:title="Image title"/>
    </v:shape> 
</w:pict>

Answer 2

There is PHPWord project to manipulate MS Word from within PHP.

PHPWord is a library written in PHP that create word documents. No Windows operating system is needed for usage because the result are docx files (Office Open XML) that can be opened by all major office software.

Answer 3

PHPWord can write them http://phpword.codeplex.com/ (note: its still in Beta. I've used PHpExcel by the same guy a lot... never tried the Word version).