Office Bridge
In addition to the option of converting Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents with the integrated "Outside In" converter, webPDF also offers the option of connecting Microsoft Office (for version information, see technical requirements). In order to do this, you will need a locally installed instance of Office, which will be connected to webPDF with the use of OLE Automation. "webPDF Office Bridge" will be used to control OLE Automation and connect Office to webPDF.
When using the Office Bridge, please observe the notes on the Office version!
Please make sure to have the required license for using Office for document conversion purposes before using the corresponding webPDF function. Make sure to observe the Microsoft license terms for Windows and Office, as well as the corresponding service and access licensing. "webPDF Office Bridge" is only a technical interface that does not affect the Office license in any way. The customer is responsible for making sure that using Office within this context is permitted and that they have the required license for this purpose.If you have any questions regarding this issue, we will be more than glad to assist you or put you in contact with the right person. Please contact support.
Conversion via Microsoft Office is only available when using the Windows operating system.
Please note that Microsoft Office is a desktop application. It is not designed for server operations, and unexpected behaviour (e.g., dialog boxes being displayed) may occur as a result. Because of this, unsupervised 24/7 operation is not recommended.Make sure to also read the relevant Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, such as https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/257757
With webPDF Office Bridge, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents can be converted with the original Microsoft Office.
Running webPDF and Office under a user account
If webPDF is being run as a service, this will normally be done using the local system account (default configuration for installation routine). In order for webPDF to be able to access Microsoft Office, both webPDF and Office (each individual application) must be run under a single user account if the webPDF server is started as a service. Please refer to the "Configuring Office Bridge" document and manually carry out the corresponding configuration steps.
Configuring and enabling "Office Bridge" in webPDF
To use "Office Bridge”, it must first be enabled in the "conf/application.xml" configuration. To do this, use the portal’s admin area. Once there, go to "Web services -> Converter" to enable Office Bridge.
With the activation of the Office Bridge the general availability is activated. In order to run the conversion through Office Bridge in an individual web service call now, you will need to set the "officeBridge" parameter in the "Converter" web service call. Without this parameter, webPDF will continue to use Outside In for the conversion.