Converting adobe inDesign to pptx (is it even possible?) - node.js

I'm struggling to find a solution. I have a bulk of Adobe inDesign files I'm trying to convert over as PDFs
I know you can export to inDesign -> PDF then from Acrobat PDF -> PPTX. This would work well if it was just one or two files. I don't want to keep doing this over and over. I've tried using pdf-powerpoint the only issue with that is it exports each slide as a PNG. I would still like to be able to edit them afterward. I've seen that it is possible to use javascript to automate Adobe products but, after combing through their documentation I'm not sure if it's possible to pipe data into other Adobe products. Any suggestions?

You want to convert a PDF file to a Microsoft Powerpoint file (pptx).
You want to achieve this using Node.js.
If my understanding is correct, how about this workaround? In this workaround, it uses an external API which is ConvertAPI. The pptx file converted by this API can be edited by Microsoft Powerpoint. When you try this, for example, you can also test this using "Free Package". When you try using "Free Package", please Sign Up at "Free Package" and retrieve your Secret key.
Sample script:
const fs = require('fs');
const request = require('request');
const pdfFile = "### PDF file ###"; // Please set PDF filename including the path.
const url = "https://v2.convertapi.com/convert/pdf/to/pptx?Secret=#####"; // Please set your Secret key.
const options = {
url: url,
method: 'POST',
formData: {File: fs.createReadStream(pdfFile)},
};
request(options, function(err, res, body) {
if (err) {
console.log(err);
return;
}
const obj = JSON.parse(body);
obj.Files.forEach(function(e) {
const file = new Buffer(e.FileData, "base64");
fs.writeFile(e.FileName, file, function(err) {
if (err) {
console.log(err);
return;
}
console.log("Done.");
});
});
});
Note:
Before you run ths script, please retrieve your secret key.
In this script, a PDF file is uploaded and converted to pptx file, and download it. Then, it is saved as a pptx file.
This is a simple sample script. So please modify it for your situation.
Reference:
PDF to PPTX API of ConvertAPI
If this workaround was not what you want, I'm sorry.

Related

How can I temporarily store a pdf in Firebase filesystem?

I am creating a pdf using JSPDF on server-side, in NodeJS. Once done, I want to create a new folder for the user in Google Drive, upload the pdf to said folder, and also send it to the client-side (browser) for the user to view.
There are two problems that I'm encountering. Firstly, if I send the pdf in the response -via pdf.output()- the images don't display correctly. They are distorted, as though each row of pixels is offset by some amount. A vertical line "|" instead renders as a diagonal "\". An example is shown below.
Before
After
My workaround for this was to instead save it to the filesystem using doc.save() and then send it to the browser using fs.readFileSync(filepath).
However, I've discovered that when running remotely, I don't have file permissions to be saving the pdf and reading it. And after some research and tinkering, I'm thinking that I cannot change these permissions. This is the error I get:
Error: EROFS: read-only file system, open './temp/output.pdf'
at Object.openSync (fs.js:443:3)
at Object.writeFileSync (fs.js:1194:35)
at Object.v.save (/workspace/node_modules/jspdf/dist/jspdf.node.min.js:86:50626)
etc...
So I have this JSPDF object, and I believe I need to either, alter the permissions to allow writing/reading or take the jspdf object or, I guess, change it's format to one accepted by Google drive, such as a stream or buffer object?
The link below leads me to think these permissions can't be altered since it states: "These files are available in a read-only directory".
https://cloud.google.com/functions/docs/concepts/exec#file_system
I also have no idea 'where' the server filesystem is, or how to access it. Thus, I think the best course of action is to look at sending the pdf in different formats.
I've checked jsPDF documentation for types that pdf.output() can return. These include string, arraybuffer, window, blob, jsPDF.
https://rawgit.com/MrRio/jsPDF/master/docs/jsPDF.html#output
My simplified code is as follows:
const express = require('express');
const fs = require('fs');
const app = express();
const { jsPDF } = require('jspdf');
const credentials = require(credentialsFilepath);
const scopes = [scopes in here];
const auth = new google.auth.JWT(
credentials.client_email, null,
credentials.private_key, scopes
);
const drive = google.drive({version: 'v3', auth});
//=========================================================================
app.post('/submit', (req, res) => {
var pdf = new jsPDF();
// Set font, fontsize. Added some text, etc.
pdf.text('blah blah', 10, 10);
// Add image (signature) from canvas, which is passed as a dataURL
pdf.addImage(img, 'JPEG', 10, 10, 50, 20);
pdf.save('./temp/output.pdf');
drive.files.create({
resource: folderMetaData,
fields: 'id'
})
.then(response => {
// Store pdf in newly created folder
var fileMetaData = {
'name': 'filename.pdf',
'parents': [response.data.id],
};
var media = {
mimeType: 'application/pdf',
body: fs.createReadStream('./temp/output.pdf'),
};
drive.files.create({
resource: fileMetaData,
media: media,
fields: 'id'
}, function(err, file) {
if(err){
console.error('Error:', err);
}else{
// I have considered piping 'file' back in the response here but can't figure out how
console.log('File uploaded');
}
});
})
.catch(error => {
console.error('Error:', error);
});
// Finally, I attempt to send the pdf to client/browser
res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
res.send(fs.readFileSync('./temp/output.pdf'));
})
Edit: After some more searching, I've found a similar question which explains that the fs module is for reading/writing to local filestore.
EROFS error when executing a File Write function in Firebase
I eventually came to a solution after some further reading. I'm not sure who this will be useful for, but...
Turns out the Firebase filesystem only has 1 directory which allows you to write to (the rest are read-only). This directory is named tmp and I accessed it using the tmp node module [installed with: npm i tmp], since trying to manually reference the path with pdf.save('./tmp/output.pdf') didn't work.
So the only changes to my code were to add in the lines:
var tmp = require('tmp');
var tmpPath = tmp.tmpNameSync();
and then replacing all the instances of './temp/output.pdf' with tmpPath

DevTools failed to load SourceMap

I'm trying to create pages that will take a user information and save them to the database. the user information are {name, age....... picture}, when I put the information without a picture it work fine and the data saved to the database but when I try to put the picture with them it gives me the error.
I'm sorry for the picture quality.
any one can help me with this.
I'm using nodejs and react
thx :)
You would need to send the picture as Base64 in your object, as it follows:
var data = {
name: 'John',
age: 27,
picture: 'data:image/png;base64,R0lGODlhPQBEAJos...',
}
In NodeJS, if using Express, the picture will be req.body.picture. So, all you need to do is store the file, then get the temp path do do what you need.
You can store base64 file doing:
var filePath = './tmp/myPicture.png';
fs.writeFile(filePath, req.body.picture, 'base64', (err) => {
if (err) {
res.json({ err: 'Error while creating temp file from base64.' });
} else {
// Your file was uploaded, so you can read your file here.
}
});

upload generated pdf without temporarily writing any file

I want to upload pdf file created by pdfmake to remote server. For that I am using following code roughly.
const doc = printer.createPdfKitDocument(docDefinition);
doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(filename))
var form = new FormData();
form.append("file", fs.createReadStream(filename));
let response=await axios.post(url, form, {headers: {
...form.getHeaders(),
}});
But issue with above approach is it requires to create file locally. I want to avoid that and want to take output from pdfmake and send it directly to server. How can I do that ?

How to save pdf to android file system and then view PDF - react-native

I am using the react-native-fs and I am trying to save a base64 of a pdf file to my android emulators file system.
I receive base64 encoded pdf from the server.
I then decode the base64 string with the line:
var pdfBase64 = 'data:application/pdf;base64,'+base64Str;
saveFile() function
saveFile(filename, pdfBase64){
// create a path you want to write to
var path = RNFS.DocumentDirectoryPath + '/' + filename;
// write the file
RNFS.writeFile(path, base64Image, 'base64').then((success) => {
console.log('FILE WRITTEN!');
})
.catch((err) => {
console.log("SaveFile()", err.message);
});
}
Error
When I try saving the pdfBase64 the saveFile() function catches the following error:
bad base-64
Question
Can anyone tell where or what I am doing wrong?
Thanks.
For anyone having the same problem, here is the solution.
Solution
react-nativive-pdf-view must take the file path to the pdf_base64.
Firstly, I used the react-native-fetch-blob to request the pdf base64 from the server.(Because RN fetch API does not yet support BLOBs).
Also I discovered that react-native-fetch-blob also has a FileSystem API which is way better documented and easier to understand than the 'react-native-fs' library. (Check out its FileSystem API documentation)
Receiving base64 pdf and saving it to a file path:
var RNFetchBlob = require('react-native-fetch-blob').default;
const DocumentDir = RNFetchBlob.fs.dirs.DocumentDir;
getPdfFromServer: function(uri_attachment, filename_attachment) {
return new Promise((RESOLVE, REJECT) => {
// Fetch attachment
RNFetchBlob.fetch('GET', config.apiRoot+'/app/'+uri_attachment)
.then((res) => {
let base64Str = res.data;
let pdfLocation = DocumentDir + '/' + filename_attachment;
RNFetchBlob.fs.writeFile(pdfLocation, pdf_base64Str, 'base64');
RESOLVE(pdfLocation);
})
}).catch((error) => {
// error handling
console.log("Error", error)
});
}
What I was doing wrong was instead of saving the pdf_base64Str to the file location like I did in the example above. I was saving it like this:
var pdf_base64= 'data:application/pdf;base64,'+pdf_base64Str;
which was wrong.
Populate PDF view with file path:
<PDFView
ref={(pdf)=>{this.pdfView = pdf;}}
src={pdfLocation}
style={styles.pdf}
/>
There is a new package to handle the fetching (based on react-native-fetch-blob) and displaying of the PDF via URL: react-native-pdf.
Remove application type in base64 string and it's working for me
var pdfBase64 = 'data:application/pdf;base64,'+base64Str;
To
var pdfBase64 = base64Str;

Upload .xlsx files to express/node and mongoDB

I'm trying to make a web application where a manager can upload a weekly work schedule to the application and then have the application parse out the data into html format.
My question to you guys is how to have the application convert the excel file into JSON while it is being upload. I'm new so I'm not sure how to simultaneously upload the file to Mongo while converting it to JSON.
edit - in my app.js :
xlsxj = require("xlsx-to-json");
xlsxj({
input: "sample.xlsx",
output: "output.json"
}, function(err, result) {
if(err) {
console.error(err);
}else {
console.log(result);
}
});
app.post('/upload' function(req, res) {
??? What to put here ???
});
my input where the user selects file to upload:
.div(style={position: 'absolute', right: '50px', top: '75px'})
unless user.email == "cca#gmail.com"
p Upload New Schedule
#uploadNew
form(action="...", method="post", enctype="multipart/form-data")
input(type="file", name="displayImage")
I'm wondering how I go from there to having the input converted to JSON and stored in the DB
I recommend using js-xlsx to parse the .xlsx file on Node.js. This is a highly tested library that parses the data into a JSON structure you can iterate over to extract data. It doesn't parse charts or handle macros but you likely do not need to.
You may or may not choose to store the data in MongoDB. Mongo is nice for many reasons, but you have to be sure that no attribute has an embedded $ or . as these are reserved and will generate an error. Another approach you may consider to store the XLSX file or the stringified JSON file on S3, using the aws-sdk
xlsxj = require("xlsx-to-json");
app.post('/upload' function(req, res) {
/* upload script here */
xlsxj({
input: "sample.xlsx", //change this names based on the upload file name
output: "output.json"
}, function(err, result) {
if(err) {
console.error(err);
}else {
console.log(result);
}
});
});
There are several npm packages which can convert xlsx data to json format.
You can search them on npm website.
Use this package.
Once the xlsx file is uploaded to the database. Convert it to xlsx and save it to database.

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