database - Getting PHP to read .doc files on Linux

Question

I'm trying to read a .doc file into a database so that I can index it's contents. Is there an easy way for PHP on Linux to read .doc files? Failing that is it possible to convert .doc files to rtf, pdf or some other 'open' format that is easy to read?

Note, I am not interested in .docx files.

Answer 1

Conor, I'd suggest to look at OpenOffice command line interface / calling macros. It can convert many file formats to many others. Then you can pick something much more parse-able than MS doc.

For instance, to convert to PDF, a command line is:

/usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/soffice.bin -norestore -nofirststart -nologo -headless -invisible   "macro:///Standard.Module1.SaveAsPDF(demo.doc)"