Document Conversion Services

 

+
Search Tips   |   Advanced Search

 

Overview

Documents produced by many standard applications (such as word processors or spreadsheets) can be viewed as HTML pages using the Document Conversion Services, which is integrated with Document Manager and the IBM Common Mail portlet. Documents received as attachments to e-mail can be viewed in the browser even if the application that created the document is not installed. Document Conversion Services also allows documents to be searched by content. Document Conversion Services supports many of the most widely used applications.

 

Enable document conversion

Packages required:

System Additional Packages
AIX X11R6
Linux LessTif 0.93 or Motif 2.0, X11R6
Solaris X11R6
Windows n/a

You need to create a temporary directory for document conversion. The default temporary directory is:

Windows: c:\temp
Unix: /temp

If you wish to create a different temporary directory other than the default, you can edit the convertors.xml file in the shared/apps directory. Add the property "tempDir" to the <global> tag: 

<global> 
    <property name="tempDir" value="<yourtempdirectory>"/> 
</global>

To launch the native application when clicking the attachment, the following MIME types must be registered in WebSphere Application Server to enable browsers to properly display documents of that type. The following additional types need to be registered: 

application/msword doc 
application/vnd.ms-excel xls

For Unix boxes launch WebSphere Portal from the console or an X-Server-enabled client with the same privileges (xhost+) as the console.

Unix graphical conversions require access to an X Windows server, since they require access to the Xm, Xt and X11 libraries. Also the DISPLAY environment variable must be set to the account that Portal is running under. Note that the DISPLAY must be valid at the point that Portal is started. Therefore, telneting to a machine and starting Portal from there does not work. start Portal from an xterm.

 

Enable remote document conversion

To better balance processing power, document conversion services can be delegated to a remote server. Enabling this delegation requires steps on both WebSphere Portal and the remote system.

Linux on PowerPC: Document conversion services must be performed on a remote WebSphere Application Server that supports document conversion services. Local document conversion is not supported on Linux for PowerPC.

To enable document conversion services for a remote machine, perform the following steps.

  1. Install WebSphere Application Server on the remote system.

  2. Copy the file remotedcs.zip, available on CD3, to the remote system and unzip it in the directory of choice. A dcs directory is created with many files and subdirectories in it.

  3. Deploy dcs.war into WebSphere Application Server using the WebSphere Application Server Administrative console. The war will be found in the unzipped directory, and the user should specify a context root of dcs. The user should not change the default application name dcs_war.

  4. Run the config script found in the unzipped directory. It is setupdcs.bat for Windows; setupremotedcs.sh for all other systems.

  5. The oiexport directory should be added in PATH as well as in the Library path.
    Platform Library path variable
    AIX LIBPATH
    Linux LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    Solaris LD_LIBRARY_PATH

  6. Restart WebSphere Application Server.

Once document conversion services are installed on the remote system, run one of the following configuration tasks to delegate some or all of the document conversion functions to that server. The five tasks are:

  1. delegate-all-conversions
  2. delegate-spreadsheet-conversions
  3. delegate-text-conversions
  4. delegate-presentation-conversions
  5. remove-conversion-delegation

You should now be able to invoke the converters through Document Manager of WebSphere Portal.

To delegate all conversions to a remote server, modify...

WPS_HOME/shared/app/convertors.xml

...to include the remoteHost property in global tag. 

<convertor>

    <global>
       <property name="ODC_LOG" value="ODC_DEBUG"/>
       <property name="remoteHost" 
                 value="http://remotehost:9080/dcs/dcs"/>
    </global>

<convertor>

 

Related tasks

 

 

See also

Lotus Documentation | Trademarks |

 

WebSphere is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

 

IBM is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.