Re: PHP-memory leak with COM-objects?

Rafael <rafa.salazar@xxxxxxxxx> · Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:30:52 -0500

	I'm a little late on the thread, so I apologize in advance if I say 
something out of context / already mentioned.

	Thank's God, I haven't had the need to use PHP + COM + MS Office, but I 
did use C# + MS Office, and I found that for desktop applications 
Application.Quit() was enough, whereas in ASP (.Net) I had to kill the 
process --and yes, I did made all the dance about calling the GC, 
ReleaseComObject and such. So, if possible, don't use COM.

	Now, as for what seem to be want, is it like...
a) open "x.doc" with PHP+COM+Word
b) the user makes changes
c) "x.doc" gets saved with the changes
Is it like this?

	If it is, then you are trying to do something I don't think is 
possible, because the user will be working on the Client machine, not on 
the Server, hence, PHP will have no access to it unless the client sends 
you his "x.doc" version and you replace the existent one with it.

	So why don't you simple take it as a file server? Something like I send 
you the current version, you make the changes (on your PC) and them you 
deliver it to me once again --yes, there will be "synchronization" 
issues with this approach, and you can only _help_ the user check it 
with a time-stamp or something similar.

	Hope this helps.

Gustav Wiberg wrote:
Hi again!

I noticed I didn't pay enough attention to your question... Sorry for that.

The file is stored on the server!

And with COM-objects I managed to do a PHP-script - create a 
(Word)-COM-object to open a certain file (say c:\test.doc on the 
server). I changed te c:\test.doc from within the php-application and 
pushed Saved (in the Word-object that open up). And Yes, the content 
changed in the file c:\test.doc which is on the server.

TinyMCE or whatsoever is out of question. It must be word. I don't want 
to change a whole organisations policy about using word... :-)

Best regards
/Gustav Wiberg

----- Original Message ----- From: "John Mertic" <jmertic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Gustav Wiberg" <gustav@xxxxxx>
Cc: "PHP-Windows Group" <php-windows@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 10:07 PM
Subject: Re:  PHP-memory leak with COM-objects?

Using PHP ( whether via COM or not ) in a web application to interact
with a file on the local user's machine isn't possible. PHP is a
server-side language in this context, and it interacts with the COM
object on the server which has no access to the user's local machine.

If the file is on the server, you can't push changes to it from the
Word editing control in IE, it will only allow saving changes to the
local computer.

If you are looking at doing the first option, then a PHP web app is
out of the question; perhaps a short VBScript to do any preprocessing
of the document would be in order. If you are looking at the second,
you may want to consider one of the Rich Text Editing tools that you
can drop in a webpage, such as FCKEditor or TinyMCE; these typically
will want input and output in XHTML however.

John

On 10/10/07, Gustav Wiberg <gustav@xxxxxx> wrote:
Hi!

It was just an example, but say Yes. Does it make a difference?

Best regards
/Gustav Wiberg

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Mertic" <jmertic@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Gustav Wiberg" <gustav@xxxxxx>
Cc: "PHP-Windows Group" <php-windows@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 7:55 PM
Subject: Re:  PHP-memory leak with COM-objects?

> Is c:\test.doc a file on the local user's machine or the server?
>
> On 10/10/07, Gustav Wiberg <gustav@xxxxxx> wrote:
>> Hi again!
>>
>> I want the logged-in user to able to open a word-file (or an >> 
Excel-file
>> or
>> whatever) and then Push Save-Icon and make sure that changes are 
>> actually
>> made.
>> Example:
>>
>> John opens up file c:\test.doc. He writes "Ugly cow" in it and 
pushes >> the
>> save-icon. Ugly Cow is now stored in file c:\test.doc. Working with
>> COM-objects is the only solution I have found!?
>>
>> Normally If John opens up c:\test.doc Internet Explorer (or whatever
>> browser) saves the file temporarily in some temp-folder (don't 
know >> exact
>> location), lets say c:\temp\sdifiuweoriu2734872.tmp. When John pushes
>> Save-icon he saves the new information TO the temporarily stored 
file >> IF
>> he
>> doesn't use Save AS...
>>
>> Please come with suggestions :-)
>>
>> Best regards
>> /Gustav Wiberg
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "John Mertic" <jmertic@xxxxxxxxx>
>> To: "Gustav Wiberg" <gustav@xxxxxx>
>> Cc: "PHP-Windows Group" <php-windows@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 1:30 PM
>> Subject: Re:  PHP-memory leak with COM-objects?
>>
>>
>> > I've worked a lot with the Word COM and while it works well on a
>> > single desktop, I wouldn't recommend it for a server process. It's
>> > rather slow and while the memory eventually gets cleaned up, it 
>> > still
>> > takes up a lot of memory for as little as it does. I'm not so sure
>> > OpenOffice is much better in this regard.
>> >
>> > You could push these tasks to another server, but I'd also look at
>> > what you are doing and see if you can do it another way. We >> > 
currently
>> > use Word documents as template for a mail merge type operation 
and >> > are
>> > looking to move these to RTF since that enables us to take Word 
out >> > of
>> > the loop when doing the mail merge ( we actually just do a 
global >> > find
>> > and replace in the document since we've found more consistent >> 
> results
>> > with that ). But again, this all depends upon the application.
>> >
>> > John
>> >
>> > On 10/10/07, Gustav Wiberg <gustav@xxxxxx> wrote:
>> >> Hi!
>> >>
>> >> I want to use COM+ objects (especially with Word). I have >> >> 
understood
>> >> (a
>> >> lot of reading on the Internet) that when initiating 
COM-objects >> >> with
>> >> Word (even if the object is released in variable in the code). 
Word
>> >> leaks
>> >> a lot of memory. I have also read that if I want to use Word-COM+
>> >> object
>> >> I should have a dedicated server because it takes so much memory.
>> >>
>> >> I have tested some and I easily get out of memory even if there 
is >> >> 4GB
>> >> on
>> >> the server I tested against.
>> >>
>> >> Then I run PHP as ISAPI, and the suggestion on the php.net site 
was >> >> to
>> >> run PHP as CGI because COM-objects are run in the same 
memory-space >> >> as
>> >> ISAPI when running as ISAPI-module.
>> >> http://php.oregonstate.edu/manual/en/class.com.php
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> What do you guys thinks about above? Give me some feedback, 
please >> >> :-)
>> >>
>> >> Best regards
>> >> /Gustav Wiberg
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> No virus found in this outgoing message.
>> >> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>> >> Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.6/1060 - Release Date:
>> >> 2007-10-09 16:43
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
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>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > John Mertic
>> > jmertic@xxxxxxxxx
>> > http://jmertic.wordpress.com
>> >
>> > "Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: you understand it
>> > better, but the frog dies
>> > in the process." --Mark Twain
>> >
>> > --
>> > PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
>> > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> John Mertic
> jmertic@xxxxxxxxx
> http://jmertic.wordpress.com
>
> "Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: you understand it
> better, but the frog dies
> in the process." --Mark Twain
>
> --
> PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>
>

--
John Mertic
jmertic@xxxxxxxxx
http://jmertic.wordpress.com

"Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog: you understand it
better, but the frog dies
in the process." --Mark Twain

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