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I’ve just published a second sample solution for the SP2010 Word Automation project on CodePlex. This solution will add a button to the Ribbon when browsing document libraries:

When the button is clicked a modal Dialog is shown that will allow the user to specify the options used for conversion:

When the Ok button is clicked the selected files will be added to a conversion job and the job will be started.

The dialog is launched by some javascript that is specified in the CommandUIHandler section of the ribbon button definition.

<commandUIHandler
Command="SP2010WA_Convert_Button"
CommandAction="javascript:function convertDocument() {
Sys.loadScripts(['/_layouts/SP2010WordAutomation.UI/SP2010WordAutomation.UI.js'], function() {
SP2010WordAutomation.UI.ConvertDocument();
});
}
convertDocument();"
EnabledScript="javascript:function oneOrMoreEnable() {
var items = SP.ListOperation.Selection.getSelectedItems();
var ci = CountDictionary(items);
return (ci > 0);
}
oneOrMoreEnable();" />

I’ve decided to use the beta version of the ASP.Net 4.0 AJAX client library to load the required scriptfile when it is actually needed. While this is not completely necessary in this case, because the amount of script in there is quite little, it could provide a speedboost because the browser won’t load and interpret the script when the page loads.

The definition also contains some script to enable the button only when one or more files are selected.

The following lists the script that is loaded and called when the button is clicked:

Type.registerNamespace("SP2010WordAutomation.UI");

SP2010WordAutomation.UI.ConvertDocument = function () {
var items = SP.ListOperation.Selection.getSelectedItems();
var selectedItems = '';
var k;

for (k in items) {
selectedItems += '|' + items[k].id;
}

var options = {
url: '/_layouts/SP2010WordAutomation.UI/ConvertDocument.aspx?items=' + selectedItems + '&source=' + SP.ListOperation.Selection.getSelectedList(),
title: 'Convert Documents',
allowMaximize: false,
showClose: true,
width: 600,
height: 480,
dialogReturnValueCallback: SP2010WordAutomation.UI.ConvertCallback
};

SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog(options);
}

SP2010WordAutomation.UI.ConvertCallback = function(result, target) {
SP.UI.Notify.addNotification(target, false);

SP.UI.ModalDialog.RefreshPage(result);
}

First I use the Type.registerNamespace method that is provided by the standard SharePoint scriptlibrary to make sure I don’t override other methods with the same names.

In the ConvertDocument function we then launch a SharePoint dialog that will load an ApplicationPage which provides the user with the options they can choose. The ConvertCallback function which is called when the dialog passes a result will add a notification message to the main screen.

To see how this mechanism can be used, please refer to this post by Vesa Juvonen

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I’ve added two new worfklow activities, Convert Folder and Convert Library, to the SP2010 Word Automation project on CodePlex.

Because you can’t associate workflows created with SharePoint designer to libraries or folders, these actions won’t use the current item from the context, so you need to specify the input and output library or folder by url. To use the activities you can run the workflow on a other item or document. The activities locate the libraries or folders relative to the current web, so you don’t have to specify a full url:

You can download the latest release and source code from the CodePlex project site

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I’ve just published the first release for a CodePlex project I started to provide sample projects / solutions for using the Word Automation Services in SharePoint 2010.

Word Automation Services allow you to convert document to and from different formats.

File formats the service can read:

• Office Open XML (DOCX, DOCM, DOTX, DOTM)
• Word 97-2003 Document (DOC) and Word 97-2003 Template (DOT)
• Rich Text Format (RTF)
• Single File Web Page (MHTML)
• HTML
• Word 2003 XML
• Word 2007/2010 XML

File formats the service can write:

• PDF
• XPS
• Office Open XML (DOCX, DOCM)
• Word 97-2003 Document (DOC)
• Rich Text Format (RTF)
• Single File Web Page (MHTML)
• Word 2007/2010 XML

(source)

As far as I’ve found out, there are no UI features available out-of-the-box to use these services, so I’ve decided to create some. The first one is a custom workflow action you can use in SharePoint Designer to convert a document to many of the supported
formats.

In the workflow designer you can add the “Convert Document” action:

The action is inserted into the workflow step where you can specify the url of the output file, select the output format and save options and select a variable for storing the conversion job id (which you can use later to retrieve the status, as the job runs asynchronous):

The job id is also logged into the Workflo w History Log (the second entry is from a second workflow action that logs the returned conversion job id variable):

After the job has run, which can take up to a few minutes (depending on the word automation services settings), the converted document appears in the library:

The custom workflow action is one of the first features for Word Automation in SharePoint 2010 I’ve planned to release. Other features will be a Ribbon and Item context menu extension and more Workflow actions.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement or other functionality you would like to see.

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