effect-libreoffice

A Effect-based wrapper for LibreOffice, providing multiple strategies for document conversion.

Implementations

This library offers two distinct implementations for interacting with LibreOffice:

1. LibreOfficeCmd (Default): Uses the soffice command-line tool directly.
2. UnoClient (Uno): Connects to a running unoserver instance.

Comparison

| Feature | LibreOfficeCmd (Default) | UnoClient (Uno) | | :-------------- | :--------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------- | | Method | Spawns a new process for each conversion | Connects to a long-running server | | Performance | Slower (~440ms/file) | Fast (~60ms/file) | | Setup | Requires LibreOffice installed locally | Requires unoserver | | Best For | CLI tools, low volume, simple setup | Servers, high volume, performance critical |

Usage

Default Implementation (CLI)

Best for quick scripts or when you can't run a unoserver.

import { NodeContext } from "@effect/platform-node";
import { Effect, Layer } from "effect";
import { LibreOffice } from "effect-libreoffice";

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const libre = yield* LibreOffice;
  yield* libre.convertLocalFile("input.docx", "output.pdf");
});

const Layers = LibreOffice.Default.pipe(Layer.provide(NodeContext.layer));

program.pipe(Effect.provide(Layers), Effect.runPromise);

Uno Implementation (Start Server)

Best for servers, has a lot better performance. This starts a unoserver for you. You will need to have unoserver binary installed and available in your PATH.

import { NodeContext, NodeHttpClient } from "@effect/platform-node";
import { Effect, Layer } from "effect";
import { LibreOffice, UnoServer } from "effect-libreoffice";

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const libre = yield* LibreOffice;
  yield* libre.convertLocalFile("input.docx", "output.pdf");
});

const Layers = LibreOffice.Uno.pipe(
  Layer.provide(UnoServer.Default), // This will start a unoserver
  Layer.provide(NodeContext.layer),
  Layer.provide(NodeHttpClient.layer)
);

program.pipe(Effect.provide(Layers), Effect.runPromise);

Uno Implementation (Remote)

If you want to manage the unoserver yourself, you can use the remote implementation of Uno.

# compose.yml
services:
  unoserver:
    image: libreofficedocker/libreoffice-unoserver:3.22
    ports:
      - "2003:2003"
    volumes:
      - /tmp:/tmp # some shared directory where files can be written and read

import { NodeHttpClient } from "@effect/platform-node";
import { Effect, Layer } from "effect";
import { LibreOffice, UnoServer } from "effect-libreoffice";

const program = Effect.gen(function* () {
  const libre = yield* LibreOffice;
  yield* libre.convertLocalFile("input.docx", "output.pdf");
});

const UnoLayers = LibreOffice.Uno.pipe(
  Layer.provide(NodeHttpClient.layerUndici),
  Layer.provide(UnoServer.Remote) // Defaults to localhost:2003
  // or: Layer.provide(UnoServer.remoteWithURL("http://localhost:1111/custom/RPC2"))
);

program.pipe(Effect.provide(UnoLayers), Effect.runPromise);