MDword: PHP Library for Dynamic Word Document Generation – Features, Performance, and Usage Guide

MDword is a PHP tool for generating Word documents, focusing on dynamic data and logic while allowing style adjustments through Word's master templates.

Changelog

Optimized master template generation speed

Fixed memory leak issues

Performance (Statistics Script)

Test Item

Time (s)

1-page master assignment 100 times

0.04

1-page master assignment 500 times

0.16

1-page master assignment 1000 times

0.33

1-page master assignment 10000 times

7.80

1750-page master assignment 100 times

4.61

1750-page master assignment 500 times

4.94

1750-page master assignment 1000 times

5.43

1750-page master assignment 10000 times

17.39

Memory Usage (Statistics Script)

Run Count

Cumulative Memory Usage

Note

1

0.050590515136719 M

First load of PHP classes

2

0.050949096679688 M

3

0.050949096679688 M

4

0.050949096679688 M

5

0.050949096679688 M

6

0.050949096679688 M

7

0.050949096679688 M

8

0.050949096679688 M

Project Introduction

Main purpose: dynamically generate Word documents. Advantage: developers only need to focus on dynamic data and logic; styling is handled via Word's master templates.

Comparison with PHPWord

Similarities

Both are PHP libraries.

Both generate Office Word files.

Differences

MDword works on master templates, offering higher efficiency and richer features.

Style changes, cover pages, headers/footers are adjusted in Word directly with MDword, whereas PHPWord requires element‑by‑element modifications.

MDword can automatically generate a table of contents.

Tutorial

Installation

// Method 1
composer require mkdreams/mdword
// Method 2 (manual autoloader)
require_once('Autoloader.php');

Adding Annotations to the Master Template "temple.docx"

Refer to the sample tests for more advanced usage such as generating catalogs and numbering.

Usage Example

// Create processor and load master template
$TemplateProcessor = new WordProcessor();
$template = 'temple.docx';
$TemplateProcessor->load($template);

// Set simple values
$TemplateProcessor->setValue('value', 'r-value');

// Clone and copy sections
$TemplateProcessor->clones('people', 3);

$TemplateProcessor->setValue('name#0', 'colin0');
$TemplateProcessor->setValue('name#1', [
    ['text'=>'colin1','style'=>'style','type'=>MDWORD_TEXT],
    ['text'=>1,'type'=>MDWORD_BREAK],
    ['text'=>'86','style'=>'style','type'=>MDWORD_TEXT]
]);
$TemplateProcessor->setValue('name#2', 'colin2');

$TemplateProcessor->setValue('sex#1', 'woman');

$TemplateProcessor->setValue('age#0', '280');
$TemplateProcessor->setValue('age#1', '281');
$TemplateProcessor->setValue('age#2', '282');

// Insert image
$TemplateProcessor->setImageValue('image', dirname(__FILE__).'/logo.jpg');

// Delete a paragraph
$TemplateProcessor->deleteP('style');

// Save the generated document
$rtemplate = __DIR__.'/r-temple.docx';
$TemplateProcessor->saveAs($rtemplate);

For more detailed examples, see the test samples in the repository.