jodconverter: a free document format converter

At UKLUG2008 I attended the session held by Mark Myers about developing good Domino solution with free software (I mean Mark, NOT Mike Myers, the naughty shaggy guy... ;-) )

That was the first time I heard about the jodconverter!
It allows you to programmatically convert documents between different office formats (MS Office & OpenOffice), PDF and other formats too.

From the official website:
ODConverter can be used in many different ways

• As a Java library, embedded in your own Java application
• As a command line tool, possibly invoked from your own scripts
• As a simple web application: upload your input document, select the desired format and download the converted version
• As a web service, invoked from your own application written in your favourite language (.NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, ...)

How does it work? In a few words, you install OpenOffice on a "server" computer and run it in "listen mode" on a TCP port: it will take care of remote connections asking for document conversions (connections made by the jodconverter library).

For example, you could test it to convert MS Word documents to PDF format, without any need to install a PDF printer on each user pc. Cute, especially for Notes R7 users.

Try it online by yourself, here.

PS
I guess you can call the library from LotusScript too:
1) using the LS2J technology
2) old method: one LS agent calling a Java agent (the converter) and passing all conversions parameters through a temporary (parameter) Notes document.