Category: Web

Most of you whom are searching around on this are aware of the solution for SharePoint 2010 (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff181518(v=office.14).aspx). And chances are after you tried on your own to do this for 2013 that there was no List Definition type in VS, right? So after finding this (https://camerondwyer.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/how-to-create-a-custom-sharepoint-list-definition-using-visual-studio-2012/) I decided to frankenstein the old methods with the updated way to do it in Visual Studio. The results of the successful experiment are below.

This article describes the following steps to show how to call the Word Automation Services to convert a document:

1. Creating a SharePoint 2013 Empty Project and Adding the SharePoint list.
2. Adding a reference to the Microsoft.Office.Word.Server assembly.
3. Adding an event receiver.
4. Adding the sample code to the solution.

Creating a SharePoint 2013 List Definition (sort of) Application in Visual Studio 2012

This article uses a SharePoint 2013 list definition application for the sample code.

To create a SharePoint 2013 list definition application in Visual Studio 2012

Adding a Reference to the Microsoft Office Word Server Assembly

To use Word Automation Services, you must add a reference to the Microsoft.Office.Word.Server to the solution.

To add a reference to the Microsoft Office Word Server Assembly

Adding an Event Receiver

This article uses an event receiver that uses the Microsoft.Office.Word.Server assembly to create document conversion jobs and add them to the Word Automation Services conversion job queue.

To add an event receiver

Adding the Sample Code to the Solution

Replace the contents of the ConvertWordToPDFEventReceiver.cs source file with the following code. Just remember to make sure you replace “Word Automation Services” with the name of it in the web applications in central admin.

using System;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Security;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow;

using Microsoft.Office.Word.Server.Conversions;

namespace ConvertWordToPDF.ConvertWordToPDFEventReceiver
{
  /// <summary>
  /// List Item Events
  /// </summary>
  public class ConvertWordToPDFEventReceiver : SPItemEventReceiver
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// An item was added.
    /// </summary>
    public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
    {
      base.ItemAdded(properties);

      // Verify the document added is a Word document
      // before starting the conversion.
      if (properties.ListItem.Name.Contains(".docx") 
        || properties.ListItem.Name.Contains(".doc"))
      {
        //Variables used by the sample code.
        ConversionJobSettings jobSettings;
        ConversionJob pdfConversion;
        string wordFile;
        string pdfFile;

        // Initialize the conversion settings.
        jobSettings = new ConversionJobSettings();
        jobSettings.OutputFormat = SaveFormat.PDF;

        // Create the conversion job using the settings.
        pdfConversion = 
          new ConversionJob("Word Automation Services", jobSettings);

        // Set the credentials to use when running the conversion job.
        pdfConversion.UserToken = properties.Web.CurrentUser.UserToken;

        // Set the file names to use for the source Word document
        // and the destination PDF document.
        wordFile = properties.WebUrl + "/" + properties.ListItem.Url;
        if (properties.ListItem.Name.Contains(".docx"))
        {
          pdfFile = wordFile.Replace(".docx", ".pdf");
        }
        else
        {
          pdfFile = wordFile.Replace(".doc", ".pdf");
        }

        // Add the file conversion to the conversion job.
        pdfConversion.AddFile(wordFile, pdfFile);

        // Add the conversion job to the Word Automation Services 
        // conversion job queue. The conversion does not occur
        // immediately but is processed during the next run of
        // the document conversion job.
        pdfConversion.Start();

      }
    }
  }
}

Deploy and enjoy!