MHT to HTML converter

MHT to HTML Converter
PHP Script

This page documents a PHP script I have written to convert Word generated mht (single file webpage) files to the html file, images, and other component parts. I maintain a web site where I have users who needed to be able to upload and change their own page. Like most users they were proficient in Microsoft Word but knew very little about html or how to FTP the files and images needed to update a page. I had an idea that they could save their document from Word as a single file webpage (mht file) and upload it through a PHP form. Once uploaded a PHP script could process the file and write the component parts to the correct folders.

I set out to find a PHP script that would parse the mht file and found a class that was supposed to do the job. I downloaded and worked with it for a while but never got it to work properly. I also thought the code was somewhat convoluted and over complicated. An mht file is, after all, a multipart message file that is intended to be parsed. It should not be super difficult to do. After extensively searching for other scripts and failing to find anything, I decided it was time to create my own. The script below is a result of that effort.

To use the script below, paste it to a text file named mht2html.php and copy it to a folder on your server. Place a valid myfile.mht file in the same folder then browse to the script on your site. When the script executes it will parse myfile.mht into myfile.htm and create a folder called myfile_files which will contain the image, xml, and other files. Once the files are created, myfile.htm can be viewed in any browser and should appear just as it did in Microsoft Word. You can change the input filename and the output folder by editing the first two lines in the file.

This has been tested with mht files created in Word 2016. I have no idea if it will parse older versions but I suspect it will or can be modified to do so. It is posted here because I think there are probably other web designers who can use this functionality and there doesn't appear to be many other working and open PHP scripts around. Test it out, use it, modify it, implement your own upload page and enjoy. If you want to save some work designing an upload form and turning this into a form processing script then see the bottom of this page for a cheap way to obtain the code to do it all.

The code...

<?php // This script extracts the htm and files from a MS-Word 2016 mht file. // This is the nuts & bolts mht file parser. // This can be incorporated with a PHP upload to parse uploaded mht files to a website. // copyright 2017 Emery Wooten - www.mresoftware.com // -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $filename = 'myfile.mht'; // specify a file to parse. Must be a valid .mht file $my_write_path = ''; // specify a path to write the outputted files. default is same folder as script //---------------------------------------------------------------------- $infile = file_get_contents($filename); //read in the file if(!$infile){ results_page('ERROR - The input file ' . $filename . ' was not found or cannot be opened.'); return; } $boundry = get_boundry(); // get the boundry string for the parts if(!$boundry){ results_page('ERROR - file not processed - The uploaded file is not a valid Microsoft Word 2016 generated mht file.'); return; } $parts = get_parts(); // trim the file and explode it into an array of the parts write_files($my_write_path); results_page('Success! - The mht file was parsed. <a href="' . $my_write_path . $htm_file . '">Click here to view the htm file.</a>'); //---------------------------------process and write folders and files function write_files($write_path){ global $parts, $htm_file; foreach($parts as $part){ $file = content('Content-Location: ', $part); $transfer = content('Content-Transfer-Encoding: ', $part); $type = content('Content-Type: ', $part); // $pos1 = strpos($part, 'Content-Type: '); // extract just the body of the part after the content $pos2 = strpos($part, "\r\n\r\n", $pos1) + 4; // point at the first char past the end of the next blank line $part = substr($part, $pos2); // this trims off the content lines if($transfer == 'base64') $part = base64_decode($part); // decode any base64 data if($transfer == 'quoted-printable') $part = quoted_printable_decode($part); // decode any quoted printable data if (strpos(' '.$type, 'text/html')){ $file = basename($file); if(!$htm_file) $htm_file = $file; // save the name of the main html file }else{ $tokens = explode('/', $file); // find the last path $path = $tokens[sizeof($tokens)-2]; // path is next to last element $file = $path . "/" . basename($file); if(!file_exists($path)) mkdir($write_path . $path); // make a directory if it doesn't exist } $fp = fopen($write_path . $file, 'w'); fwrite($fp,$part); fclose($fp); } } //---------------------------------extract and return the content types function content($needle, $text){ $pos1 = strpos($text, $needle) + strlen($needle); $pos2 = strpos($text, "\r\n", $pos1); return substr($text, $pos1, $pos2 - $pos1); } //---------------------------------trim and explode into an array function get_parts(){ global $infile, $boundry, $parts; $pos1 = strpos($infile, $boundry) + strlen($boundry) + 1; // beginning of file guts $pos2 = strrpos($infile, $boundry); // end of file guts $infile = substr($infile, $pos1, $pos2 - $pos1); // trim the file $parts = explode($boundry, $infile); return $parts; } //---------------------------------find the boundry string for this file function get_boundry(){ global $infile; $word_sig = "This document is a Single File Web Page, also known as a Web Archive file. If you are seeing this message"; if (!strpos($infile, $word_sig)) return false; // Check that this has MS Word's signature line $bneedle = 'boundary="'; $pos1 = strpos($infile, $bneedle); if($pos1){ $pos1 = $pos1 + strlen($bneedle); $pos2 = strpos($infile, '"', $pos1); if(substr($infile, $pos2 + 1, 2) != "\r\n") return false; // If this doesn't have Windows line endings it is invalid $bs = substr($infile, $pos1, $pos2 - $pos1); return "--" . $bs; } else return false; } //----------------------------------produce a full html results page. $body is the text to print function results_page($body){ // edit this page to match your results. print <<<END <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" /> <title>Upload results</title> </head> <body style="font-family: Arial"> <p style="text-align: center"> <b><font size="6" face="BankGothic Md BT">Place Your Text Here!</font></b><br /> <i><font face="Arial" size="4">Upload Results Page</font></i></div> </p><hr/> <p> $body </p> </body> </html> END; } ?>

Make it easy to make it all work. Get the uploader!

In order to use this core converter code on a website I needed an upload page and a PHP script to process the uploaded .mht file. It took a few hours of extra work to get it all going and I have decided to offer that work here for others. I have even created a publicly available converter demonstration page to allow perspective users to see and test the code. I recommend that you go to the demo page and give it a try. This will insure that it will do the job you need before you spend a fortune obtaining the code. The demo page is here. If it works for you, read on...

THE DEMO WILL ONLY WORK FOR MHT FILES CREATED WITH WORD 2016. If that is not the program used to create the file, don't waste your time uploading it.

I offer most of the code on this site free and allow it to be downloaded directly from the site. All I ask for in return is an unspecified small donation. The problem is, I get lots of downloads but very few donations. I put a lot of time into developing this mht to php converter code and the html upload form so I am using a different method for delivering it to the public. For a PayPal donation of just $10.00, which is a processing fee, I will email you the code and documentation as a zip file attachment. The zip file includes an html page for uploading, the php script to process the form data and parse the mht file, and a text file with details for using the two files on your website. Make sure your PayPal account has a valid email address attached or use the PayPal instructions box to let me know where to send the code.

I will NOT spam you. I will not even keep a record of you beyond what PayPal keeps. The code is free and you are simply paying a processing fee. You are not registering, subscribing, licensing, buying support, or anything like that, you are just paying me to send you the code. You are free to use and modify the code as you see fit with the exception of redistributing or selling it. I retain the copyrights on the original work.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Questions / Comments? Email me.