XODConvert

Why we created XODConvert

At Appsecco we work extensively with the markdown format. Sometimes we need to share these files as PDFs with each other and external clientele. Before we send such PDFs we prefer to do a review of the output in the Microsoft Word documentation format docx.

Since this is a common requirement for most of us and installing and configuring pandoc is not that simple, we decided to create a service available to all internally in the company to do this.

What exactly is XODConvert

XODConvert performs conversion of files from markdown to docx format. It uses a popular open source tool pandoc under the hood for converting the files. In pandoc we can specify a reference file to enable styling of the output document. Currently there is only reference.docx which is customised to Appsecco colours and theme.

How to use this simple web based service

You can simply use cURL with the following command and parameters to get a docx from the provided markdown file.

Since we are a security company, the service requires a token which we are happy to share with you over Signal

curl -XPOST -H 'Authorization: Bearer <AUTH-TOKEN>' \
        -F file=@<MARKDOWN-FILE> \
        'https://xodconvert.apsc.co' \
        -o <DOCX-FILE>

Parameter	Description
`AUTH-TOKEN`	this token is used for preventing unauthorized users and will be shared to users.
`MARKDOWN-FILE`	full path of the file to be converted
`DOCX-FILE`	filename expected as output

An example request

curl -XPOST -H 'Authorization: Bearer AcBDHYS723sdJDs+g2' \
        -F file=@/home/user/report.md \
        'https://xodconvert.apsc.co' \
        -o /home/user/report.docx

Current Limitations

Allows only Markdown to Docx conversion
Supports only API based requests

ToDo

Cloud Function way of triggering conversion
Conversion of other file formats
UI based service