Getting "Ole :: Storage :: FormatError: OLE2 Signature Unacceptable" when trying to get content from a Word document

Question

I use Rails 5. I want to get text from a Word document (.doc), so I use this code

text = nil MSWordDoc::Extractor.load(file_location) do |ctl00_MainContent_List1_grdData| text = contents.whole_contents end 

but I get the error below. I have this stone in my gemfile

 gem 'msworddoc-extractor' 

What else do I need to do to get content from a Word document? It would be great if I could apply the same code to .docx files as I would to .doc files.

 /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/support.rb:201: warning: constant ::Fixnum is deprecated Ole::Storage::FormatError: OLE2 signature is invalid from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:378:in `validate!' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:370:in `initialize' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:112:in `new' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:112:in `load' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:79:in `initialize' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:85:in `new' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/ruby-ole-1.2.12/lib/ole/storage/base.rb:85:in `open' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/msworddoc-extractor-0.2.0/lib/msworddoc/extractor.rb:11:in `load' from /Users/davea/Documents/workspace/myproject/app/services/msword_processor_service.rb:12:in `pre_process_data' from /Users/davea/Documents/workspace/myproject/app/services/abstract_import_service.rb:88:in `process_race_data' from (irb):2 from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ ruby-2.4.0@global /gems/railties-5.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:65:in `start' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ ruby-2.4.0@global /gems/railties-5.0.1/lib/rails/commands/console_helper.rb:9:in `start' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ ruby-2.4.0@global /gems/railties-5.0.1/lib/rails/commands/commands_tasks.rb:78:in `console' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ ruby-2.4.0@global /gems/railties-5.0.1/lib/rails/commands/commands_tasks.rb:49:in `run_command!' from /Users/davea/.rvm/gems/ ruby-2.4.0@global /gems/railties-5.0.1/lib/rails/commands.rb:18:in `<top (required)>' from bin/rails:4:in `require' from bin/rails:4:in `<main>' 

Answer 1

The gem used has a ruby-ole pearl like addiction. You can see in the code :

 ole = Ole::Storage.open(file) 

When you import a Word document, it really opens with a ruby-ole stone. This gem will throw an exception if it cannot confirm that the file is in the correct format:

 raise FormatError, "OLE2 signature is invalid" unless magic == MAGIC 

MAGIC refers to the header of the .doc file, which should look like this:

 # i have seen it pointed out that the first 4 bytes of hex, # 0xd0cf11e0, is supposed to spell out docfile. hmmm :) MAGIC = "\xd0\xcf\x11\xe0\xa1\xb1\x1a\xe1" # expected value of Header#magic 

This refers to the CFBF header format for Word documents:

 BYTE _abSig[8]; // [00H,08] {0xd0, 0xcf, 0x11, 0xe0, 0xa1, 0xb1, // 0x1a, 0xe1} for current version 

Either your .doc file is not a valid Word document, or it was created by a newer version of Word that is not supported by the ruby-ole gem.

I recommend repeating the operation with several different Word documents to find a compatible type, and then re-saving the original document in this format to try again.