Using the node in n8n self-hosted with Docker

[EAGARCIAH707]

Hello, thanks for this very useful node. I’d like to better understand the context of why it wasn’t working in Docker — maybe I can help.

[jreyesr]

Hello! Do you mean the notes on the README about the Convert to PDF operation not working in Docker? Yes, I couldn't get it to work, that requires LibreOffice to be properly installed in the container. I think I remember it hanging and never completing any conversions. Besides, Gotenberg exists and works fine (in effect, they had to solve all the issues with using LibreOffice in Docker, and they expose an API that receives a DOCX file and returns a PDF).

But that's only for the PDF conversion operation, which is actually more of a bonus. The main Render operation, which takes a PDF and a JSON document and returns another PDF, works perfectly fine on Docker, as far as I know.

All help is most welcome. Perhaps you could start by trying to use the Convert to PDF operation on a Docker install of N8N. It should fail, because N8N containers don't contain anything LibreOffice-related. The issue is finding a way to create a custom Docker image, e.g. a Dockerfile that starts with FROM docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest, and then via some combination of RUN instructions installs LibreOffice there. I tried that and couldn't get it to work. Of course, that means that to use it you have to deploy a customized Docker image instead of the stock one, which is an additional step that some people may not be comfortable with. But, in any case, if you find a way of creating a Dockerfile that allows the operation to work, we can add it to the README so people can know what they need to do.