FileFlow for Windows 📁➡️📄

A powerful, headless automation engine for Windows that monitors folders and automatically converts documents to PDF. Designed as a robust "set-and-forget" background service, hardened to work reliably with cloud-synced folders like OneDrive.

Academic Project: Developed as a Major Project for the B.Tech (AI & MI) program at the University of Jammu.

✨ Key Features

• Automatic Conversion – Monitors a designated folder and converts new .docx files to .pdf automatically
• Cloud-Sync Resilient – Built to handle file locks from services like OneDrive using intelligent retry mechanisms
• Fully Configurable – All paths and settings managed through a simple config.json file
• Silent Background Operation – Runs invisibly using Windows Task Scheduler, starting automatically at login
• Robust & Stable – Processes files serially with file-locking to prevent duplicate processing
• Easy Installation – Automated setup via install.ps1 script

📋 Prerequisites

Before installing FileFlow, ensure you have:

• Windows 10/11
• PowerShell 5.1+ (pre-installed on Windows)
• LibreOffice – Download here
  • Default installation path: C:\Program Files\LibreOffice

⚙️ Installation

1. Download the Project

Clone or download this repository to your computer:

git clone https://github.com/Dupahar/PowerShell-File-Converter.git
cd PowerShell-File-Converter

Or download and extract the ZIP to a location like:

C:\Users\YourUser\Downloads\fileflow

2. Configure FileFlow

Open config.json in a text editor and update the paths to match your system:

{
  "watchFolder": "C:\\Users\\YourUser\\OneDrive\\Documents\\WatchFolder",
  "logFile": "C:\\Users\\YourUser\\Downloads\\fileflow\\engine\\FileFlow.log",
  "libreOfficePath": "C:\\Program Files\\LibreOffice\\program\\soffice.exe",
  "maxRetries": 5,
  "retryDelaySec": 5,
  "scanIntervalSec": 15
}

Configuration Options:

• watchFolder – Directory to monitor for new .docx files
• logFile – Path where conversion logs will be saved
• libreOfficePath – Path to LibreOffice executable
• maxRetries – Number of conversion retry attempts
• retryDelaySec – Seconds to wait between retries
• scanIntervalSec – Folder scan frequency in seconds

3. Run the Installer

Important: The installer must be run with Administrator privileges.

1. Right-click PowerShell or Windows Terminal and select Run as Administrator
2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd C:\Users\YourUser\Downloads\fileflow

3. Run the installer:

   .\install.ps1

You should see a success message confirming the background task was created.

🚀 Usage

Once installed, FileFlow runs automatically in the background.

Starting FileFlow

• First Time: Log out and log back in to trigger the background task
• Subsequent Runs: FileFlow starts automatically at each login

Converting Documents

1. Save or move any .docx file into your configured watchFolder
2. FileFlow scans every 15 seconds (configurable)
3. After conversion, both the PDF and original .docx will be moved to a processed subfolder

Monitoring Activity

View the log file specified in config.json (default: engine\FileFlow.log) to check:

• Conversion status
• Error messages
• Processing history

⚙️ How It Works

FileFlow uses a polling-based system for maximum reliability:

1. Monitoring – The Start-FileFlow.ps1 script runs in a loop, scanning the watchFolder periodically
2. File Locking – Detected files are "locked" to prevent duplicate processing
3. Cloud-Sync Handling – Implements retry logic to handle OneDrive/cloud service file locks
4. Conversion – Uses LibreOffice in headless mode to convert documents to PDF
5. Organization – Moves processed files to a processed subfolder

This architecture ensures that even with synchronization delays, files are eventually processed correctly.

🗂️ Project Structure

fileflow/
├── engine/
│   ├── Start-FileFlow.ps1    # Main monitoring script
│   └── FileFlow.log           # Activity log (created at runtime)
├── config.json                # Configuration file
├── install.ps1                # Installation script
└── README.md                  # This file

🛠️ Troubleshooting

FileFlow isn't processing files

1. Check that the background task is running:

   • Open Task Scheduler
   • Look for "FileFlow Background Service"
   • Verify it's enabled and running

2. Review the log file for errors

3. Ensure LibreOffice is installed at the specified path

4. Verify the watchFolder path is correct and accessible

Files aren't converting

• Ensure files are .docx format
• Check that LibreOffice path in config.json is correct
• Look for lock file issues in the logs
• Try manually running: .\engine\Start-FileFlow.ps1

Uninstalling FileFlow

1. Open Task Scheduler as Administrator
2. Find and delete "FileFlow Background Service"
3. Delete the project folder

📝 License

This project is part of academic coursework for B.Tech (AI & MI) at the University of Jammu.

👥 Contributors

• Dupahar

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page.

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Note: This is an academic project and may require additional hardening for production use.