unable to run oowriter as web user

Question

I have a web server set up on my laptop. I am building a web application which I am accessing through the local network. I have a php file which contains the following lines

Answer 1

Fraber's answer solved the problem for me!

Used:

$cmd = 'HOME='.getCWD().' && export HOME && libreoffice --headless ....';
exec($cmd);

libreoffice then created '.config' and 'libreoffice' directories in the php script directory. Obviously it must be writeable by the webserver process.