Find and Replace tags with curly {{brackets}}

Aspose.Words Product Family
1

We have existing template in Word that uses {{ as open tag and }} as closing tag. I’ve tried 2 hrs but am not able to do the REPLACE unless I use underscore to open and close tag.

Is there an escape character that I can use? Some examples will be very much appreciated. Thanks.

2

Hi
Thanks for your request. You can use simple replace method to replace such tags with values. See the code below:

Document doc = new Document(@"Test001\in.doc");
doc.Range.Replace("{{tag}}", "value", false, false);
doc.Save(@"Test001\out.doc");

Also, you can replace all such tags with merge fields and use Mail Merge feature to fill the document with data. Please see the following link and code below:
https://docs.aspose.com/words/net/types-of-mail-merge-operations/
NOTE: when you use curly brackets in regular expression, you should escape it with backslash because curly brackets are reserved.

[Test]
public void Test001()
{
    Document doc = new Document(@"Test001\in.doc");
    doc.Range.Replace(new Regex(@"\{\{(?.*?)\}\}"), new ReplaceEvaluatorFindAndInsertMergefield(), false);
    doc.Save(@"Test001\out.doc");
}
private class ReplaceEvaluatorFindAndInsertMergefield: IReplacingCallback
{
    ///
    /// This method is called by the Aspose.Words find and replace engine for each match.
    /// This method highlights the match string, even if it spans multiple runs.
    ///
    ReplaceAction IReplacingCallback.Replacing(ReplacingArgs e)
    {
        // This is a Run node that contains either the beginning or the complete match.
        Node currentNode = e.MatchNode;
        // The first (and may be the only) run can contain text before the match,
        // in this case it is necessary to split the run.
        if (e.MatchOffset> 0)
            currentNode = SplitRun((Run) currentNode, e.MatchOffset);
        // This array is used to store all nodes of the match for further removing.
        ArrayList runs = new ArrayList();
        // Find all runs that contain parts of the match string.
        int remainingLength = e.Match.Value.Length;
        while ((remainingLength> 0) &&
            (currentNode != null) &&
            (currentNode.GetText().Length <= remainingLength))
        {
            runs.Add(currentNode);
            remainingLength = remainingLength - currentNode.GetText().Length;
            // Select the next Run node.
            // Have to loop because there could be other nodes such as BookmarkStart etc.
            do {
                currentNode = currentNode.NextSibling;
            }
            while ((currentNode != null) && (currentNode.NodeType != NodeType.Run));
        }
        // Split the last run that contains the match if there is any text left.
        if ((currentNode != null) && (remainingLength> 0))
        {
            SplitRun((Run) currentNode, remainingLength);
            runs.Add(currentNode);
        }
        // Create Document Buidler aond insert MergeField
        DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(e.MatchNode.Document as Document);
        builder.MoveTo((Run) runs[runs.Count - 1]);
        string fieldName = e.Match.Groups["FieldName"].Value;
        builder.InsertField(string.Format("MERGEFIELD {0}", fieldName), string.Format("½{0}╗", fieldName));
        // Now remove all runs in the sequence.
        foreach(Run run in runs)
        run.Remove();
        // Signal to the replace engine to do nothing because we have already done all what we wanted.
        return ReplaceAction.Skip;
    }
    ///
    /// Splits text of the specified run into two runs.
    /// Inserts the new run just after the specified run.
    ///
    private static Run SplitRun(Run run, int position)
    {
        Run afterRun = (Run) run.Clone(true);
        afterRun.Text = run.Text.Substring(position);
        run.Text = run.Text.Substring(0, position);
        run.ParentNode.InsertAfter(afterRun, run);
        return afterRun;
    }
}

Hope this helps.
Best regards.

3

Thank you, Alexey, for the quick response. This was exactly what I did:

try
{
    int iReplaceCount;
    // Open the template document
    string templateFile = Request.PhysicalApplicationPath + "Test.docx";
    string docContract = Request.PhysicalApplicationPath + "Test.pdf";
    Document doc = new Document(templateFile);

    // Replace TAG with content
    string text = doc.Range.Text;
    iReplaceCount = doc.Range.Replace("{{CLIENT_NAME}}", "D Huynh", false, true);
    iReplaceCount = doc.Range.Replace("{{DAY_SHORT}}", DateTime.Today.ToShortDateString(), false, true);
    doc.Save(docContract);
    // Display in browser
    doc.Save(Response, "Test.pdf", ContentDisposition.Inline, null);
}

This is what’s in side test.docx:
CLIENT ENROLLMENT PACKAGE
PREPARED FOR: {{CLIENT_NAME}}
DATE: {{TODAY_SHORT}}

and this is what in the PDF:

CLIENT ENROLLMENT PACKAGE
PREPARED FOR: {{CLIENT_NAME}}
DATE: {{TODAY_SHORT}}

The same code works perfectly if I replace the {{ and }} with __ and __. Do I miss a patch? I just downloaded the DLL a week ago. I’ve attached both files, please review. Thanks.

4

Hi
Thanks for your request. The problem occurs because you set isMatchWholeWord parameter to true. Curly brackets cannot be a part of word, that is why your code does not work. Please try setting it to false as I did in my code:

doc.Range.Replace("{{tag}}", "value", false, false);

Best regards,

5

I am sure it is somewhere in the documentation that I overlooked. Thank you!!! You saved me tons of headache, and I am placing my order