Aspose Word Functionality - MERGEFIELD

Aspose.Words Product Family
1

Is it possible to create new a docx file using Aspose.Words for .NET, based on inserting (writing) a paragraphs that contain many MERGEFIELDs fields similar to the paragraph below and still have these MERGEFIELD fields appear and operated as ‘normal’ MERGEFIELDs created in word?

The goal being to create word ‘template’ docs based on paragraph data stored in SQL.

{ MERGEFIELD ClientName } ({ MERGEFIELD ClientNameShort }) requires a water supply of { MERGEFIELD VolumePerYear } cubic metres per year (m³/year) for { MERGEFIELD WaterUse } at its { MERGEFIELD Field }. The water supply is required in { MERGEFIELD TitleLegal }, { MERGEFIELD TownDistance } kilometres { MERGEFIELD TownDirection } of { MERGEFIELD Town }, Alberta, in the XXXX River Basin (Figure 1).

2

Hi Norm,

Thanks for your inquiry. You can replace these plain tags with real merge fields by using following code of Aspose.Words for .NET:

Document doc = new Document(MyDir + @"input.docx");
doc.Range.Replace("MERGEFIELD", "", new FindReplaceOptions(FindReplaceDirection.Backward));
FindReplaceOptions opts = new FindReplaceOptions();
opts.ReplacingCallback = new ReplaceWithMergefield();
opts.Direction = FindReplaceDirection.Backward;
doc.Range.Replace(new Regex(@"\{(.*?)\}"), "", opts);
doc.Save(MyDir + @"17.4.docx");

private class ReplaceWithMergefield : IReplacingCallback
{
    public ReplaceAction 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);
        }
        DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder((Document)e.MatchNode.Document);
        builder.MoveTo((Run)runs[runs.Count - 1]);
        builder.InsertField("MERGEFIELD \"" + e.Match.Groups[1].Value.Trim() + "\"", null);
        // Now remove all runs in the sequence.
        foreach (Run run in runs)
            run.Remove();
        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

Aweseome, thanks for the response.

I will give it a try