How to insert HTML at specific position?

gebakkenei · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Hello,

How can I insert a string containing HTML into a Microsoft Word document at a specific position? I am aware of the function "InsertHTML", but the API does not specify where it inserts the HTML.

What I am trying to achieve is the following:

I need to open a Microsoft Word document, which contains special keywords, like "[$Paragraph1]" and so on. Those keywords need to be replaced with some HTML. The function "Replace" can only replace plain text (according to the API), so I need to use the function "InsertHTML".

Could someone please give an example of how I can achieve this?

Many thanks!

miklovan · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Yes, that can be easily done using the ReplaceEvaluator:

public void ReplaceWithInsertHtml(Document doc)

{

doc.Range.Replace(new Regex(@"\[\$Paragraph1\]"), new ReplaceEvaluator(ReplaceWithHtmlEvaluator), false);

}

private ReplaceAction ReplaceWithHtmlEvaluator(object sender, ReplaceEvaluatorArgs e)

{

DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(e.MatchNode.Document);

builder.MoveTo(e.MatchNode);

builder.InsertHtml("Some html.

More html.
");
e.Replacement = "";

return ReplaceAction.Replace;

}

Thanks for a good question. I will add this example to InsertHtml API Reference.

Best regards,

gebakkenei · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Many thanks for your quick solution! It works just perfectly.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

I just tried to do this and it doesn’t seem to work at all for me. Thoughts? Here is my Evaluator:

Private Shared Function DocEvaluator(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Aspose.Words.ReplaceEvaluatorArgs) As Aspose.Words.ReplaceAction
Dim builder As New Aspose.Words.DocumentBuilder(e.MatchNode.Document)
builder.MoveTo(e.MatchNode)
builder.InsertHtml("<span class="“This_Is_A_Match”">")
e.Replacement = “”
Return Aspose.Words.ReplaceAction.Replace
End Function

If I search in my output, This_Is_A_Match is never found. But the code absolutely runs cause my breakpoint there gets hit. Ideas?

I am using the demo version, version 5.0.0.0.

alexey.noskov · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Hi

Thanks for your inquiry. Could you please attach your document for testing and provide me your Regex. Maybe your document is truncated. (Evaluation version of Aspose.Words limits the maximum document size to several hundred paragraphs).

Best regards.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

The document definitely isn’t being truncated. It’s just a 1 line document. So for example, here is the content of my document:

<span style=“font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”;”>This is a <%test%> of regex replace

And this is my regex

Dim regularExpression As New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("<%[\w. -]+%>", System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)

And the resulting output is:

This is a of regex replace

alexey.noskov · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Hi

Thanks for additional information. It seems that all works properly. In fact <span calss=”This_Is_A_Match”> is empty string. Try using another HTML string and I believe that you will get properly result. For example try using the following HTML string.

Some text here

Best regards.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Ok, got 2 different problems now.

1) If I use:

builder.InsertHtml("<span style="“color: red;”">" + e.Match.Value + “”)

Then my output looks like:

<%test%>This is a of regex replace

Where the inserted text is in the wrong place.

2) If I use:

builder.InsertHtml("" + e.Match.Value + "")

and I save my output out to HTML, I don't see the inserted span in the output html.

Any thoughts on either of these?

alexey.noskov · July 7, 2017, 2:43am

Hi

1. Please try using the following code snippet.

ReplaceAction EvaluateReplaceTags(object sender, ReplaceEvaluatorArgs e)

{

//Get MatchNode

Run run1 = (Run)e.MatchNode;

//Create Run

Run run2 = new Run(e.MatchNode.Document);

//Get index of match value

int index = run1.Text.IndexOf(e.Match.Value);

if (index > 0)

{

//Split text in match node

run2.Text = run1.Text.Substring(0, index);

run1.Text = run1.Text.Substring(index + e.Match.Value.Length);

}

run1.ParentParagraph.InsertBefore(run2, run1);

DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(e.MatchNode.Document);

//Move to run1

builder.MoveTo(run1);

//Insert HTML

builder.InsertHtml("Test");

return ReplaceAction.Skip;

}

2. The main thing is that Aspose.Words HTML import and export does not guarantee full data roundtrip. See the following document for more information.
http://www.aspose.com/Products/Aspose.Words/Aspose.Words.Converters.xls

Best regards.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Yeah, that appears to be working better. Thanks for the new code snippet.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Sorry, I spoke too soon. It’s not working after all.

Here is the code I’m using for the replace (identical to yours, just VB-ified):

Private Shared Function EvaluateReplaceTags(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Aspose.Words.ReplaceEvaluatorArgs) As Aspose.Words.ReplaceAction
'Get MatchNode
Dim run1 As Aspose.Words.Run = DirectCast(e.MatchNode, Aspose.Words.Run)

'Create Run
Dim run2 As New Aspose.Words.Run(e.MatchNode.Document)

'Get index of match value
Dim index As Integer = run1.Text.IndexOf(e.Match.Value)

If index > 0 Then
'Split text in match node
run2.Text = run1.Text.Substring(0, index)
run1.Text = run1.Text.Substring(index + e.Match.Value.Length)
End If
run1.ParentParagraph.InsertBefore(run2, run1)

Dim builder As New Aspose.Words.DocumentBuilder(e.MatchNode.Document)

'Move to run1
builder.MoveTo(run1)

'Insert HTML
builder.InsertHtml(“Test”)
Return Aspose.Words.ReplaceAction.Skip
End Function

Here is my regex:

Dim tokenRegularExpression As New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("<%[\w. -]+%>", System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)

Here is my input:

<%hamburger%>This is a <%taco%> of regex replace

This is anothier <%nacho%> of regex replace

And a third <%hotdog%> of regex replace

And here is my output:

Test<%hamburger%>TestThis is a <%taco%> of regex replace

TestThis is anothier <%nacho%> of regex replace

TestAnd a third <%hotdog%> of regex replace

Want to take another shot at it?

Thanks a lot

alexey.noskov · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Hi

I tried the following code and all works fine on my side.

Sub Main()

Dim doc As Document = New Document("in.doc")

Dim tokenRegularExpression As New Regex("<%[\w\. -]+%>", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)

doc.Range.Replace(tokenRegularExpression, New ReplaceEvaluator(AddressOf EvaluateReplaceTags), False)

doc.Save("out.doc")

End Sub

Private Function EvaluateReplaceTags(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As ReplaceEvaluatorArgs) As ReplaceAction

'Get MatchNode

Dim run1 As Aspose.Words.Run = DirectCast(e.MatchNode, Aspose.Words.Run)

'Create Run

Dim run2 As New Aspose.Words.Run(e.MatchNode.Document)

'Get index of match value

Dim index As Integer = run1.Text.IndexOf(e.Match.Value)

If index > 0 Then

'Split text in match node

run2.Text = run1.Text.Substring(0, index)

End If

run1.Text = run1.Text.Substring(index + e.Match.Value.Length)

run1.ParentParagraph.InsertBefore(run2, run1)

Dim builder As New Aspose.Words.DocumentBuilder(e.MatchNode.Document)

'Move to run1

builder.MoveTo(run1)

'Insert HTML

builder.InsertHtml("Test")

Return Aspose.Words.ReplaceAction.Skip

End Function

I hope this could help you.

Best regards.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Just tried your code out with my sample input, and my output now is:

TestThis is a <%tacoTestegex replace

This is anothier <%nachoTestgex replace

And a third <%hotdogTestex replace

Any suggestions?

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

The previous post’s output was the result of the 3rd argument to the Replace method being True. If I set it to False, I get slightly different output:

TestTest a <%taco%> of regex replace

Testanothier <%nacho%> of regex replace

Testrd <%hotdog%> of regex replace

Hope that helps. Not sure it will though.

alexey.noskov · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Hi

My code works fine on my side. Could you please attach your input document? I will investigate this and try to help you.

Best regards.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Doc is attached

Thanks

alexey.noskov · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

Hi

Thanks for your inquiry. There is some problem with your document. If you open your document using DocumentExplorer (Demo application) then you can see that your placeholders are represented as several runs. You can solve this problem using one more Replace evaluator. I think that the attached code could solve this problem.

Best regards.

trip42 · July 7, 2017, 2:44am

That’s looking good so far. Thanks again for the help.