Importing mail merge fields

Aspose.Words Product Family
1

I am try to import a HTML which will define some mail merge fields. I want to generate word document based on the imported html and a datasource. I am using some static values for now but imported Html does not replace the values. It seems like aspose.word does not recognize the mail merge fields from format other than doc.docx. If I create a word document with mail merge fields and load it, instead of html, it works fine.

I have tried using following formats in my html but none is recognised.
<<field>>
{field}
and
{MERGEFIELD field * MERGEFORMAT}

Does anyone have some idea how this can be achieved.

2

Hi

Thanks for your inquiry. Actually HTML format does not support mergefields or other fields. MS Word uses “magic” to preserve fields in HTML.
I suppose code provided here could help you to achieve what you need:
https://forum.aspose.com/t/113953
Best regards,

3

Link was useful but old post. Needed a bit of fixes to work with new version of library.
Thanks.

4

Hi

Thanks for your inquiry. Yes, there were few breaking changes in API. You can easily modify the code. Here is modified code:

[Test]
public void Test001()
{
    // Open the source document.
    Document doc = new Document(@"Test001\in.doc");
    // Convert document to HTML.
    doc.Save(@"Test001\out.html");
    // Open HTML document, and replace placeholders with mergefields.
    Document doc1 = new Document(@"Test001\out.html");
    doc1.Range.Replace(new Regex("½(?.*?)╗"), new ReplaceEvaluatorFindAndInsertMergefield(), false);
    // Execute mail merge
    // doc1.MailMerge.Execute(doc1.MailMerge.GetFieldNames(), doc1.MailMerge.GetFieldNames());
    // Save output document
    doc1.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;
}

Best regards,