MailMerge (image) by URL

[amos.max]

Hi There,

can’t seem to get this to work (most likely, because I don’t understand the MergeImageField Event Handler yet).

I have created an image handler for a web app that lets me extract images easily from a db with only one line of code. I would like to use this for a MailMerge to enter images in a word document. In essence my question is how to do an image MailMerge via URLs.

sample code :

Sub show_doc(ByVal ID As String)

Dim MyPath As String = HttpContext.Current.Request.PhysicalApplicationPath & "_sampledir/document.doc"

Dim doc As Document = New Document(MyPath)
Dim img1 As String = "ImgHandler.aspx?ID=" & ID
Dim img2 As String = "ImgHandler.aspx?ID=" & ID

' set field Names
Dim names As String() = {"Pic1", "Pic2"}
' Set field Values
Dim values As Object() = {img1, img2}
' MailMergeEventHandler
AddHandler doc.MailMerge.MergeImageField, AddressOf HandleMergeImage
doc.MailMerge.Execute(names, values)

' Send the Doc to the Client
doc.Save("FaxForm.doc", SaveFormat.Doc, SaveType.OpenInBrowser, HttpContext.Current.Response)

End Sub

Private Shared Sub HandleMergeImage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Aspose.Words.Reporting.MergeImageFieldEventArgs) 

' what goes here ????

End Sub

Thx in advance!
Marcus.

[alexey.noskov]

Hi

Thanks for your inquiry. You can try using the following code.

Dim img1 As String = "http://images.leftlanenews.com/content/1-geiger-cars-mustang-gt-520.jpg"

Dim img2 As String = "http://www.mustangautorent.com/images/MUSTANG517.jpg"

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

Dim names As String() = {"Pic1", "Pic2"}

Dim values As String() = {img1, img2}

doc.MailMerge.Execute(names, values)

doc.Save("out.doc")

Also you can use MergeImageField event handler to get images from web. See the following code.

Sub Main()

Dim lic As Aspose.Words.License = New Aspose.Words.License()

lic.SetLicense("Aspose.Words.lic")

Dim img1 As String = "http://images.leftlanenews.com/content/1-geiger-cars-mustang-gt-520.jpg"

Dim img2 As String = "http://www.mustangautorent.com/images/MUSTANG517.jpg"

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

Dim names As String() = {"Pic1", "Pic2"}

Dim values As String() = {img1, img2}

AddHandler doc.MailMerge.MergeImageField, AddressOf HandleMergeImage

doc.MailMerge.Execute(names, values)

doc.Save("out.doc")

End Sub

Private Sub HandleMergeImage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As MergeImageFieldEventArgs)

Dim imgUrl As String = e.FieldValue

'Prepare the web page we will be asking for

Dim request As System.Net.HttpWebRequest = CType(System.Net.WebRequest.Create(imgUrl), System.Net.HttpWebRequest)

request.Method = "GET"

request.ContentType = "image/jpeg"

request.UserAgent = "Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+5.01;+Windows+NT+5.0"

'Execute the request

Dim response As System.Net.HttpWebResponse = CType(request.GetResponse(), System.Net.HttpWebResponse)

'We will read data via the response stream

Dim resStream As Stream = response.GetResponseStream()

'Create Image

Dim img As Image = Image.FromStream(resStream)

'Dim img As Image = Image.FromFile(e.FieldValue)

e.Image = img

End Sub

If you have access to data base then you can get image directly from DB.

Best regards.

[amos.max]

Hi Alexey,

thx for your response.
I’m still getting errors on your suggestions. The first method produces the error: “Parameter is not valid”.

The exact path I’m using is http://servername/picHandler.ashx?arg1=1&arg2=2 (using generic names). The path returns a valid image when used in a browser, though. I’ve tried a ‘direct’ path to an image (eg http://servername/image.jpg) and that works fine, so it seems to me that Aspose.Words is stumbling over the arguments in the url somehow.

On a related note, I’ve noticed that Aspose.Words does not interpret the basepath “~/” designator (in fact, it prepends the application path of my VStudio installation), which makes it a little awkward to construct the url - feature request ??

The second method gives me an intellisense error on Image.FromStream(resStream) stating FromStream is not a member of System.Web.UI.WebControls.Image and (as a result) won’t compile.

Thx for your assistance!
Rgds,
Marcus.

[alexey.noskov]

Hi

Image is member of System.Drawing namespace. Please try using System.Drawing.Image.

Also you can try using the following code snippet to format absolute URI

const string formatURLWithPort = "{0}{1}:{2}{3}";
const string formatURLWithoutPort = "{0}{1}{3}";
//Get parts of URI
string AppProtocol = "http://"; //Protocol
string AppHost = Request.Url.Host; //Host
int AppPort = Request.Url.Port; //Port (Default is 80)
string AppVirtualDir = Request.ApplicationPath; //Virtual directory
//Format application root URI
string rootPath = String.Format(AppPort != 80 ? formatURLWithPort : formatURLWithoutPort, AppProtocol, AppHost, AppPort, AppVirtualDir);

Best regards.