Partially Execute Mail Merge on few Merge Fields in Word Document using Java | Lock Merge Fields | Retain \b & \f Switches

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1

Hello,

we have a somewhat special use case where we want to replace certain mail merge fields without excecuting mailmerge for the full document.

Simple replacing the desired fields is possible like:

String[] fieldNames = doc.getMailMerge().getFieldNames();
List<String> toReplaceFields = filterOurTargetedFields(fieldNames);

for (String fieldToReplace : toReplaceFields){
    if (!documentBuilder.moveToMergeField(fieldToReplace )) {
      LOG.error("field $curOrgField couldn't be targeted for replacement");
      continue;
    }
    documentBuilder.write(getValue(fieldToReplace));
}

But our fields could also have this “BEFORE” and “AFTER” definition:

{ MERGEFIELD company:name \b textBefore \f textAfter * MERGEFORMAT }

When using the mentioned replacement the \b and \f will be “lost”. textBefore and textAfter are gone.
Ofcoure we could just excecute mailMerge with a given field mapping as the one record but this would also excecute all merge rules like “next record” etc… and the resultion document should still be used in Word with a datasource for MailMerge.
doc.getMailMerge.execute(fNames, fValues);

Is there a way to just excecute certain fields/rules?

Thank you

2

@orgavision,

Please note that DocumentBuilder.moveToMergeField method just moves the cursor to a position just beyond the specified merge field and then removes the merge field. This method deletes the merge field from the document after moving the cursor. I think, you can avoid replacement of certain merge fields during Mail Merge by locking them:

Document doc = new Document("C:\\Temp\\mf.docx");

// Lock merge fields that you do not want to process
// You can also lock other types of fields like IF, NEXTIF etc that you want to preserve during mail merge
for (Field field : doc.getRange().getFields()) {
    if (field.getType() == FieldType.FIELD_MERGE_FIELD) {
        FieldMergeField mergeField = (FieldMergeField) field;
        if (mergeField.getFieldName() == "mergeField1")
            mergeField.isLocked(true);
    }
}

// In this case, executing mail merge will not have any effect on 'mergeField1'
doc.getMailMerge().execute(new String[]{"mergeField1", "mergeField2", "mergeField3"},
        new Object[]{"value1", "value2", "value3"});

// After mail merge is executed, you can then unlock above fields and may be mail merge again on remaining fields etc.

doc.save("C:\\Temp\\awjava-21.2.docx");
1 Like
3

Thank you for your fast reply,

this really seems to work when we lock all fields except the ones we want to replace with the mailmerge excecution.

You helped us a lot
Thanks again

4

@orgavision,

Thanks for your feedback. In case you have further inquiries or may need any help in future, please let us know by posting a new thread in Aspose.Words forum.