C# – Duplicating Word document using OpenXml and C#

cms-wordopenxml

I am using Word and OpenXml to provide mail merge functionality in a C# ASP.NET web application:

1) A document is uploaded with a number of pre-defined strings for substitution.

2) Using the OpenXML SDK 2.0 I open the Word document, get the mainDocumentPart as a string and perform the substitution using Regex.

3) I then create a new document using OpenXML, add a new mainDocumentPart and insert the string resulting from the substitution into this mainDocumentPart.

However, all formatting/styles etc. are lost in the new document.

I'm guessing I can copy and add the Style, Definitions, Comment parts etc.. individually to mimic the orginal document.

However is there a method using Open XML to duplicate a document allowing me to perform the substitutions on the new copy?

Thanks.

Best Answer

This piece of code should copy all parts from an existing document to a new one.

using (var mainDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(@"c:\sourcedoc.docx", false))
using (var resultDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Create(@"c:\newdoc.docx",
  WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))
{
  // copy parts from source document to new document
  foreach (var part in mainDoc.Parts)
    resultDoc.AddPart(part.OpenXmlPart, part.RelationshipId);
  // perform replacements in resultDoc.MainDocumentPart
  // ...
}

This is the style that Microsoft tends to use in their examples.

It appears that the guidance in this area may have changed, as StyleCop now enforces the use of the C# specific aliases.

C# – Should ‘using’ directives be inside or outside the namespace

There is actually a (subtle) difference between the two. Imagine you have the following code in File1.cs:

// File1.cs
using System;
namespace Outer.Inner
{
    class Foo
    {
        static void Bar()
        {
            double d = Math.PI;
        }
    }
}

Now imagine that someone adds another file (File2.cs) to the project that looks like this:

// File2.cs
namespace Outer
{
    class Math
    {
    }
}

The compiler searches Outer before looking at those using directives outside the namespace, so it finds Outer.Math instead of System.Math. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), Outer.Math has no PI member, so File1 is now broken.

This changes if you put the using inside your namespace declaration, as follows:

// File1b.cs
namespace Outer.Inner
{
    using System;
    class Foo
    {
        static void Bar()
        {
            double d = Math.PI;
        }
    }
}

Now the compiler searches System before searching Outer, finds System.Math, and all is well.

Some would argue that Math might be a bad name for a user-defined class, since there's already one in System; the point here is just that there is a difference, and it affects the maintainability of your code.

It's also interesting to note what happens if Foo is in namespace Outer, rather than Outer.Inner. In that case, adding Outer.Math in File2 breaks File1 regardless of where the using goes. This implies that the compiler searches the innermost enclosing namespace before it looks at any using directive.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – the difference between String and string in C#

This is the style that Microsoft tends to use in their examples.

C# – Should ‘using’ directives be inside or outside the namespace

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