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Description

Excerpt

Sets the MailMerge's data source to a two-dimensional (rectangular) array of objects. A MailMerge by default treats the page content as a repeat block, repeating the page content for each row unless NEXT fields are used. If the WordTemplate.EnableNEXTFields property is set to true, the NEXT field can also be used to indicate that the next row of data should be inserted instead of the current row at the next occurence of the merge fields.

Signature

	C#
	C#

 public void SetMailMerge(System.Data.IDataReader dr)

Signature

	vb.net
	vb.net

Public Sub SetMailMerge(ByVal dr As System.Data.IDataReader)

Parameters

Param

	dr
	dr

A SqlDataReader, OleDbDataReader, or AdomdDataReader to use as the data source.

Exceptions

Exception

	ArgumentNullException
	ArgumentNullException

Save will throw this exception if null (C#) or Nothing (VB.NET) is passed to the method.

Exception

	ArgumentException
	ArgumentException

Remarks

You can call SetMailMerge once for each instance of WordTemplate. If you are using the Word 2003 binary template file type (.doc/.dot), you can call SetMailMerge or SetRepeatBlock, but not both.

Additionally, only the page content is repeated for each row, not the entire page itself. If you wish to have the page itself repeat for each row, you will need to remember to place a page break at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, you can create a hidden page break at the top of the page as follows:

Put the cursor at the top of the document
Go to Page Layout and open the paragraph formatting dialog
On the Line and Page Breaks tab, select "Page Break Before"

Merge Fields for using the SetMailMerge method must not specify a data source – the data source is implied, and using a data source name will cause WordTemplate to throw an error. Valid merge field formats for use with SetMailMerge include field names («fieldname») and field ordinals («#1»).

Introducedin

	8.2
	8.2

SetMailMerge will now work with headers and footers. A section break is required instead of a page break if each header or footer will be different.

Example

Code Block

	csharp
	csharp
title	C#


          //--- Create connection string for Excel file data
          string connString =
               "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" +
               "Data Source=" + Server.MapPath("data/MailMergeData.xls") + ";" +
               "Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;";

          //--- Use OleDb to get all data from Sheet1 of the MailMergeData.xls spreadsheet
          //--- Place all of the data in a DataReader object
          OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(connString);
          conn.Open();
          OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]", conn);
          OleDbDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
          WordTemplate wt = new WordTemplate();
          wt.Open(Server.MapPath("template/MergeFieldTest.doc"));

          //--- Set the mail merge
          //--- The data source is the DataReader
          wt.SetMailMerge(dr);
          wt.Process();
          wt.Save(Page.Response, "output.doc", false);

Code Block

	vb.net
	vb.net
title	vb.net


          '--- Create connection string for Excel file data
          Dim connString As String = _
               "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
               "Data Source=" & Server.MapPath("data/MailMergeData.xls") & ";" & _
               "Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;"

          '--- Use OleDb to get all data from Sheet1 of the MailMergeData.xls spreadsheet
          '--- Place all of the data in a DataReader object
          Dim conn As New OleDbConnection(connString)
          conn.Open()
          Dim cmd As New OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]", conn)
          Dim dr As OleDbDataReader = cmd.ExecuteReader()
          Dim wt As New WordTemplate()
          wt.Open(Server.MapPath("template\MergeFieldTest.doc"))

          '--- Set the mail merge
          '--- The data source is the DataReader
          wt.SetMailMerge(dr)
          wt.Process()
          wt.Save(Page.Response, "output.doc", False)

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