...

• Data source and column names must begin with a letter (A-Z, a-z).

• Data source and column names may include the following characters only:
  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890_

  Note
  If you assigned a different data source separator, you can also use a "." in your data source and column names.

• Spaces are not allowed anywhere in a merge field.

...

...

2. Add the merge fields for the header and total data. These values are a single row of data called "OrderDetailsOrderHeader." The values are "FirstName," "LastName," and "Date,." "SubTotal," "Tax," and "Total."

3. Create a table for the order data and add the merge fields . These values are in a data table created from AdventureWorks data. In single row of data called "OrderDetails."  In this sample, the values are "Item," "Qty," "Price," "LineTotal," "SubTotal," "Tax," and "LineTotalTotal." 

4. Format the currency fields in the Field menu by checking "Text to be inserted before" and entering a dollar sign ($).with a formatting switch, such as:  "#/ $#,###0.00"

 The template should resemble this: 

...

1. Include the SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.WordWriter namespace in the code behind.

using SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.WordWriter;

2. In the method that will actually run the report, instantiate the WordTemplate object.

WordTemplate WT = new WordTemplate();

3. Open the template file with the WordTemplate.Open method.

WT.Open(Page.MapPath("//templates//Part1_Invoice_Template.docx"));

4. Create an object array for the header values and a string array for the column names. 

WordTemplate can be bound to numerous types of .NET data structures: single variables, arrays (1-D, jagged, multi-dimensional), DataSet,DataTable, IDataReader etc. The source of the data can come from anywhere.

Some of the aforementioned structures have built in column names, such as the DataTable. When working with arrays, which don't have built in column names, you have to define the column names in a separate string array.

object[] detailsArrayorderHeader =          { "Jane", "Doe", DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yy")};
string[] orderHeaderColNames = { "FirstName", "13139.51LastName", "558.43", "13697.94" };
Date"};

5. Create two arrays as the OrderDetail data set.

object[] detailsArray = {"Sport-100 Helmet, Black", 3, 34.99, 104.97, 104.97, 4.46, 109.43 };

string[] detailColNames = {"Item", "FirstNameQty", "LastNamePrice", "DateLineTotal", "Subtotal", "Tax", "Total"  };

5. Get the data for the Order Info data set.

This call is to a helper method GetCSVData that parses the CSV files and returns a DataTable with the values.

DataTable dtOrderInfo = GetCSVData("//data//OrderInfo.csv");

If you are following in your own project and would like to parse the CSV files as well, you will need to:

• Add a reference to GenericParsing.dll
• Include GeneringParsing at the top of your code.
• Add the GetCSVData method that can be found in the sample code.

6. Use the WordTemplate.SetDataSource method to bind the order info to the merge fields in the template file. This data source has no name. One data source can be bound without a name, but it must be bound first. 

SetDataSource() binds a single row of data to the template.

WT.SetDataSource(dtOrderInfoorderHeader, orderHeaderColNames, "OrderHeader");

7. Use SetDataSource() to bind the order details arrays. Note that the data source name is the last string.

WT.SetDataSource(detailsArray, detailColNames, "OrderDetails");

8. Call WordTemplate.Process to import the data into the file.

WT.Process();

9. Call WordTemplate.Save to save the output file.

WordTemplate has several output options: save to disk, save to a stream, stream the output file in a page's Response inline or as an attachment.

WT.Save(Page.Response, "Part1_Output.docx", false);

The final output should resemble this:

Final Code

using SoftArtisans.OfficeWriter.WordWriter;
...

//Instantiate a new WordTemplate object
WordTemplate WT = new WordTemplate();

//Open the template file
WT.Open(Page.MapPath("//templates//Part1_Invoice_Template.docx"));

//Create the array of detailsheader values
object[] detailsArrayorderHeader = { "Jane", "Doe", DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yy")};
//Create the array of column names
string[] orderHeaderColNames = { "FirstName", "LastName", "Date"};

//Create the array of details values
object[] detailsArray = {"Sport-100 Helmet, Black", 3, 34.99, 104.97", "104.97, 4.46", "109.43" };
//Create the array of column names
string[] detailColNames = {"FirstNameItem", "LastNameQty", "DatePrice", "LineTotal", "Subtotal", "Tax", "Total"   };

//Get the order info datatable using GenericParser
DataTable dtOrderInfo = GetCSVData("//data//OrderInfo.csv");

//Set the data sources to import a single row of data for each source
WT.SetDataSource(dtOrderInfoorderHeader, orderHeaderColNames, "OrderHeader");
WT.SetDataSource(detailsArray, detailColNames, "OrderDetails");

//Process to import the data to the template
WT.Process();

WT.Save(Page.Response, "Part1_Output.docx", false);

...

You can download the code for the Basic WordWriter Tutorials as a Visual Studio solution, which includes the Simple Expense Summary.

• TODO: Add LinkWordWriter_Basic_Tutorials.zip

Next Steps

Continue on to Part 2: Repeat Blocks