Intro 

This guide will explain how to import a single row of values into a PowerPoint presentation using data markers. This assumes a basic understanding of data markers.

Setting up the Template

The template file should contain data markers following proper data marker syntax. Each copy of a given data marker will be populated with the same value. If the data marker appears in a table row or list entry, nothing will be automatically repeated if only one row is imported.

Binding Data

PowerPointTemplate has a single method for binding data to the data markers that are located in the template: PowerPointTemplate.BindData. Depending on the data source type and the number of rows in the data source, PowerPointWriter will either import a single row of data or import multiple rows.

There are several ways to import a single row of data into a presentation:

  1. Use a single dimensional array
  2.  Use a multi-dimensional data source AND
    1. The data source only has one row of data
    2.  DataBindingProperties.MaxRowsToImport is set to 1

Single Dimensional Arrays

Arrays don't have built-in means to store column names. The user must specify the column names in a string array that is passed to {{PowerPointTemplate.BindData}} at run time.

            PowerPointTemplate pptt = new PowerPointTemplate();
            pptt.Open(@"C:\DataBinding\ArrayBindingTemplate.pptx");

            string[] values = {"Hello World", "subtitle"};
            string[] colNames = {"header", "subtitle"};
            DataBindingProperties DataProps = pptt.CreateDataBindingProperties();

            pptt.BindData(values, colNames, "DataSource1", DataProps);
            pptt.Process();
            pptt.Save(Page.Response,
               "ArrayBinding.pptx",
               false);
		Dim pptt As New PowerPointTemplate();
		pptt.Open("C:\DataBinding\ArrayBindingTemplate.pptx")
 
		Dim values = New String() {"Hello World", "subtitle"}
		Dim colNames = New String() {"header", "subtitle"}


		Dim DataProps As DataBindingProperites = pptt.CreateDataBindingProperties()
		pptt.BindData(values, colnames, "DataSource1", DataProps)
		pptt.Process()
		pptt.Save(Page.Repponse, "ArrayBinding.pptx", False)

Multi-dimensional data sources

If a multi-dimensional data source has only one row of data, the automatic repeating behavior will not occur. This is consistent for any of the multi-dimensional data sources supported by BindData:

Setting MaxRowsToImport to 1

MaxRowsToImport is a property on the DataBindingProperties object that can be used to limit the number of rows that are imported, regardless of how many rows are actually in the data source.

DataBindingProperties dataProps = ppt.CreateDataBindingProperties();
dataProps.MaxRowsToImport = 1;
ppt.BindData(getDataTable(), "DataSourceName", dataProps);