Question

So I’ve created a C# library that manipulates and edits Word Documents. This of course references the OpenXML SDK. Where I use the library however I do not wan’t to have to reference the .dll as well.

One method that I might use from another project has a WordprocessingDocument parameter and has this profile:

public bool FillTemplate(ref WordprocessingDocument document, XElement data)
{
    //EDIT the document and return True if succesful.
}

problem here is of course that I would have to create a WordprocessingDocument inside the other project instead of just passing a stream.

Ok I guess the simplest solution would be a different profile on the method:

public bool FillTemplate(Stream document, XElement data)
{
    WordprocessingDocument doc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, true);
    return FillTemplate(doc, data);
}

But I got what I thought would be a brilliant idea just to create a extension method for Stream:

public static WordprocessingDocument ConvertToWordDocument(this Stream stream, bool isEditable)
{
    return WordprocessingDocument.Open(stream, isEditable);
}

and use it like this:

FileStream fStream = new FileStream(@"C:\Users\Me\Desktop\SomeDoc.docx", FileMode.Open);
var doc = fStream.ConvertToWordDocument(true);
filler.FillTemplate(ref doc, getXmlDataFor(42));

fStream.Flush();
fStream.Close();

However this doesn’t work for some reason (Doc changes but it doesn’t seem to get returned to the stream) and I got a little skeptical about the whole idea of how I’m using Streams and the WordprocessingDocument package/wrapper thingy.

What would be a optimal solution so I’m not going into a whole lot of trouble? How actually does the WordprocessingDocument class work in relation to passing it around as a parameter and such? Why didn’t the stream change the originally opened document?

Answer 1

System.IO.Packaging.Package

seems to be the way to go when handling opc packages.
Following lines of code looks fine to me. Package.Open have a number of constructors that you can use with path strings, streams etc…

System.IO.Packaging.Package package = System.IO.Packaging.Package.Open(@"C:\Users\Me\Desktop\SomeDoc.docx");
DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging.WordprocessingDocument document = DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging.WordprocessingDocument.Create(package, DocumentFormat.OpenXml.WordprocessingDocumentType.Document);

// edit document                
package.Flush();
package.Close();