Using a Template Document with the Open XML SDK for JavaScript

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Open XML SDK for JavaScript
Developer CenterWhen you write an Open XML program, you rarely (maybe never) want to create a document from scratch.  Instead, you want to start with a template document and then add content to it as you need to.  This applies whether you are creating word-processing documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.  There are two approaches to accessing a template document when using the Open XML SDK for JavaScript.

This screen-cast walks through both approaches.

In the video, I discuss two small PowerShell scripts.  One is a modification that I make to my profile.ps1 that enables converting any binary file to base64 encoded ASCII.  The other is a small function that takes a DOCX, XLSX, or PPTX, and generates a JavaScript literal string expression that you can paste directly into your JavaScript application.

Here are the Convert-ToB64 and Convert-FromB64 functions:

$sz8 = @"
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Linq;

public class B64
{
    public static string ConvertToB64(string fileName)
    {
        byte[] ba = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(fileName);
        string base64String = (System.Convert.ToBase64String(ba))
            .Select
            (
                (c, i) => new
                {
                    Character = c,
                    Chunk = i / 76
                }
            )
            .GroupBy(c => c.Chunk)
            .Aggregate(
                new StringBuilder(),
                (s, i) =>
                    s.Append(
                        i.Aggregate(
                            new StringBuilder(),
                            (seed, it) => seed.Append(it.Character),
                            sb => sb.ToString()
                        )
                    )
                    .Append(Environment.NewLine),
                s =>
                {
                    s.Length -= Environment.NewLine.Length;
                    return s.ToString();
                }
            );

        return base64String;
    }

    public static void ConvertFromB64(string fileName, string b64)
    {
        string b64b = b64.Replace("\r\n", "");
        byte[] ba = System.Convert.FromBase64String(b64b);
        System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes(fileName, ba);
    }
}
"@;

Add-Type -TypeDefinition $sz8

function Convert-ToB64 {
    param(
		[string]$Path
	)
    $f = (Resolve-Path $Path).ToString();
    [B64]::ConvertToB64($f)
}

function Convert-FromB64 {
    param(
		[string]$Path,
        [string]$b64
	)
    $f = New-Item $Path -ItemType file
    [B64]::ConvertFromB64($f.FullName, $b64)
}

Here is the small PowerShell function that uses the above functionality to convert a DOCX to a JavaScript string literal:

function ConvertDocxToJavaScriptLiteral {
    param (
        $path
    )
    $f = Resolve-Path $path
    $a = Convert-ToB64 $f
    $b = $a -split "\r\n"
    $count = $b.Count
    $c = $b | Select-Object -First $($count - 1) | % { "`"$_`" +" }
    $d = $b | Select-Object -Last 1 | % { "`"$_`"" }
    $c + $d | clip
}

You use it as follows:

ConvertDocxToJavaScriptLiteral .\Test01.docx

This converts the DOCX to the JavaScript literals, and places the code on the clipboard, ready for you to paste into your JavaScript program.