Overview
Ever needed to generate Word documents from your ASP.NET
applications? There are a couple of components which will help to generate Word
documents, but using these components may have some overhead such as Component
Registration, setting permissions, licenses, etc., Sometimes, it may even become
difficult to understand their features and use them. Generating word document
in ASP.NET with HTML is incredibly easy.
The following sample demonstrates how to place Heading and
Table dynamically in the word document in ASP.NET web applications using HTML.
Requirements
Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
Create the Web Application project
Add the new Web Site Application project (with name as Generate
Word Document) and place the button (with name as btnGenerateDocument) in the
Default.aspx web form as shown below.
Figure 1
Double click the highlighted code behind file from the
Solution Explorer and add the following namespaces.
Listing 1
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Text;
Finally, paste the following code in the button click event
Listing 2
HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();
HttpContext.Current.Response.Charset ="";
HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType ="application/msword";
string strFileName = "GenerateDocument"+ ".doc";
HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition",
"inline;filename=" + strFileName);
StringBuilder strHTMLContent = newStringBuilder();
strHTMLContent.Append(
" <h1 title='Heading' align='Center'style='font-family: verdana; font -size: 80 % ;
color: black'><u>Document Heading</u> < / h1 > ".ToString());
strHTMLContent.Append("<br>".ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<table align='Center'>".ToString());
// Row with Column headers
strHTMLContent.Append("<tr>".ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px; background:
# 99CC00'><b>Column
1 < / b > < / td >".ToString());
strHTMLContent.Append("<td style='width:100px;background:
# 99CC00'><b>Column
2 < / b > < / td >".ToString());
strHTMLContent.Append("<tdstyle='width:100px; background:
# 99CC00'><b>Column 3</b>
< / td >".ToString());strHTMLContent.Append(" < / tr > ".ToString());
// First Row Data
strHTMLContent.Append("<tr>".ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px'>a</td>" .ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px'>b</td>" .ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px'>c</td>" .ToString());strHTMLContent.Append("</tr>"
.ToString());
// Second Row Data
strHTMLContent.Append("<tr>".ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px'>d</td>" .ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px'>e</td>" .ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<td style='width:100px'>f</td>" .ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append("</tr>"
.ToString());
strHTMLContent.Append("</table>".ToString());
strHTMLContent.Append("<br><br>".ToString()); strHTMLContent.Append(
"<p align='Center'> Note : This is adynamically generated word document < / p > ".ToString());
HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(strHTMLContent);
HttpContext.Current.Response.End();
HttpContext.Current.Response.Flush();
In the above listing, first the Response object is cleared,
charset is set to empty and then Content type is set to MS Word.
Filename is defined for the document which will be generated
through this code and this is set to the "Content-Disposition" header
of the Response object.
Now to the StringBuilder variable -- it is an HTML
representation of the heading and table with three columns and two rows along
with column headers and data appended. This content will be displayed in the
Word document when it is generated.
Once the contents to be displayed in the document are set, the
Response object’s Write, End and Flush methods send the output to the browser,
where the user's copy of Microsoft Word will open the content and render it as
a Word document.
Run the Web Application
Once the application is run, the following screen is
displayed in the browser.
Figure 2
Click the Generate Document button in the above screen upon
which the following prompt will be displayed to open or save the document.
Figure 3
Now save the document to some location in the system and
then open it to see the contents in the document. Document contents will be as
follows:
Figure 4
Downloads
[Download Sample]
Conclusion
In this article, we have seen how easy it is to dynamically
generate Word reports in ASP.NET using HTML.
Resources
Dynamic Excel Reports in
ASP