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Replacing Template Fields in Word Documents with OpenXML

I am trying to create a templating system with OpenXML in our Azure app service-based application (so no Interop) and am running into issues with getting it to work. Here is the code I am currently working with (contents is a byte array):
using(MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(contents))
{
using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(stream, true))
{
string docText = null;
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(wordDoc.MainDocumentPart.GetStream()))
{
docText = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
Regex regexText = new Regex("<< Company.Name >>");
docText = regexText.Replace(docText, "Company 123");
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(wordDoc.MainDocumentPart.GetStream(FileMode.Create)))
{
sw.Write(docText);
}
wordDoc.Save();
}
updated = stream.ToArray();
}
The search text is not being found/replaced, which I am assuming is because of the way everything is stored separately in the XML, but how would I go about replacing a field like this?
Thanks
Ryan

With OpenXML SDK you can use this SearchAndReplace - Youtube, note that it's a screen cast that shows the algorithm that can be used to accomplish the replacement over multiple <w:run> elements.
An alternative approach would be to use pure .NET solution, like this Find and Replace text in a Word document.
Last, the easiest and straightforward approach would be to use some other library, for instance check this example of Find and Replace with GemBox.Document.

Inserting a doc file inplace of place holder

I have a word document which contain many pages. One of those pages contain a placeholder instead of other content. so I want to replace that placeholder with another doc file without losing formatting. This doc file which is to be replaced may have many pages. How can I replace that placeholder with this doc file programmatically.. I searched many but could not find any option to insert a doc file replacing a placeholder.. Thank You In Advance.
Or how can we copy the contents of doc to be inserted and then replace the placeholder with copied content
I found a post here.The below code is from that post.
With the library, you can do the following to replace text from a Word document, considering that documentByteArray is your document byte content taken from database:
using (MemoryStream mem = new MemoryStream())
{
mem.Write(documentByteArray, 0, (int)documentByteArray.Length);
using (WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(document, true))
{
string docText = null;
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(wordDoc.MainDocumentPart.GetStream()))
{
docText = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
Regex regexText = new Regex("Hello world!");
docText = regexText.Replace(docText, "Hi Everyone!");
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(wordDoc.MainDocumentPart.GetStream(FileMode.Create)))
{
sw.Write(docText);
}
}
}
if instead of "Hi Everyone" if we replace it with a binarydata,which is an array of bytes
byte[] binarydata = File.ReadAllBytes(filepaths);
how can we modify the program?

First of all you should get a Nuget package called Novacode.Docx, this is what I have found to be the best Document creator and editor in the last few years.
using Novacode.Docx;
void Main()
{
var doc = DocX.Load(#"c:\temp\existingDoc.docx");
var docToAdd = DocX.Load(#"c:\temp\docToAdd.docx");
doc.InsertDocument(docToAdd, true); //version 1.0.0.22
doc.InsertDocument(docToAdd); //version 1.0.0.19
}
this is the most simple and basic implementation of what it is that youre after but this works.
for anything else take a look at the documentation at
https://docx.codeplex.com/
or
http://cathalscorner.blogspot.co.uk/
this will be the best place to start. I would also recommend that if you do use this one that you use the version 1.0.0.19 as there are some formatting issues in 1.0.0.22

Using iTextSharp, trying to extract text from a PDF gives non-readable data

Okay, I'm trying to extract text from a PDF file using iTextSharp... that's all I want. However, when I extract the text, it's giving me garbage instead of text.
Here's the code I'm using...
List<String> pdfText = new List<string>();
for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
{
ITextExtractionStrategy its = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser.LocationTextExtractionStrategy();
String strPage = PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page, its);
strPage = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ASCIIEncoding.Convert(Encoding.Default,
Encoding.UTF8, Encoding.Default.GetBytes(strPage)));
pdfText.Add(strPage);
}
I then save that data to a text file, but instead of readable text, I get text that looks like binary data... non-printable characters all over the place. I'd post an image of what I see, but it won't let me. Sorry about that.
I have tried without the encoding attempt, and it didn't work any better... still binary-looking data (viewed in Notepad), though I'm not certain it's identical to that produced with the encoding attempt.
Any idea what is happening and how to fix it?

Please open the document in Adobe Reader, then try to copy/paste part of the text.
If you do this with the first page, you'll get:
The following policy (L30304) has been archived by Alpha II. Many policies are part of a larger
jurisdiction, than is indicated by the policy. This policy covers the following states:
• INDIANA
• MICHIGAN
However, if you do this with the second page, you'll get:
In other words: copy/pasting from Adobe Reader gives you garbage.
And if copy/pasting from Adobe Reader gives you garbage, any text extraction tool will give you garbage. You'll need to OCR the document to solve this problem.
Regarding your additional question in the comments: if the PDf employs a custom encoding method, how can Adobe display it properly unless the PDF file contains the information needed to handle it?
This question is answered in a 14-minute movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGEEv7ibHE

try this code:
List<String> pdfText = new List<string>();
for (int page = 1; page <= reader.NumberOfPages; page++)
{
ITextExtractionStrategy its = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.parser.LocationTextExtractionStrategy();
PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, page, its);
strPage = its.GetResultantText();
pdfText.Add(strPage);
}

Try this code, Worked for me
using (PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(path))
{
StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 1; i <= reader.NumberOfPages; i++)
{
text.Append(PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, i));
}
return text.ToString();
}

Itextsharp text extraction

I'm using itextsharp on vb.net to get the text content from a pdf file. The solution works fine for some files but not for other even quite simple ones. The problem is that the token stringvalue is set to null (a set of empty square boxes)
token = New iTextSharp.text.pdf.PRTokeniser(pageBytes)
While token.NextToken()
tknType = token.TokenType()
tknValue = token.StringValue
I can meassure the length of the content but I cannot get the actual string content.
I realized that this happens depending on the font of the pdf. If I create a pdf using either Acrobat or PdfCreator with Courier (that by the way is the default font in my visual studio editor) I can get all the text content. If the same pdf is built using a different font I got the empty square boxes.
Now the question is, How can I extract text regardless of the font setting?
Thanks

complementary for Mark's answer that helps me a lot .iTextSharp implementation namespaces and classes are a bit different from java version
public static string GetTextFromAllPages(String pdfPath)
{
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(pdfPath);
StringWriter output = new StringWriter();
for (int i = 1; i <= reader.NumberOfPages; i++)
output.WriteLine(PdfTextExtractor.GetTextFromPage(reader, i, new SimpleTextExtractionStrategy()));
return output.ToString();
}

Check out PdfTextExtractor.
String pageText =
PdfTextExtractor.getTextFromPage(myReader, pageNum);
or
String pageText =
PdfTextExtractor.getTextFromPage(myReader, pageNum, new LocationTextExtractionStrategy());
Both require fairly recent versions of iText[Sharp]. Actually parsing the content stream yourself is just reinventing the wheel at this point. Spare yourself some pain and let iText do it for you.
PdfTextExtractor will handle all the different font/encoding issues for you... all the ones that can be handled anyway. If you can't copy/paste from Reader accurately, then there's not enough information present in the PDF to get character information from the content stream.

Here is a variant with iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfName.ANNOTS and iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfName.CONTENT if some one need it.
string strFile = #"C:\my\path\tothefile.pdf";
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader pdfRida = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader(strFile);
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PRTokeniser prtTokeneiser;
int pageFrom = 1;
int pageTo = pdfRida.NumberOfPages;
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PRTokeniser.TokType tkntype ;
string tknValue;
for (int i = pageFrom; i <= pageTo; i++)
{
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfDictionary cpage = pdfRida.GetPageN(i);
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfArray cannots = cpage.GetAsArray(iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfName.ANNOTS);
if(cannots!=null)
foreach (iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfObject oAnnot in cannots.ArrayList)
{
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfDictionary cAnnotationDictironary = (iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfDictionary)pdfRida.GetPdfObject(((iTextSharp.text.pdf.PRIndirectReference)oAnnot).Number);
iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfObject moreshit = cAnnotationDictironary.Get(iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfName.CONTENTS);
if (moreshit != null && moreshit.GetType() == typeof(iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfString))
{
string cStringVal = ((iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfString)moreshit).ToString();
if (cStringVal.ToUpper().Contains("LOS 8"))
{ // DO SOMETHING FUN
}
}
}
}
pdfRida.Close();

Combine PDFs c#

How can I combine multiple PDFs into one PDF without a 3rd party component?

I don't think you can.
Opensource component PDFSharp has that functionality, and a nice source code sample on file combining

The .NET Framework does not contain the ability to modify/create PDFs. You need a 3rd party component to accomplish what you are looking for.

As others have said, there is nothing built in to do that task. Use iTextSharp with this example code.

AFAIK C# has no built-in support for handling PDF so what you are asking can not be done without using a 3rd party component or a COTS library.
Regarding libraries there is a myriad of possibilities. Just to point a few:
http://csharp-source.net/open-source/pdf-libraries
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/graphics/giospdfnetlibrary.aspx
http://www.pdftron.com/net/index.html

I don't think .NET Framework contains such like libraries. I used iTextsharp with c# to combine pdf files. I think iTextsharp is easyest way to do this. Here is the code I used.
string[] lstFiles=new string[3];
lstFiles[0]=#"C:/pdf/1.pdf";
lstFiles[1]=#"C:/pdf/2.pdf";
lstFiles[2]=#"C:/pdf/3.pdf";
PdfReader reader = null;
Document sourceDocument = null;
PdfCopy pdfCopyProvider = null;
PdfImportedPage importedPage;
string outputPdfPath=#"C:/pdf/new.pdf";
sourceDocument = new Document();
pdfCopyProvider = new PdfCopy(sourceDocument, new System.IO.FileStream(outputPdfPath, System.IO.FileMode.Create));
//Open the output file
sourceDocument.Open();
try
{
//Loop through the files list
for (int f = 0; f < lstFiles.Length-1; f++)
{
int pages =get_pageCcount(lstFiles[f]);
reader = new PdfReader(lstFiles[f]);
//Add pages of current file
for (int i = 1; i <= pages; i++)
{
importedPage = pdfCopyProvider.GetImportedPage(reader, i);
pdfCopyProvider.AddPage(importedPage);
}
reader.Close();
}
//At the end save the output file
sourceDocument.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw ex;
}
private int get_pageCcount(string file)
{
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(File.OpenRead(file)))
{
Regex regex = new Regex(#"/Type\s*/Page[^s]");
MatchCollection matches = regex.Matches(sr.ReadToEnd());
return matches.Count;
}
}

ITextSharp is the way to go

Although it has already been said, you can't manipulate PDFs with the built-in libraries of the .NET Framework. I can however recommend iTextSharp, which is a .NET port of the Java iText. I have played around with it, and found it to be a very easy tool to use.