Databinding in existing XPS document

Question

I have an existing XPS file that I would like to use as a template and possibly bind data to it. I have tried several methods, but cannot seem to get it to work.

Does anyone have any experience altering an existing XPS file to add data at runtime and then print or save?

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

XPS documents conform to the Open XML standard. There is an SDK for working with these docs. Here is a How-to article by Beth Massi: "Accessing Open XML Document Parts with the Open XML SDK".

Since you are working with the internal doc structure you might also check out 'Open XML Package Editor" which lets you explore the doc with Visual Studio. Here is another How-to by Beth Massi: "Handy Visual Studio Add-In to View Office 2007 Files".

+tom

Answer 2

Hi,

it's a bit of a challenge to do this with XPS, but it is possible.

You can do this with our NiXPS SDK. I've posted an example on my blog a while ago:

XPS variable data example

Regards,

Nick

Answer 3

Bindings are evaluated during the process of writing to an XPS document. So you can't set up a {Binding} in a FixedDocument, Write that FD to an XpsDocument, and expect to get that original FD back again when you next open that saved doc.

Also, the standard XpsWriter does convert everything into Glyphs on canvases, so you can't, say, a textbox in the original and expect to be able to find it after its been saved to a document.

I've never used the NiXPS libraries, so if Nick says it can be done you might want to check it out.

One last possibility--You can create placeholders in a form that you will be able to find later. They'd have to be text (something like [[{{FORMFIELDHERELOL}}]]) with some kind of delimiter scheme to differentiate the text from everything else. You could then go spelunking in the XML looking for text that fits the delimeter pattern and switch out those glyphs for your binding text. Of course, the issue with THAT is that if you aren't putting X chars in place of X chars you might find you have to do some repositioning. As its all glyphs on canvas this might be slightly harder than, say, threading a needle with a shoelace.