How to read and write docx files in Qt

[Dante Pham]

@mrjj Input and Output should be .doc or .docx so that it will be easier for users to modify the files. Changing .doc to .pdf and vice versa is good but doesn't help very much because the core features I intend to implement will, in most cases, involve in working with .doc and .docx

[mrjj]

@Dante-Pham
Ok. well DocX or something like it seems the way to go then.

There is also the option of a pure VBA project. But the widgets you
get there is not as advanced as Qt versions but the merging of docs would
be easy.

[Dante Pham]

@mrjj After doing some research I think DocX may just work. However, I have never had any exprience dealing with .dll files, let alone using it in Qt. Do you have any suggestions on how to use it ?

[Andy314]

Hallo, I think to understand the binary docx structrue is a very hard stuff.
Much more easy it would be to use the AcxtiveX interface for word.
Code something like this:

Open Doc1, select all text, copy to clipboard, close Doc1
open Doc2, set cursor to the end of the document, paste text, save doc2.

The AciteveX interface of Qt is very good and I have much experiences with it. I use it for Excel (fill Tables) and for Access (open Report an export to PDF.

You can hide the office windows by this task, so that the user sees nothing of you tasks.

[mrjj]

@Dante-Pham
Hi.
Using a DLL involves loading it and resolve symbols.
Meaning to be able to run functions from it.
You also need a .h file. (didnt see any?)
You should also get a copy of visual studio as .NET is best/easy/to used from that IDE.
Then you shall google calling a .net DLL from C++ as there might be other things to look out for.

Maybe @VRonin knows a easier way to use the .DLL in Qt.

Update:
Its available via Nuget
so it should be easy to install and try the samples directly in VS.
Then try to mix with Qt.

Update 2:
Using VBA, this short code can merge all docs from a folder.

Sub MergeDocs()
    Dim rng As Range
    Dim MainDoc As Document
    Dim strFile As String, strFolder As String
    Dim Count As Long
    With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
        .Title = "Pick folder"
        .AllowMultiSelect = False
        If .Show Then
            strFolder = .SelectedItems(1) & Application.PathSeparator
        Else
            Exit Sub
        End If
    End With
    Set MainDoc = Documents.Add
    strFile = Dir$(strFolder & "*.docx") ' can change to .doc
    Count = 0
    Do Until strFile = ""
        Count = Count + 1
        Set rng = MainDoc.Range
        With rng
            .Collapse 0
            If Count > 1 Then
                .InsertBreak 2
                .End = MainDoc.Range.End
                .Collapse 0
            End If
            .InsertFile strFolder & strFile
        End With
        strFile = Dir$()
    Loop
    MsgBox ("Files are merged")
lbl_Exit:
    Exit Sub
End Sub

Credits to gmaxey.
http://www.vbaexpress.com/forum/showthread.php?51797-Macro-to-merge-mulitple-word-doc-into-one-word-doc

[VRonin]

For what you need to do I'd point you to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18351829/merge-multiple-word-documents-into-one-open-xml/18352219#18352219

Using .Net dlls in visual studio is extremely easy, just open the project property and add a reference to the .dll, then right click on the .cpp file you need to use the library in, go into properties and activate /clr in the "Common Language RunTime Support" field under general. Now you can use C++/CLI in it which is quite close to C#

[Dante Pham]

@Andy314 I am using ActiveX but i have no idea what functions are used to do what you describe. Would you mind giving me some examples ? How do I copy and paste ? How to hide the window ?

[Dante Pham]

@mrjj
_ DocX only has a .DLL file and a documentation (.chm file) which is very unfinished. Lots of explainations in there are missing. After a while I found myself lost and my code messed up. I tried emailing the guy and he hasn't replied to me yet. Still, I did try adding library into Qt but it only takes .lib files. I found a documentation which show me how to add .dll files but it still didn't work after numerous tries
_ I don't think Nuget and VBA are going to work for me because I don't know anything about them, which makes it difficult for me to modify and make tweaks to them ( which i am definitely going to ). Still, I have to do more research on them. I will be back very soon

[mrjj]

@Dante-Pham said in How to read and write docx files in Qt:

Nuget

That is just a system to easy get a lib for Visual Studio.
Click and Play , so to speak :)

[Dante Pham]

Ok so thanks to @VRonin , I found this https://youtu.be/qOfiiYP2JTI?t=2m11s , in which is pretty much what I'm looking for ! The only problem is I don't know C# . Is there any way we can do that in Qt in C++ ??

[mrjj]

@Dante-Pham
Well if you know c++ then C# is pretty easy.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yyaad03b(v=vs.90).aspx

I think you can do it almost same way with Visual Studio and c++ but of course the syntax will be
different.

[Dante Pham]

@mrjj Ok I got 5 more days to finish this ... And I have never used visual studio.

[mrjj]

@Dante-Pham
oh. that might be a bit tight then.
Im not sure what he use in the video . maybe this ?
http://www.aspose.com/api/net/words/aspose.words/documentbuilder

[VRonin]

@Dante-Pham said in How to read and write docx files in Qt:

Is there any way we can do that in Qt in C++ ??

As mentioned above you'll need to use a dialec of C++ called C++/CLI.
You can download visual studio from https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/community/ you can find a crash course in the dialect here: https://www.codeproject.com/articles/19354/quick-c-cli-learn-c-cli-in-less-than-minutes
Given the name googling it is a nightmare you are better off just googling stuff in C# and either translate it (it's not that hard) or if you go on msdn the examples are often available in C#, VB.Net and more importantly C++/CLI (see for example https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.mail.smtpclient(v=vs.110).aspx?cs-save-lang=1&cs-lang=cpp)

@Dante-Pham said in How to read and write docx files in Qt:

DocX only has a .DLL file and a documentation

That's all you need, you use #using <DocX.dll> to include it in the source file (that needs to be compiled with the /clr option )

Here you can find a small example of a qmake project using this paradigm

[Devopia53]

@Dante-Pham

Why not use QAxObject for MS ActiveX?
This is the solution you want to use like this:

QString     outFile("C:/test.docx");
QString     inFile1("C:/test1.docx");
QString     inFile2("C:/test2.docx");
QAxObject   axObject("Word.Application");
QAxObject   *documents = axObject.querySubObject("Documents");
QAxObject   *document = documents->querySubObject("Open(const QString&, bool)", inFile1, true);
QAxObject   *selection = axObject.querySubObject("Selection");

selection->dynamicCall("EndKey(QVariant&)", 6); // WdUnits::wdStory=6
selection->dynamicCall("InsertBreak(QVariant&)", 7); // WdBreakType::wdPageBreak=7
selection->dynamicCall("InsertFile(QString&)", inFile2);

document->dynamicCall("SaveAs(const QString&)", outFile);
document->dynamicCall("Close()");
axObject.dynamicCall("Quit()");

You need a validation check for all pointers!

[VRonin]

@Devopia53 said in How to read and write docx files in Qt:

Why not use QAxObject for MS ActiveX

The main point is that to use activeX you need MS Word installed, if you use an independent library you do not

[mrjj]

Hi
In posters use case, there will always be word as the users
will create the input in that application.
However, @VRonin explanation on how to mix .NET with Qt in Visual studio does
sound awfully easy and would most likely be the most straightforward as DocX seems
very high level.
Time is short however and he never used VS before so might be slightly uphill to get going. :)

[Dante Pham]

Just to be clear, MS Word will always be installed along with this app ( if it's not already installed )
Currently I'm using QAxObject, however, I can't find the functions that i need (most importantly copying, pasting and adding customizable-style-strings) anywhere. Having this will probably solve the whole problem.
Using Visual Studio to me is very overwhelming. I lost quite a few times using it. I'm familiar with Dev C++ and CodeBlock and they are quite simple.

[Dante Pham]

@Devopia53 I'm not sure what youre trying to implement there. I tested it out and the three files didnt change at all. If you know how to copy, paste from one docx to another, add strings using QAxWidget, that would be awesome

[Devopia53]

@Dante-Pham

The example I provided is simply merging Document1(inFile1) and Document2(inFile2) to create Document3(outFile).

For more information, check out Microsoft's site.