How to read and write docx files in Qt

Dante Pham

I tried implementing this:

QFile filein("E:\\QT\\build-untitled-Desktop_Qt_5_7_0_MSVC2015_64bit-Debug\\abc.docx");
    QFile fileout("E:\\QT\\build-untitled-Desktop_Qt_5_7_0_MSVC2015_64bit-Debug\\abc - Copy.docx");
    if(!fileout.open(QFile::WriteOnly | QFile::Text)){
        QMessageBox::warning(this,"title","Out Not Open");
    }
    if(!filein.open(QFile::ReadOnly | QFile::Text)){
        QMessageBox::warning(this,"title","In Not Open");
    }
    QTextStream in(&filein);
    QTextStream out(&fileout);
    QString text = in.readAll();
    out << text;
    filein.flush();
    fileout.flush();
    filein.close();
    fileout.close();

I opened the fileout and it says that the file has been corrupted.
Is there any other way to read and write docx files in Qt ?

SGaist

Hi and welcome to devnet,

You are trying to read a binary file as text and then write that text again and it will be again read as binary. That wont work.

If you just want to copy the file, why not use one of QFile::copy overloads ?

Dante Pham

@SGaist Actually I'm copying multiple files and put it into one. Is there any way I can do that ?

jsulm

@Dante-Pham You want to combine multiple docx files into one? It is not possible with Qt. It will for sure not work if you just append them, even not in binary mode. You either need a library which understands docx format or you need to write docx parser by yourself.

Dante Pham

@jsulm Do you know any other platform like Qt that can read and write multiple docx files like what i mentioned ?

jsulm

@Dante-Pham No I don't. Maybe Microsoft provides something? It is their format. And you can take a look at LibreOffice - it can read/write docx.

VRonin

docx is a zip file so you can understand how your method cannot possibly work.
There is currently no free library in C++ that lets you handle it (a few commercial ones claim to be able to but I never tested them).
The LibreOffice/OpenOffice code to handle MS office files is too linked to the application to be used easily.
There's a .Net library that lets you handle them: https://github.com/WordDocX/DocX so you can use it with C++/CLI if you are ok being tied to .Net

Dante Pham

@VRonin Would you mind telling me exactly how to use this ? I'm not very familiar with .NET.

mrjj

@Dante-Pham
Hi. Even with DocX you will need to understand the actual structure of the document and
merge it by hand adding text to the target doc.
There is no tool i have ever seen that can BINARY merge word docs. (only in very old times)
Also note that DocX only goes to word 2007. Not newer. ( or docs not updated)
But DocX seems very high level.

I have never used .NET from c++. Im sure its pretty easy in Visual Studio but cant confirm.

Can I ask why you want to merge them ?
Also is it a requirement that your app can do it when no Office installed?

Dante Pham

@mrjj Basically I'm trying to make a program that can copy lots of small documents and put it into just one file. It's like you have multiple questions and you merge them into just one test.
Office should always be installed with this program ( except for when it has already been installed )

mrjj

Ok. i see.
Would it be option to do it via pdf or must end result be a doc?

I did something the same with
https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/
(the free command line version)
so made small VBA macro that printed/saved the docs to pdf and then just
ran tool on it. and got perfect pdf from it.

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 :)