Office File API & Office-Inspired Desktop UI Controls – Tips, Tricks, and a Breaking Change (October 2021)

This post includes a series of interesting support tickets answered throughout August and September along with a breaking change notice. It also includes a list of enhancements made to our Office-inspired product line. We hope you find the contents of this post interesting and of business value. Should you have any questions about this post, feel free to comment below.

Breaking Change

T1032641 - The PdfChoiceFormFieldFacade<T> class and its descendants were changed
https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1032641

With our most recent update (v21.1.6), the MultiSelect and Value properties were moved from the PdfChoiceFormFieldFacade<T> class to its descendants: PdfComboBoxFormFieldFacade and PdfListBoxFormFieldFacade. The latter class now includes a Values property that allows you to specify multiple values for a list box form field.

If you need to specify a single value for a list box form field, use the PdfListBoxFormFieldFacade.Values property in the following manner:

using (PdfDocumentProcessor pdfDocumentProcessor = new PdfDocumentProcessor())
{   
   pdfDocumentProcessor.LoadDocument("Documents//FormDemo.pdf");
   PdfDocumentFacade documentFacade = pdfDocumentProcessor.DocumentFacade;
   PdfAcroFormFacade acroForm = documentFacade.AcroForm;
   PdfListBoxFormFieldFacade listField = acroForm.GetListBoxFormField("List");
   listField.Values = new List<string>() { listField.Items[2].Value };
   pdfDocumentProcessor.SaveDocument("Documents//Result.pdf");
}

Tips & Tricks

Word Processing Document API

• T1019089 - How to use the Word Processing Document API to insert an image into the MVC Rich Text Editor
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1019089

• T1026292 - How to obtain custom document properties
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1026292

  The Document.CustomProperties property returns custom properties. To access an individual property, obtain the property’s name, and pass this name to the indexer. The following code sample retrieves all custom properties:

  using DevExpress.XtraRichEdit;
  using DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native;
  using System.Linq;
  using (RichEditDocumentServer wordProcessor = new RichEditDocumentServer())
  {
    // Load document
    wordProcessor.LoadDocument("Document.docx");               
  
    // Access custom property collection
    DocumentCustomProperties customProperties =
    		wordProcessor.Document.CustomProperties;
  
    for (int i = 0; i <= customProperties.Count-1; i++)
    {
       // Get property name
       string propertyName = customProperties.Names.ElementAt(i);
                    
       // Retrieve property by its name
       var property = customProperties[propertyName];
  
       // Your code here
     }
  }

• T1025985 - How to display a Data Table below a chart
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1025985

WinForms and WPF Rich Text Editors

• T1024436 - How to copy and paste data between two Rich Text Editors
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1024436

• T1023401 - How to create a check box
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1023401

• T1030196 - How to highlight text in the Rich Text Editor without affecting the Undo/Redo operations
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1030196

• T1031306 - How to show a tooltip above DOCVARIABLE fields
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1031306

• T1023404 - How to change the predefined "Standard Colors" collection in the Font Color ribbon item
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1023404/

• T1018913 - How to disable Tab navigation in the read-only Rich Text Editor
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1018913

• T1019920 – How to allow scrolling in the WPF Rich Text Editor located in ScrollViewer
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1019920

• T1029650 - How to show all field codes in a document
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1029650

Spreadsheet Document API

• T1024059 - How to merge data from multiple worksheets into a single worksheet
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1024059

  Call the CellRange.CopyFrom method to copy data (e.g., text, numbers, and formula calculated values) from one worksheet to another. Use the GetDataRange method to retrieve a data range from a source worksheet.

  using DevExpress.Spreadsheet;
  
  using (var targetWorkbook = new Workbook())
  {
  
    // Specify copy options if needed
    targetWorkbook.Options.Copy.KeepSourceThemeColors = true;
    targetWorkbook.Options.Copy.KeepSourceThemeFonts = true;
  
    var targetWorksheet = targetWorkbook.Worksheets[0];
    using (var sourceWorkbook = new Workbook())
    {
       // Load source worksheet
       sourceWorkbook.LoadDocument("merge.xlsx");
       int topRowIndex = 0;
       foreach (var sourceWorksheet in sourceWorkbook.Worksheets)
       {
         if (!sourceWorksheet.HasData)
         continue;
  
         // Retrieve data from source worksheet
         var sourceRange = sourceWorksheet.GetDataRange();
                        
         // Define target worksheet area to paste data
         int rightColumnIndex = sourceRange.ColumnCount - 1;
         int bottomRowIndex = topRowIndex + sourceRange.RowCount - 1;
         var targetRange = targetWorksheet.Range.FromLTRB(0, topRowIndex, 
         		rightColumnIndex, bottomRowIndex );                      
  
         // Copy data from one worksheet to another
         targetRange.CopyFrom(sourceRange, PasteSpecial.Values | PasteSpecial.Formats);
         topRowIndex += sourceRange.RowCount;
       }
    }
    targetWorkbook.SaveDocument("result.xlsx");
  }

WinForms and WPF Spreadsheet Controls

• T1019060 - How to bind the Spreadsheet control to data from a stored procedure
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1019060

• T1025957 - How to resize columns in the read-only Spreadsheet control
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1025957

PDF Document API

• T1025879 - How to add a stamp to a PDF file
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1025879

  You can use the PDF Graphics API to draw an image (stamp) on a page. The code sample below draws an image in the corner of the page:

  using (PdfDocumentProcessor documentProcessor = new PdfDocumentProcessor())
  {
     // Load document
     documentProcessor.LoadDocument("Document.pdf");               
  
     // Create PDF graphics
     using (PdfGraphics graph = documentProcessor.CreateGraphics())
     {
       // Draw image
       graph.DrawImage(File.ReadAllBytes("Documents//stamp.png"),
       	new System.Drawing.PointF(500, 50));                   
  
       // Add image to the page foreground
       graph.AddToPageForeground(documentProcessor.Document.Pages[0]);
     }
     
     // Save the result
     documentProcessor.SaveDocument("result.pdf");
  }

  Note: We are going to enhance annotation support in our upcoming major release (v21.2). Our new API will allow you to add interactive rubber stamp annotations.

Enhancements

Spreadsheet Document API and Spreadsheet Controls (for WinForms and WPF)

• T1024708 - We implemented new ColumnCollection.Insert method overloads that allow you to format inserted columns
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1024708

  ColumnCollection.Insert methods now accept the formatMode parameter and allow you to specify how to format inserted columns. The following options are supported:

  • ColumnFormatMode.FormatAsNext - New columns have the same formatting as the column to the right of inserted columns.
  • ColumnFormatMode.FormatAsPrevious - New columns have the same formatting as the column to the left of inserted columns.
  • ColumnFormatMode.None - Inserted columns have no formatting applied.

  The following example inserts two columns ("B" and "C") with the same format settings as column "A":

  worksheet.Columns.Insert("B", 2, ColumnFormatMode.FormatAsPrevious);

• T1017380 – We added a SpreadsheetCompatibilityOptions.TruncateLongStringsInFormulas option to load documents containing formulas with text values longer than 255 characters
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1017380

  Disable this property to allow users to load documents that contain formulas with string values longer than 255 characters.

  spreadsheetControl1.Options.Compatibility.TruncateLongStringsInFormulas = false;

  Consider the following restrictions:

  • The following message appears when a user edits a formula with string values longer than 255 characters:

  • Text values in formulas are truncated to 255 characters when you export a document to Excel formats (for example, XLSX, XLSB, XLS, or XML Spreadsheet 2003).

  We recommend that you use the CONCATENATE function or the concatenation operator (&) to create formulas with text values longer than 255 characters. The following example iterates through all formulas in a workbook and splits long strings with the CONCATENATE function:
  Spreadsheet - How to use the CONCATENATE function to update formulas with text values longer than 255 characters

PDF Document API

• T1019054 - We added a PdfSignatureInfo.Contents property to return signature contents
  https://supportcenter.devexpress.com/ticket/details/t1019054

  Call the PdfDocumentSigner.GetSignatureInfo method to retrieve the list of PdfSignatureInfo objects that contain information about document signatures. Use the Contents property to obtain content bytes for each signature.

  using (var signer = new PdfDocumentSigner(fileName))
  {  
    var signatures = signer.GetSignatureInfo();
    if (signatures.Count > 0)     
    {
      // Return the first signature value.
      var signatureBytes = signatures[0].Contents;
    }
  }

New Example: Word Processing Document API

This new example demonstrates how to use the Layout API to execute the following page actions:

• Get page text
• Get page number and page count
• Search for text on a specific page

Use the RichEditDocumentServer.DocumentLayout property as an entry point to the Layout API.

Layout API - How to perform page-based operations

As always, if you’ve come across an interesting support ticket you’d like to share with the rest of the DevExpress developer community, please comment below and include the appropriate link.