How to: Load a Document

• Jul 19, 2019
• 2 minutes to read

RichEditDocumentServer allows you to load a document from a file a data stream or a string using the RichEditDocumentServer.LoadDocument method. Handle related events to determine a moment when the document can be modified.

Load a Document from a File

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/word-processing-document-api-examples-t418535

BasicActions.cs

server.LoadDocument("Documents\\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml);

BasicActions.vb

server.LoadDocument("Documents\Grimm.docx", DocumentFormat.OpenXml)

Load a Document from a Stream

The format of the document loaded from a stream is detected automatically by the built-in DevExpress.XtraSpreadsheet.Services.IFormatDetectorService service implementation. The following formats are detected:

• DOC, DOCX, RTF, HTM, HTML, MHT, XML, EPUB;
• ODT - non-encrypted files only;

Use the LoadDocument method overloads with explicit format definition to improve performance.

C#

using System.IO;
using DevExpress.XtraRichEdit;
using DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native;
using System.Reflection;
// ...
// 
// Load document from stream
using(Stream stream = GetResourceStream("MyApplication.Document1.rtf"))
{
    stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
    richEditDocumentServer1.LoadDocument(stream, DocumentFormat.Rtf);
    stream.Close();
}
static Stream GetResourceStream(string resourceName)
{
    return Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName);
}

VB.NET

Imports System.IO
Imports DevExpress.XtraRichEdit
Imports DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.API.Native
Imports System.Reflection
' ...
' Load document from stream
Using stream As Stream = GetResourceStream("MyApplication.Document1.rtf")
    stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin)
    richEditDocumentServer1.LoadDocument(stream, DocumentFormat.Rtf)
    stream.Close()
End Using

Private Shared Function GetResourceStream(ByVal resourceName As String) As Stream
    Return Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName)
End Function
' Load document from file
Private Sub btnLoadFile_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)  _
        Handles btnLoadFile.Click
    richEditControl1.LoadDocument("Document1.rtf",DocumentFormat.Rtf)
End Sub

Load a Document from a String

Use one of the following properties to load a string in the specific format:

• Document.Text
• Document.RtfText
• Document.OpenXmlBytes
• Document.DocBytes
• Document.WordMLText
• Document.MhtText
• Document.HtmlText

The code sample below load an RTF string:

C#

string rtfString = @"{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1049
{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}
{\f1\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue255;}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 Test.\cf0\b0\f1\fs20\par}";
Document document = server.Document;
document.RtfText = rtfString;

VB.NET

Dim rtfString As String = "{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1049" & ControlChars.CrLf & _
"{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}" & ControlChars.CrLf & _
"{\f1\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}}" & ControlChars.CrLf & _
"{\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue255;}" & ControlChars.CrLf & _
"\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\lang1033\b\f0\fs32 Test.\cf0\b0\f1\fs20\par}"
Dim document As Document = server.Document
document.RtfText = rtfString

Related Events

The table below lists events related to the document load:

Event	Description
RichEditDocumentServer.BeforeImport	Occurs before a document is loaded (imported from an external source).
RichEditDocumentServer.InitializeDocument	Occurs before a document is loaded. Handle this event to set initial document settings.
RichEditDocumentServer.DocumentLoaded	Occurs after a document is loaded.
DocumentLayout.DocumentFormatted	Fires after the document layout is calculated.
RichEditDocumentServer.InvalidFormatException	Fires when the supplied data could not be recognized as data in the assumed format for import.
RichEditDocumentServer.UnhandledException	This event is raised when an exception unhandled by the RichEditDocumentServer occurs.