SnapDocumentServer.SnapMailMerge(String, DocumentFormat) Method

Starts rendering a mail-merge document and saving it to a file in the specified format.

Namespace: DevExpress.Snap

Assembly: DevExpress.Docs.v19.1.dll

Declaration

C#

public void SnapMailMerge(
    string fileName,
    DocumentFormat format
)

VB.NET

Public Sub SnapMailMerge(
    fileName As String,
    format As DocumentFormat
)

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
fileName	String	A String value, specifying the file name.
format	DocumentFormat	A DocumentFormat structure, specifying the document format.

Example

The following code uses the Snap Report API to generate a mail-merge report in the context of the DevExpress Office File API.

It is a console application that creates a document and then exports it to an RTF file.

To use the SnapDocumentServer, the project requires references to the following assemblies:

• DevExpress.Data.v19.1.dll
• DevExpress.Docs.v19.1.dll
• DevExpress.Office.v19.1.Core.dll
• DevExpress.RichEdit.v19.1.Core.dll
• DevExpress.Snap.v19.1.Core.dll

To perform mail merge, the application requires a template - a file in the native .SNX format which contains the document layout, specific fields and data source information. The template file must be created beforehand using the Snap Design Surface. For an example of template creation, review the Lesson 3 - Create a Mail Merge Report.

The code handles the SnapDocumentServer.SnapMailMergeRecordStarted and SnapDocumentServer.SnapMailMergeRecordFinished events to make adjustments to the merged document created for the particular data record.

The server loads a mail merge template using the RichEditDocumentServer.LoadDocument method. Subsequently, the code creates the SnapMailMergeExportOptions object and assigns the data source by specifying the IDataSourceContainerOptions.DataSource property. The mail merge operation is performed by calling the SnapDocumentServer.SnapMailMerge method.

C#

SnapDocumentServer server = new SnapDocumentServer();

server.SnapMailMergeRecordStarted += server_SnapMailMergeRecordStarted;
server.SnapMailMergeRecordFinished += server_SnapMailMergeRecordFinished;

server.LoadDocument(templateFileName);
object dataSource = CreateDataSource();

SnapMailMergeExportOptions options = server.Document.CreateSnapMailMergeExportOptions();
options.DataSource = dataSource;
Console.Write("Performing mail merge... ");
server.SnapMailMerge(options, outputFileName, DocumentFormat.Rtf);

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.Snap
Imports DevExpress.Snap.Core.API
Imports DevExpress.XtraRichEdit
Imports DevExpress.Snap.Core.Options
Imports MailMergeServer.nwindDataSetTableAdapters
Imports System
Imports System.Data.OleDb
Imports System.IO
' ...

Dim server As New SnapDocumentServer()

AddHandler server.SnapMailMergeRecordStarted, AddressOf server_SnapMailMergeRecordStarted
AddHandler server.SnapMailMergeRecordFinished, AddressOf server_SnapMailMergeRecordFinished

server.LoadDocument(templateFileName)
Dim dataSource As Object = CreateDataSource()

Dim options As SnapMailMergeExportOptions = server.Document.CreateSnapMailMergeExportOptions()
options.DataSource = dataSource
Console.Write("Performing mail merge... ")
server.SnapMailMerge(options, outputFileName, DocumentFormat.Rtf)