setValue Multi-Line Value

[martindavis]

Thank you for the amazing library! This has made my life much easier!

I am using your library to automatically fill out a packing slip. In order to make it easier to maintain and change, I am loading a Word Document as a Template, and then using setValue() to update variables. The template I am using has a lot of formatting and I would really prefer to avoid doing it in code if at all possible. It would also make it practically impossible for non-coders to update the template.

The issue I'm having is that I need to insert a multi-line replacement in several places (address, order notes, etc). Are there any plans to implement this in the future? Or am I missing another way to solve this problem, such as XSLT?

I could extend the Template Class with a setValueForPartMulti() and if I understand Word's Format correctly, my xml would need to look like the following:

 <w:r>
  <w:t>Hello</w:t>
  <w:br/>
  <w:t>world</wt>
</w:r>

Could I simply have my custom function preg_replace('\r\n', '<w:br/>', $value)? Would any issues arise from doing this?

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[ivanlanin]

You're welcome, @martindavis. I'm glad that PHPWord can helps you.

I haven't used template processor too much because, until now, I use PHPWord to create documents from scratch. I will start using it. In the meantime, I hope others can help answer your question.

[martindavis]

Hi @ivanlanin I have solved it! In Template.php, line 340 add:

$replace = preg_replace('~\R~u', '</w:t><w:br/><w:t>', $replace);

Interestingly enough, Word 2010 and Word 2003 do not have a problem if I just use '<w:br/>', but OpenOffice 3.4 does not recognize the newlines. If I use '</w:t><w:br/></wt>', Word 2010, Word 2003 and OpenOffice 3.4 recognize the newline character.

I think the decision from here is whether we use '~\R~u' or '~(*BSR_ANYCRLF)\R~'. The first is interpreted as (?>\r\n|\n|\r|\f|\x0b|\x85|\x{2028}|\x{2029}) while the second is interpreted as (?>\r\n|\n|\r). The first may be better because of line 338 where utf8_encode() is used. Adding ~u to the expression adds support for UTF-8 and ASCII. Source:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18988536/php-regex-how-to-match-r-and-n-without-using-r-n

Let me know which expression is better and I'll gladly fork to add the feature!

[ivanlanin]

Thanks @martindavis. @RomanSyroeshko, perhaps you have some view about this? Thanks.

Hi, guys.

The problem is the similar to the one described here. Briefly, I can say the following.

Hardcoding XML tags in such way is a bad design. We need to let TemplateProcessor load documents as a bunch of objects (it deals with XML for now), but we have no volunteers who can suggest good implementation. I would like to implement this, but have no time because of job search. :(

Hi,
@ivanlanin is right.

ON Function : protected function setValueForPart($documentPartXML, $search, $replace, $limit)

AFTER : $replace = htmlspecialchars($replace);
$replace = preg_replace('(*BSR_ANYCRLF)\R', '< w : b r / >', $replace);

Will do the trick.

[lekoala]

I have used @martindavis solution and it works like a charm. A real improvement over current situation in my opinion.

[AndyWaters]

Both of these lines worked for me.

$replace = preg_replace('\Ru', '/w:t<w:br/><w:t>', $replace);
$replace = preg_replace('(*BSR_ANYCRLF)\R', '< w : b r / >', $replace);

However, I had to add into TemplateProcessor.php at line 352 because of a later version.

Thanks Andy

[kuamatzin]

Not working for me!

Any suggestions?

protected function setValueForPart($documentPartXML, $search, $replace, $limit)
{
if (substr($search, 0, 2) !== '${' && substr($search, -1) !== '}') {
$search = '${' . $search . '}';
}

    if (!String::isUTF8($replace)) {
        $replace = utf8_encode($replace);
    }

    //Lines added
    $replace = preg_replace('~\R~u', '/w:t', $replace);
    $replace = preg_replace('~(*BSR_ANYCRLF)\R~', '< w : b r / >', $replace);

    // Note: we can't use the same function for both cases here, because of performance considerations.
    if (self::MAXIMUM_REPLACEMENTS_DEFAULT === $limit) {
        return str_replace($search, $replace, $documentPartXML);
    } else {
        $regExpDelim = '/';
        $escapedSearch = preg_quote($search, $regExpDelim);
        return preg_replace("{$regExpDelim}{$escapedSearch}{$regExpDelim}u", $replace, $documentPartXML, $limit);
    }
}

And i'm using it: $document->setValue("hello", "hello \n world"));

[maninderx]

@kuamatzin

Did you get it to work? Where did you put the code?

[kuamatzin]

@maninderx No yet =(

[smandpartners-sipuni]

@kuamatzin
this worked for me
`

        //Lines added
        $replace = preg_replace('~\R~u', '</w:t><w:br/><w:t>', $replace);

`