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hari0002
August 19, 2022
Solved

Issue - MS Word 2007 Doc from Template

  • August 19, 2022
  • 3 replies
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Hi,

I am trying to generate a word document using "MS Word 2007 Doc from Template".

The element which I am passing to a process model is having data like "Test & 1234". When I try to generate the document with this value, it is throwing an error when I try to open the generated document.

Where as if I updated the value with "Test1234" and generate the document, I was able to open the word document without any issues.

Any advises please.

Let me know if you want any further details.

    Best answer by mikes0011

    You beat me to it, lol - yes, a long time ago I developed the following expression rule that all un-sanitized text should be passed through when using this smart service.  Note this is only really needed when the incoming text will be variable (i.e. where there's a possibility that special characters will sneak in).  This is what I still use now.

    /* Expression Rule i.e. APP_UTIL_sanitizeTextForWordDocx */

a!localVariables(
  local!characters: {
    "&",
    ">",
    "<",
    char(10),
    char(13)
  }, /* the ordering of these is important. */

  local!replacements: {
    tohtml("&"),
    tohtml(">"),
    tohtml("<"),
     ,  /* inserts a Word linebreak */
    ""
  },

  reduce(
    fn!substitute,
    trim(ri!input),
    a!forEach(
      local!characters,
      {
        fv!item,
        local!replacements[fv!index]
      }
    )
  )
)

    3 replies

    mikes0011
    mikes0011
    Brainy
    August 19, 2022

    The Word from Template smart service does not sanitize passed-in text, meaning some of the special characters used in WordML (the special XML flavor used in the back-end in word documents) will cause the document to "break" if passed in un-sanitized.

    The Expression Guru
    H
    hari0002Author
    August 19, 2022

    Do I need to use any kind of functions to avoid this issue. Please advise.

    mikes0011
    mikes0011Answer
    Brainy
    August 19, 2022

    You beat me to it, lol - yes, a long time ago I developed the following expression rule that all un-sanitized text should be passed through when using this smart service.  Note this is only really needed when the incoming text will be variable (i.e. where there's a possibility that special characters will sneak in).  This is what I still use now.

    /* Expression Rule i.e. APP_UTIL_sanitizeTextForWordDocx */

a!localVariables(
  local!characters: {
    "&",
    ">",
    "<",
    char(10),
    char(13)
  }, /* the ordering of these is important. */

  local!replacements: {
    tohtml("&"),
    tohtml(">"),
    tohtml("<"),
     ,  /* inserts a Word linebreak */
    ""
  },

  reduce(
    fn!substitute,
    trim(ri!input),
    a!forEach(
      local!characters,
      {
        fv!item,
        local!replacements[fv!index]
      }
    )
  )
)

    The Expression Guru
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