Below some snippets with details of a project I worked on for documentation creation workflow. A core focus of the project was reduce the number of steps needed by a person to automate a document creation and distribution process.
At the basis of the organizational knowledge is Microsoft Word and Excel, therefore, we stuck with Microsoft Word and Excel. Given I introduced more base technology, I would have to support more base technology. Therefore, I tried to minimize change and maximize return-on-technology.
Each document was a mail merge file in Microsoft Word. Each mail merged document had multiple receipts, and the routing and packaging of documents could be either physical or E-mail. The physical distribution had a variable number of copies based on receipts, and the E-mail distribution had a single copy with a variable number of recipients.
Now for the code:
Below loads the information into IronRuby:
require 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c'
Below I abstracted the Microsoft Word interface:
class Word
attr_accessor :word, :documents
def self.connect
word = Word.new
word.word = System::Runtime::InteropServices::Marshal.get_active_object("Word.Application")
word.documents = (1..word.word.Documents.Count).inject([]) do | documents, num |
documents && Document.new(:document => word.word.Documents[num])
end
word
end
def self.open
word = Word.new
word.word = Microsoft::Office::Interop::Word::ApplicationClass.new
word.visible
word.documents = []
word
end
def visible
word.visible = true
end
def close(args = {})
args[:force] ||= false
word.Quit(args[:force])
end
def printers
System::Drawing::Printing::PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters.map { | p | p }
end
def active_printer
word.ActivePrinter
end
def active_printer=(arg)
word.ActivePrinter = arg
end
def disable_alerts
word.DisplayAlerts = Microsoft::Office::Interop::Word::WdAlertLevel::wdAlertsNone
end
def enable_alerts
word.DisplayAlerts = Microsoft::Office::Interop::Word::WdAlertLevel::wdAlertsAll
end
end
Below is the Document object. While working, I originally started with Document controlling the Word and Document objects, but eventually realized I needed to split the two:
class Document
attr_accessor :document
def initialize(args = {})
self.document = args[:document]
end
def name
document.Name
end
def ToString
name
end
def self.find(*args)
@@word ||= Word.connect
case
when args[0].is_a?(Fixnum) then
@@word.documents[args[0]] || raise(WordErrors::DocumentNotFound, args.inspect)
when args[0].is_a?(String) then
@@word.documents.find { | document | document.name == args[0] } || raise(WordErrors::DocumentNotFound, args.inspect)
when args[0] == :all then
@@word.documents
else
raise(WordErrors::DocumentNotFound, args.inspect)
end
end
def self.open(file_path = nil)
@@word ||= Word.open
document = Document.new(
:document => !file_path.nil? ?
@@word.word.Documents.Open(System::String.new(file_path)) : @@word.word.Documents.Add
)
@@word.documents << document
document
end
def mailmerge?
document.MailMerge.State != 0
end
def close(args)
save_changes = args[:force] ? false : true
@@word.documents.delete(self)
document.Close(save_changes)
if @@word.documents.length == 0
@@word.close(:force => true)
@@word = nil
end
end
#
# record => Fixnum, :first, :last, :previous, :next, [Fixnums]
#
def goto(record)
return true if record == :current || current_record == record
case
when record.is_a?(Fixnum)
document.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord = record
when record == :last
document.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord = record_count
when record == :first
document.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord = 1
when record == :next
document.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord = current_record + 1
when record == :previous
document.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord = current_record - 1
else
raise(WordErrors::RecordNotFound, "Cannot use '#{record}' to find a record")
end
rescue
raise WordErrors::NotMailMerge unless mailmerge?
end
#
# Expects the following variables to be passed:
#
# action => [:print, :save]
#
# args =>
#
# :records => [:all, :current, :next, :previous, :first, :last]
# :path => path to the directory which will save the files
# :directory_formula => The formula for the directory based on the
# Investors datasource values '#{Inv} - #{Investor}'
# :name => The file name you wish to give the document
#
#
def export(action, args)
set_action(action)
if args[:records] == :all
1.upto(record_count) do | record |
export(action, args.merge(:records => record))
@@word.word.ActiveDocument.Close(0)
end
else # For all other possibilities
goto(args[:records])
export_current
save(args) if action == :save
Document.new(:document => @@word.word.ActiveDocument)
end
end
def save(args)
location = create_directory(args[:path], args[:directory_formula])
url = System::String.new(File.windows_join(location, args[:name]))
puts "Saving: #{url}"
case
when args[:name].downcase =~ /\.pdf$/ then save_as_pdf(url)
when args[:name].downcase =~ /\.doc$/ then save_as_doc(url)
else
raise "Don't know how to save: #{location}"
end
rescue Exception => e
raise WordErrors::CouldNotSave, "Error saving to #{location}\\#{args[:name]}", [e.to_s] + e.backtrace
end
#
# Holder for an array of all the data fields in the DataSource
#
def data_fields
@data_fields ||= return_data_fields
end
#
# Returns the number of records in a DataSource
#
def record_count
@document.MailMerge.DataSource.RecordCount
end
#
# Returns the Row Value for a Particular Column of the
# DataSource
def field_value(index)
index = data_fields.index(index) + 1 if index.is_a?(String)
@document.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields(index).Value
rescue
raise WordErrors::NotMailMerge unless mailmerge?
end
#
# Pass in a formula for fields and it finds and replaces the fields
#
def replace_fields_with_values(formula)
while formula =~ /\#\{([^\}]+)\}/ do
replaced_string = $&
escaped_string = field_value($1)
formula.gsub!(replaced_string, escaped_string)
end
formula
end
def save_as_pdf(url)
@@word.word.ActiveDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat(url, Microsoft::Office::Interop::Word::WdExportFormat::wdExportFormatPDF)
end
def print(args = {})
copies = args[:copies] ? args[:copies].to_i : 1
document.PrintOut(false)
end
private
#
# Creates the Directory to the current record based on the
# path created by the directory formula
#
def create_directory(path, dir_formula)
dir_name = directory_name_from_formula(dir_formula)
dir_path = File.windows_join(path, dir_name)
FileUtils.mkdir_p(dir_path) unless File.exists?(dir_path)
dir_path
end
#
# actions = [:save, :print]
#
def set_action(action)
document.MailMerge.Destination = case
when action == :print then 1
when action == :save then 0
else
raise WordErrors::InvalidAction, action
end
end
#
# Performs the current action as setup by other variables.
# Including set_action. This action will only be used with
# the :save action, since print automatically prints records
#
def export_current
document.MailMerge.DataSource.FirstRecord = current_record
document.MailMerge.DataSource.LastRecord = current_record
document.MailMerge.Execute(false) # false is whether to "Pause"
end
#
# Generates a name for the directory based on the values from
# the record and a formula given by the user
#
def directory_name_from_formula(dir_formula)
dir_name = dir_formula.clone
replace_fields_with_values(dir_name).gsub(/[^A-Za-z0-9\ \-\+\.\,]+/, "-")[0..64].strip
end
#
# Returns an array of all the data fields in the DataSource
def return_data_fields
@data_fields = []
1.upto(@document.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields.Count) do | i |
@data_fields << @document.MailMerge.DataSource.DataFields.Item(i).Name.strip
end
@data_fields
end
#
# Returns the numeric value of the ActiveRecord
#
def current_record
document.MailMerge.DataSource.ActiveRecord
end
def save_as_doc(url)
@@word.word.ActiveDocument.SaveAs(url)
end
end
Working to scrub the data of any domain specific content, then I'll post the full code. If you have any questions, please E-mail me, and I'll answer them.
Chris
