using Aspose Words to replace page numbers with barcodes

Question

this may be a silly question but I cannot work out an answer to it and after a day I am turning to the community at large for help...

I am using Aspose for Word (C# or .Net) and I am trying to replace the generated page numbering for barcode images of my own creation. I can use fonts to do it currently but I have found they are less reliable with my barcode reader and thus need to be able to read the value from the page numbering and replace it with an image of my own creation.

So really I need to find the numbering container, read the value in it and replace it. Once I have that creating the barcode and inserting it is easy.

Can anyone help?

The current method (sorry its messy but i keep trying new things):

internal static void SetFooters(ref Document doc)
    {
        doc.FirstSection.HeadersFooters.LinkToPrevious(false);
        var builder = new DocumentBuilder(doc);
        builder.MoveToDocumentStart();
        Section currentSection = builder.CurrentSection;
        PageSetup pageSetup = currentSection.PageSetup;
        int totalPages = doc.PageCount;
        int j = 1;
        foreach (Section sect in doc.Sections)
        {
            //Loop through all headers/footers
            foreach (HeaderFooter hf in sect.HeadersFooters)
            {
                if (
                hf.HeaderFooterType == HeaderFooterType.FooterPrimary || hf.HeaderFooterType == HeaderFooterType.FooterEven || hf.HeaderFooterType == HeaderFooterType.FooterFirst)
                {
                    builder.MoveToHeaderFooter(hf.HeaderFooterType);
                    Field page = builder.InsertField("PAGE");
                    builder.Document.UpdatePageLayout();
                    try
                    {
                        page.Update();
                    }
                    catch { }

                    int pageNumber = j;
                    if (int.TryParse(page.Result, out pageNumber))
                    { j++; }
                    // Remove PAGE field.
                    page.Remove();
                    builder.Write(string.Format("{0}/{1}", pageNumber, totalPages));
                }
            }
        }
    }

Answer 1

HeaderFooter is a section-level node and can only be a child of Section. The page field inside the header/footer returns the latest updated value and it will be same value for all pages of a section.

In your case, I suggest you to insert text-box at the top/bottom of each page and inset the desired contents in it. Following code example inserts the text-box on each page of document and insert page field and some text in it. Hope this helps you.

public static void InsertTextBoxAtEachPage()
{
    string filePathIn = MyDir + @"input.docx";
    string filePathOut = MyDir + @"output.docx";

    Document doc = new Document(filePathIn);

    DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(doc);
    LayoutCollector collector = new LayoutCollector(doc);

    int pageIndex = 1;
    foreach (Section section in doc.Sections)
    {
        NodeCollection paragraphs = section.Body.GetChildNodes(NodeType.Paragraph, true);
        foreach (Paragraph para in paragraphs)
        {
            if (collector.GetStartPageIndex(para) == pageIndex)
            {
                builder.MoveToParagraph(paragraphs.IndexOf(para), 0);
                builder.StartBookmark("BM_Page" + pageIndex);
                builder.EndBookmark("BM_Page" + pageIndex);
                pageIndex++;
            }
        }
    }

    collector = new LayoutCollector(doc);
    LayoutEnumerator layoutEnumerator = new LayoutEnumerator(doc);

    const int PageRelativeY = 0;
    const int PageRelativeX = 0;

    foreach (Bookmark bookmark in doc.Range.Bookmarks)
    {
        if (bookmark.Name.StartsWith("BM_"))
        {
            Paragraph para = (Paragraph)bookmark.BookmarkStart.ParentNode;

            Shape textbox = new Shape(doc, Aspose.Words.Drawing.ShapeType.TextBox);

            textbox.Top = PageRelativeY;
            textbox.Left = PageRelativeX;

            int currentPageNumber = collector.GetStartPageIndex(para);

            string barcodeString = string.Format("page {0} of {1}", currentPageNumber, doc.PageCount);
            string barcodeEncodedString = "some barcode string";

            Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph(doc);
            ParagraphFormat paragraphFormat = paragraph.ParagraphFormat;
            paragraphFormat.Alignment = ParagraphAlignment.Center;
            Aspose.Words.Style paragraphStyle = paragraphFormat.Style;
            Aspose.Words.Font font = paragraphStyle.Font;
            font.Name = "Tahoma";
            font.Size = 12;
            paragraph.AppendChild(new Run(doc, barcodeEncodedString));
            textbox.AppendChild(paragraph);

            paragraph = new Paragraph(doc);
            paragraphFormat = paragraph.ParagraphFormat;
            paragraphFormat.Alignment = ParagraphAlignment.Center;

            paragraphStyle = paragraphFormat.Style;
            font = paragraphStyle.Font;
            font.Name = "Arial";
            font.Size = 10;
            paragraph.AppendChild(new Run(doc, barcodeString));
            textbox.AppendChild(paragraph);

            //Set the width height according to your requirements
            textbox.Width = doc.FirstSection.PageSetup.PageWidth;
            textbox.Height = 50;
            textbox.BehindText = false;

            para.AppendChild(textbox);

            textbox.RelativeHorizontalPosition = Aspose.Words.Drawing.RelativeHorizontalPosition.Page;
            textbox.RelativeVerticalPosition = Aspose.Words.Drawing.RelativeVerticalPosition.Page;

            bool isInCell = bookmark.BookmarkStart.GetAncestor(NodeType.Cell) != null;
            if (isInCell)
            {
                var renderObject = collector.GetEntity(bookmark.BookmarkStart);
                layoutEnumerator.Current = renderObject;

                layoutEnumerator.MoveParent(LayoutEntityType.Cell);
                RectangleF location = layoutEnumerator.Rectangle;

                textbox.Top = PageRelativeY - location.Y;
                textbox.Left = PageRelativeX - location.X;
            }
        }
    }

    doc.Save(filePathOut, SaveFormat.Docx);
}

I work with Aspose as Developer evangelist.