Generate Document using Multiple Data Sources

You can use multiple data sources with Report Templates to generate Word documents upon template processing. The following example demonstrates how to generate a Word document with the list of car brands followed by the list of car body styles by using two data sources.

1. Define data in two JSON datasources, containing:

   • A list of some popular car makers

   • A list of various car body styles

2. Create a new Word document by instantiating the GcWordDocument class.

3. Add both datasources with specified data by using Add method of the IDictionary interface.

4. Add template tags in a paragraph by using Add method of the ParagraphCollection class.

5. Process the template by using Process method and save the final Word document.

   {
    var makes = "[" +
        "{ \"make\": \"Toyota\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"General Motors\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Volkswagen\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Ford\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"BMW\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Nissan\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Hyundai\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Honda\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Mazda\" }," +
        "{ \"make\": \"Jaguar\" }," +
        "]";
    var bodyStyles = "[" +
        "{ \"style\": \"Sedan\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"Coupe\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"Hatchback\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"SUV\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"Crossover\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"Minivan\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"Pickup\" }," +
        "{ \"style\": \"Wagon\" }," +
        "]";
   
    var doc = new GcWordDocument();
   
    // Add the data sources
    doc.DataTemplate.DataSources.Add("makes", makes);
    doc.DataTemplate.DataSources.Add("styles", bodyStyles);
   
    // Print the list of some car makes
    doc.Body.Paragraphs.Add("Popular Car Makers", doc.Styles[BuiltInStyleId.Heading2]);
    doc.Body.Paragraphs.Add("{{#makes}}{{makes.make}}{{/makes}}", doc.Styles[BuiltInStyleId.ListBullet]);
   
    // Print the list of car body styles
    doc.Body.Paragraphs.Add("Car Body Styles", doc.Styles[BuiltInStyleId.Heading2]);
    doc.Body.Paragraphs.Add("{{#styles}}{{styles.style}}{{/styles}}", doc.Styles[BuiltInStyleId.ListBullet]);
   
    doc.DataTemplate.Process();
    doc.Save("MultipleDataSources.docx");

The output of above code will look like below in the Word document:

Limitation

While using different datasources, there may be identical paths (like {{ds1.employee.name}} and {{ds2.employee.name}}). Hence, the fully qualified template tag should be used which includes the name of datasource. The unqualified tags (like {{employee.name}}) will throw an exception.