The shipped mail merge and database samples for
TX Text Control
.NET use an XML database to keep things simple. But there are more and
more requests for a sample that shows how to realize a mail merge
application with a Microsoft SQL Server database.
Generally, the approach is quite similar: You need to loop through all
merge fields in order to merge the specific values of the database
columns. In this sample, the adapter fields of the DocumentServer
namespace are used. These adapter fields can be used to create and
manipulate specific ApplicationField objects without changing the
ApplicationField.Parameters manually.
The following code is used for the underlying merge process:
Code:
// [C#]
foreach (TXTextControl.ApplicationField field in tx.ApplicationFields)
{
try
{
if (field.TypeName != "MERGEFIELD")
return;
// create a new field adapter
TXTextControl.DocumentServer.Fields.MergeField mf =
new TXTextControl.DocumentServer.Fields.MergeField(field);
if (this.customersDataSet.customers.Columns.Contains(mf.Name) == false)
continue;
// merge the text
field.Text = this.customersDataSet.customers.Rows[
dataGridView1.SelectedRows[0].Index][mf.Name].ToString();
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
MessageBox.Show(exc.Message);
}
}
The sample project comes with a sample MS SQL Server database
file. Using the same approach, you can connect to your SQL Server
database tables to merge database content into MS Word compatible
templates.
Download the Visual Studio 2008 C# project and test it on your own. At
minimum, you need a TX Text Control .NET 15.1 trial version and a
Microsoft SQL Express edition (2005 or 2008).
More information and downloads
here.