“Mail Merge” System for XML and Microsoft Word

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This project is a sample of how you can merge XML-files with a MS Word template. This
makes it easy to create a mailmerge-system. I’ve created a ActiveX DLL to perform the
mailmerge. This makes it very easy to reuse this code in other applications.

An example

When you have a customer-database and you want to write a letter to each of your
customers, the only thing you have to do is to create a Word-template and a XML-file with
the data of the customers.

This is an example of a XML-file with customer-data:

<?xml version = "1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE DOCUMENT [
  <!ELEMENT DOCUMENT (CUSTOMER)*>
  <!ELEMENT CUSTOMER (NAME, ADDRESS, ORDERS)>
  <!ELEMENT NAME (LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME)>
  <!ELEMENT LASTNAME (#PCDATA)>
  <!ELEMENT FIRSTNAME (#PCDATA)>
  <!ELEMENT ADDRESS (STREET, POSTAL, LOCATION)>
  <!ELEMENT STREET (#PCDATA)>
  <!ELEMENT POSTAL (#PCDATA)>
  <!ELEMENT LOCATION (#PCDATA)>
  <!ELEMENT ORDERS (ITEM)*>
  <!ELEMENT ITEM (PRODUCT, PRICE)>
  <!ELEMENT PRODUCT (#PCDATA)>
  <!ELEMENT PRICE (#PCDATA)>
]>

<DOCUMENT>
  <CUSTOMER>
    <NAME>
      <LASTNAME>Braem</LASTNAME>
      <FIRSTNAME>Franky</FIRSTNAME>
    </NAME>
    <ADDRESS>
      <STREET>Jan Van Rijswijcklaan</STREET>
      <POSTAL>2000</POSTAL>
      <LOCATION>Antwerp</LOCATION>
    </ADDRESS>
    <ORDERS>
      <ITEM>
        <PRODUCT>Computer</PRODUCT>
        <PRICE>54.995</PRICE>
      </ITEM>
      <ITEM>
        <PRODUCT>Printer</PRODUCT>
        <PRICE>12.990</PRICE>
      </ITEM>
    </ORDERS>
  </CUSTOMER>

  <CUSTOMER>
      <NAME>
      <LASTNAME>De Smet</LASTNAME>
      <FIRSTNAME>Nathalie</FIRSTNAME>
    </NAME>
    <ADDRESS>
      <STREET>Kruidtuinlaan</STREET>
      <POSTAL>1000</POSTAL>
      <LOCATION>Brussel</LOCATION>
    </ADDRESS>
    <ORDERS>
      <ITEM>
        <PRODUCT>GSM</PRODUCT>
        <PRICE>9.895</PRICE>
      </ITEM>
    </ORDERS>
  </CUSTOMER>
</DOCUMENT>

Click here for larger image

This is an example of a Word-template:

Properties

Property	Type	Description
DocumentPrefix	String	The name of each new document is a number. With this property you can specify a prefix to use in the name of document.
Path	String	The path where the Word documents should be stored
WordTemplate	String	The name of the Word-template.
XMLFile	String	The name of the XMLFile.
XMLString	String	A string with the XML-data.

Methodes

Methode	Returns	Parameters	Description
Execute	Boolean	/	Performs the mailmerge. Returns False when an error occurred.

Downloads

Download demo project – 10 Kb

Download source – 14Kb