How to mail merge a Word document in Xamarin.Forms

Mail merge is a process of merging data from a data source to a Word template document. Syncfusion Essential DocIO is a Xamarin Word library used to generate reports like invoices, payrolls, letters, etc., by performing mail merge faster in a batch process without Microsoft Word or interop dependencies. Using this library, you can mail merge Word documents in Xamarin.

Steps to Mail Merge a Word document programmatically:

1. Create a new Xamarin.Forms application project.
2. Select a project template and required platforms to deploy the application. In this application, the portable assemblies are shared across multiple platforms, and the .NET Standard code sharing strategy has been selected.
   Note:

   If .NET Standard is not available in the code sharing strategy, the Portable Class Library (PCL) can be selected.

3. Install Syncfusion.Xamarin.DocIO NuGet package as a reference to the .NET Standard project in your application from NuGet.org.
4. Add new Forms XAML page in portable project. If there is no XAML page is defined in the App class. Otherwise proceed to the next step.

i)To add the new XAML page, right click on the project and select Add > New Item and add a Forms XAML Page from the list. Name it as MainXamlPage.

ii)  In the App class of the portable project (App.cs), replace the existing constructor of the App class with the code snippet given below, which invokes the MainXamlPage.

C#

public App()
{
    // The root page of your application
    MainPage = new MainXamlPage();
}

5. In the MainXamlPage.xaml, add a new button as shown below.

XAML

<ContentPage xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
             x:Class="GettingStarted. MainXamlPage">
<StackLayout VerticalOptions="Center">
<Button Text="Generate Document" Clicked="OnButtonClicked" HorizontalOptions="Center"/>
</StackLayout> </ContentPage>

6. Include the following namespace in the MainXamlPage.xaml.cs file.

C#

using Syncfusion.DocIO;
using Syncfusion.DocIO.DLS;
using System.Reflection;

7. Include the below code in the click event of the button in MainXamlPage.xaml.cs to mail merge a Word document and save it in a stream.

C#

void OnButtonClicked(object sender, EventArgs args)
{
    // "App" is the class of the portable project.
    Assembly assembly = typeof(App).GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
    // Opens the Word template document
    using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument(assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("GettingStarted.Assets.Letter Formatting.docx"), FormatType.Docx))
    {
        string[] fieldNames = { "ContactName", "CompanyName", "Address", "City", "Country", "Phone" };
        string[] fieldValues = { "Nancy Davolio", "Syncfusion", "507 - 20th Ave. E. Apt. 2A", "Seattle, WA", "USA", "(206) 555-9857-x5467" };
        // Performs the mail merge
        document.MailMerge.Execute(fieldNames, fieldValues);
        MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
        // Saves the Word file to MemoryStream
        document.Save(stream, FormatType.Docx);
        
        // Save the stream as a file in the device and invoke it for viewing
        Xamarin.Forms.DependencyService.Get<ISave>().SaveAndView("Result.docx", "application/msword", stream);
     }
 }

8. Download the helper files from this link and add them to the mentioned project. These helper files allow you to save the stream as a physical file and open the file for viewing.

9. Compile and execute the application. Now this application mail merge Word document.

A complete working example of mail merge Word document in Xamarin can be downloaded from mail merge Word document.zip.

By executing the program, you will get the Word document as follows.

Take a moment to peruse the documentation, where you can find basic Word document processing options along with features like mail merge, merge and split documents, find and replace text in the Word document, and most importantly PDF conversions with code examples.

Explore more about the rich set of Syncfusion Word Framework features.

An online example to perform mail merge in Word documents.

See Also:

Mail Merge Word document in Xamarin.Android

Mail Merge Word document in Xamarin.iOS

Mail Merge Word document in C#

Mail Merge Word document in Windows Forms

Mail Merge Word document in WPF

Mail Merge Word document in UWP

Mail Merge Word document in ASP.NET

Mail Merge Word document in ASP.NET MVC

Mail Merge Word document in ASP.NET Core