GroupDocs.Assembly for Java 19.10 Release Notes

Major Features

Simplified working with XML and CSV data sources.

Full List of Features Covering all Changes in this Release

KeySummaryCategory
ASSEMBLYNET-122 Simplify working with XML data sources Feature 
ASSEMBLYNET-124 Support working with CSV data sources Feature 
ASSEMBLYNET-120 List numbering restart changes list indent for emails with HTML bodies Bug 

Public API and Backward Incompatible Changes 

Simplified working with XML data sources

To access XML data while building a report, you can use facilities of DataSet to read XML into it and then pass it to the assembler as a data source. However, if your scenario does not permit to specify XML schema while loading XML into DataSet, all attributes and text values of XML elements are loaded as strings then. Thus, it becomes impossible, for example, to use arithmetic operations on numbers or to specify custom date-time and numeric formats to output orresponding values, because all of them are treated as strings. To overcome this limitation, you can pass an XmlDataSource instance to the assembler as a data source instead. Even when XML schema is not provided, XmlDataSource is capable to recognize values of the following types by their string representations:

  • Integer
  • Long
  • Double
  • Boolean
  • Date

In template documents, if a top-level XML element contains only a sequence of elements of the same type, an XmlDataSource instance should be treated in the same way as if it was a DataTable instance (see “Working with DataTable and DataView Objects” for more information) as shown in the following example.

XML

John Doe 30 1989-04-01 4:00:00 pm Jane Doe 27 1992-01-31 07:00:00 am John Smith 51 1968-03-08 1:00:00 pm

Template document

«foreach [in persons]»Name: «[Name]», Age: «[Age]», Date of Birth: «[Birth]:“dd.MM.yyyy”» «/foreach» Average age: «[persons.average(p => p.Age)]»

Source code

String template_doc_path = ... // Path for template doc
string report_doc_path = ... // path for report doc
XmlDataSource dataSource = ... // Loading XML (without schema).
DocumentAssembler assembler = new DocumentAssembler();
assembler.assembleDocument(template_doc_path, report_doc_path, new DataSourceInfo(dataSource, "persons"));

Result document

Name: John Doe, Age: 30, Date of Birth: 01.04.1989 Name: Jane Doe, Age: 27, Date of Birth: 31.01.1992 Name: John Smith, Age: 51, Date of Birth: 08.03.1968 Average age: 36

If a top-level XML element contains attributes or nested elements of different types, an XmlDataSource instance should be treated in template documents in the same way as if it was a DataRow instance (see “Working with DataRow and DataRowView Objects” for more information) as shown in the following example.

XML

John Doe 30 1989-04-01 4:00:00 pm Ann Doe Charles Doe

Template document

Name: «[Name]», Age: «[Age]», Date of Birth: «[Birth]:“dd.MM.yyyy”» Children: «foreach [in Child]»«[Child_Text]» «/foreach»

Source code

String template_doc_path = ... // Path for template doc
String report_doc_path = ... // path for report doc
XmlDataSource dataSource = ... // Loading XML (without schema).
DocumentAssembler assembler = new DocumentAssembler();
assembler.assembleDocument(template_doc_path, report_doc_path, new DataSourceInfo(dataSource));

Result document

Name: John Doe, Age: 30, Date of Birth: 01.04.1989 Children: Ann Doe Charles Doe

The following example sums up typical scenarios involving nested complex-type XML elements.

XML

John Smith A Company 1200000 B Ltd. 750000 C & D 350000 Tony Anderson E Corp. 650000 F & Partners 550000 July James G & Co. 350000 H Group 250000 I & Sons 43 100000 J Ent. 100000

Template document

«foreach [in managers]»Manager: «[Name]» Contracts: «foreach [in Contract]»- «[Client.Name]» ($«[Price]») «/foreach» «/foreach»

Source code

String template_doc_path = ... // Path for template doc
String report_doc_path = ... // path for report doc
XmlDataSource dataSource = ... // Loading XML (without schema).
DocumentAssembler assembler = new DocumentAssembler();
assembler.assembleDocument(template_doc_path, report_doc_path, new DataSourceInfo(dataSource, "managers"));

Result document

Manager: John Smith Contracts:

  • A Company ($1200000)
  • B Ltd. ($750000)
  • C & D ($350000) Manager: Tony Anderson Contracts:
  • E Corp. ($650000)
  • F & Partners ($550000) Manager: July James Contracts:
  • G & Co. ($350000)
  • H Group ($250000)
  • I & Sons ($100000)
  • J Ent. ($100000)

Supported working with CSV data sources

To access CSV data while building a report, you can pass a CsvDataSource instance to the assembler as a data source. Using of CsvDataSource enables you to work with typed values rather than just strings in template documents. Although CSV as a format does not define a way to store values of types other than strings, CsvDataSource is capable to recognize values of the following types by their string representations:

  • Integer
  • Long
  • Double
  • Boolean
  • Date 

In template documents, a CsvDataSource instance should be treated in the same way as if it was a DataTable instance (see “Working with DataTable and DataView Objects” for more information) as shown in the following example.

CSV

John Doe,30,1989-04-01 4:00:00 pm Jane Doe,27,1992-01-31 07:00:00 am John Smith,51,1968-03-08 1:00:00 pm

Template document

«foreach [in persons]»Name: «[Column1]», Age: «[Column2]», Date of Birth: «[Column3]:“dd.MM.yyyy”» «/foreach» Average age: «[persons.average(p => p.Column2)]»

Source code

String template_doc_path = ... // Path for template doc
String report_doc_path = ... // path for report doc
CsvDataSource dataSource = ... // Loading CSV.
DocumentAssembler assembler = new DocumentAssembler();
assembler.assembleDocument(template_doc_path, report_doc_path, new DataSourceInfo(dataSource, "persons"));

Result document

Name: John Doe, Age: 30, Date of Birth: 01.04.1989 Name: Jane Doe, Age: 27, Date of Birth: 31.01.1992 Name: John Smith, Age: 51, Date of Birth: 08.03.1968 Average age: 36

By default, CsvDataSource uses column names such as “Column1”, “Column2”, and so on, as you can see from the previous example. However, CsvDataSource can be configured to read column names from the first line of CSV data as shown in the following example.

CSV

Name,Age,Birth John Doe,30,1989-04-01 4:00:00 pm Jane Doe,27,1992-01-31 07:00:00 am John Smith,51,1968-03-08 1:00:00 pm

Template document

«foreach [in persons]»Name: «[Name]», Age: «[Age]», Date of Birth: «[Birth]:“dd.MM.yyyy”» «/foreach» Average age: «[persons.average(p => p.Age)]»

Source code

String template_doc_path = ... // Path for template doc
String report_doc_path = ... // path for report doc
CsvDataLoadOptions options = new CsvDataLoadOptions(true);
CsvDataSource dataSource = new CsvDataSource(..., options); // Loading CSV.
DocumentAssembler assembler = new DocumentAssembler();
assembler.assembleDocument(template_doc_path, report_doc_path, new DataSourceInfo(dataSource, "persons"));

Result document

Name: John Doe, Age: 30, Date of Birth: 01.04.1989 Name: Jane Doe, Age: 27, Date of Birth: 31.01.1992 Name: John Smith, Age: 51, Date of Birth: 08.03.1968 Average age: 36

Also, you can use CsvDataLoadOptions to customize the following characters playing special roles while loading CSV data:

  • Value separator (the default is comma)
  • Single-line comment start (the default is sharp)
  • Quotation mark enabling to use other special characters within a value (the default is double quotes)