Generate document pages preview

GroupDocs.Merger provides PreviewOptions class to specify different options to manage preview of document pages.

Here are the steps to generate document preview with GroupDocs.Merger:

Create new instance of Merger class and pass source document path as a constructor parameter.
Instantiate the PreviewOptions object with:
- delegate for each page stream creation (see event handler CreatePageStream);
- image preview format - PNG / JPG / BMP;
- page numbers to process;
- custom size of preview images (if needed).
  Stream that were created by CreatePageStream delegate will be disposed automatically once after generation of preview image. If you need to implement custom image preview stream disposing you have to pass additional argument ReleasePageStream to clean up resources.
Call GeneratePreview method of Merger class instance and pass PreviewOptions to it.

CreatePageStream delegate implementation

GroupDocs.Merger expects CreatePageStream delegate to obtain each page stream for image preview generation process

private static Stream CreatePageStream(int pageNumber)
{
    string imageFilePath = Path.Combine("GeneratePreviewFolder", "image-" + pageNumber.ToString() + ".jpg");
    var folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(imageFilePath);
    if(!Directory.Exists(folder))
    {
        Directory.CreateDirectory(folder);
    }
    return new System.IO.FileStream(imageFilePath, FileMode.Create);
}

ReleasePageStream delegate implementation

private static void ReleasePageStream(int pageNumber, Stream pageStream)
{
     pageStream.Dispose();
     string imageFilePath = Path.Combine("GeneratePreviewFolder", "image-" + pageNumber.ToString() + ".jpg");
     Console.WriteLine("Image file {0} is ready for preview", imageFilePath);
}

Generate document preview from file on local disk

public static void GetPreview()
{   
    string filePath = @"c:\sample.xlsx";
    using (Merger merger = new Merger(filePath))
    {
        IPreviewOptions previewOption = new PreviewOptions(CreatePageStream, PreviewMode.JPEG);
        merger.GeneratePreview(previewOption);
    }
}
 
private static Stream CreatePageStream(int pageNumber)
{
    string imageFilePath = Path.Combine("GeneratePreviewFolder", "image-" + pageNumber.ToString() + ".jpg");
    var folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(imageFilePath);
    if(!Directory.Exists(folder))
    {
        Directory.CreateDirectory(folder);
    }
    return new System.IO.FileStream(imageFilePath, FileMode.Create);
}

Generate document preview from stream with custom stream releasing delegate

public static void GetPreview()
{
    string filePath = @"c:\sample.xlsx";
    using (Merger merger = new Merger(filePath))
    {
        IPreviewOptions previewOption = new PreviewOptions(CreatePageStream, ReleasePageStream, PreviewMode.JPEG);
        merger.GeneratePreview(previewOption);
    }
}
 
private static Stream CreatePageStream(int pageNumber)
{
    string imageFilePath = Path.Combine("GeneratePreviewFolder", "image-" + pageNumber.ToString() + ".jpg");
    var folder = Path.GetDirectoryName(imageFilePath);
    if(!Directory.Exists(folder))
    {
        Directory.CreateDirectory(folder);
    }
    return new System.IO.FileStream(imageFilePath, FileMode.Create);
}

private static void ReleasePageStream(int pageNumber, Stream pageStream)
{
     pageStream.Dispose();
     string imageFilePath = Path.Combine("GeneratePreviewFolder", "image-" + pageNumber.ToString() + ".jpg");
     Console.WriteLine("Image file {0} is ready for preview", imageFilePath);
}

NOTE: Stream that was created over CreatePageStream delegate will be disposed automatically once after generation of preview image. If you need to implement custom image preview stream disposing you have to pass additional argument ReleasePageStream to clean up resources.

More resources

Advanced Usage Topics

To learn more about document merging features, please refer the advanced usage section.

GitHub Examples

You may easily run the code above and see the feature in action in our GitHub examples:

Free Online App

Along with full featured .NET library we provide simple, but powerful free Apps.
You are welcome to merge your documents with our free online GroupDocs Merger App.

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