DEV Community: Tilal Ahmad Sana

Search and Replace Text in Microsoft Word Document using Python

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 17:05:20 +0000

If you are automating MS Word documents with Python, then you know that search and replace placeholders/text in documents is a key feature of automation. In this tutorial, I will show you how easily you can add search and replace text feature in your application.

We will use Aspose.Words Cloud SDK for Python for the purpose. You can use Aspose.Words REST API to create a new Word document from scratch, edit, split, merge, compare and convert existing Word documents, but we will only focus on search and replace feature in this tutorial. So let’s start.
Here are the Steps to Search and Replace Text in a Word document:

Step 1:
Sign up with aspose.cloud and get App SID and App Key to authenticate your rest API calls.

Step 2:
Install Aspose.Words Cloud SDK for Python from PIP.

Step 3:
Copy and paste the following code into your Python script file. Put your source file in the same directory, amend the Python script as per your file and run. That’s it.

# For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words-cloud/aspose-words-cloud-python
import asposewordscloud
import asposewordscloud.models.requests
from shutil import copyfile

api_client = asposewordscloud.ApiClient()
api_client.configuration.host = 'https://api.aspose.cloud'
# Please get your App Key and App SID from https://dashboard.aspose.cloud/#/apps.
api_client.configuration.api_key['api_key'] = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' # Put your appKey here
api_client.configuration.api_key['app_sid'] = 'xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx' # Put your appSid here

words_api = asposewordscloud.WordsApi(api_client)
filename = 'C:/Temp/TestFile.docx'
remoteFileName = 'TestFile.docx'
outputFileName = 'TestFile_output.docx'

#upload DOCX file to storage
request_upload = asposewordscloud.models.requests.UploadFileRequest(filename,remoteFileName)
response_upload = words_api.upload_file(request_upload)

#Search and Replace the Text
requestReplaceText = asposewordscloud.ReplaceTextParameters(old_value='malesuada', new_value='aspose')
request = asposewordscloud.models.requests.ReplaceTextRequest(name=remoteFileName, replace_text=requestReplaceText, dest_file_name=outputFileName)
result = words_api.replace_text(request)

#download file
request_download=asposewordscloud.models.requests.DownloadFileRequest(outputFileName)
response_download = words_api.download_file(request_download)
copyfile(response_download, 'C:/Temp/'+ outputFileName)
print("Result {}".format(result))

Hope this helps. If you have any question or suggestion, please feel free to comment here or Aspose.Words Cloud forum.

A Rest API Solution for Data Validation in Excel

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 16:19:44 +0000

While working with Microsoft Excel, cell validation is one of the important features that you can use for data validation to restrict the type of data or the values that users enter into a cell, to make sure all data entries are accurate and consistent.

I this article I will explain how to do Data Validation in Excel using Aspose.Cells Cloud. We will add data validation, update data validation rule and remove all data validations from a worksheet. I am using cURL in the sample code, but you can use the SDK of your favorite programming language in your specific project. Aspose.Cells Cloud is a REST API that can be used with any language: .NET, Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, Node.js and many more. You can use it with any language or platform that supports REST.

Here we go, first thing first signup with aspose.cloud to get App SID and App key and get Json Web Token for api call authentication.

Add a data validation to a cell

Add a validation at index(A1) in a worksheet Sheet1.

//Add validation by Index in the worksheet
curl -X PUT "https://api.aspose.cloud/v3.0/cells/aspose_Test.xlsx/worksheets/Sheet1/validations?range=A1:A1&folder=Temp" 
-H "accept: application/json" 
-H "authorization: Bearer [Access_Token]"

Add/Update data validation rule

Add a custom data validation rule, YES or NO. Aspose.Cells Cloud API supports all types of data validation rules.

//Add custom validation rule by Index in the worksheet
curl -X POST "https://api.aspose.cloud/v3.0/cells/aspose_Test.xlsx/worksheets/Sheet1/validations/0?folder=Temp" 
-H "accept: application/json" 
-H "authorization: Bearer [Access_Token]" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{ \"AreaList\": [ { \"EndColumn\": 0, \"EndRow\": 0, \"StartColumn\": 0, \"StartRow\": 0 } ], \"Formula1\": \"=(OR(A1=\\\"Yes\\\",A1=\\\"No\\\"))\", \"Type\": \"Custom\", \"IgnoreBlank\": true}"

Delete all data validations

Delete all data validations from the worksheet.

//Delete all validation from the worksheet
curl -X DELETE "https://api.aspose.cloud/v3.0/cells/aspose_Test.xlsx/worksheets/Sheet1/validations?folder=Temp"
-H "accept: application/json" 
-H "authorization: Bearer [Access_Token]"

Happy Coding! Read more.

A REST API Solution to Merge Documents in .NET

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 10:23:13 +0000

In this tutorial, I will show you how to merge Word documents easily and accurately without losing the formatting and contents. I am using GroupDocs.Merger Cloud, REST API solution to merge and split a wide range of document formats on any platform, without installing any plugin or software. It supports all common file formats, like PDF, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, plain and formatted text, and a long list of supported document formats.

I will upload source documents to cloud storage from local disk and merge.

Here are the Steps to Merge Word Documents:

Sign up with groupdocs.cloud and get App SID and App Key to authenticate your rest API calls
Create a new project in Visual Studio
Install GroupDocs.Merger Cloud SDK for .NET NuGet Package
Use this code to merge multiple documents

var configuration = new GroupDocs.Merger.Cloud.Sdk.Client.Configuration(MyAppSid, MyAppKey);
var apiInstance_Document = new GroupDocs.Merger.Cloud.Sdk.Api.DocumentApi(configuration);
var apiInstance_File = new GroupDocs.Merger.Cloud.Sdk.Api.FileApi(configuration);

var pathToSourceFiles = @"C:/Temp/input/";
var remoteFolder = "Temp/";
var joinItem_list = new List<JoinItem>();
try
{

    DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(pathToSourceFiles);
    System.IO.FileInfo[] files = dir.GetFiles();
    foreach (System.IO.FileInfo file in files)
    {
        var request_upload = new GroupDocs.Merger.Cloud.Sdk.Model.Requests.UploadFileRequest(remoteFolder + file.Name, File.Open(file.FullName, FileMode.Open));
        var response_upload = apiInstance_File.UploadFile(request_upload);
        var item = new JoinItem
        {
            FileInfo = new GroupDocs.Merger.Cloud.Sdk.Model.FileInfo
            { FilePath = remoteFolder + file.Name }
        };
        joinItem_list.Add(item);
    }

    var options = new JoinOptions
    {
        JoinItems = joinItem_list,
        OutputPath = remoteFolder + "Merged_Document.docx"
    };

    var request = new JoinRequest(options);
    var response = apiInstance_Document.Join(request);

    Console.WriteLine("Output file path: " + response.Path);

}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Exception while Merging Documents: " + e.Message);
}

That's it, Isn't that simple. Read for more details.

Convert PDF to Editable DOCX with Python

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 12:56:18 +0000

While working with document conversion feature, you came across a requirement to convert PDF to DOCX. I would like to introduce GroupDocs.Conversion Cloud SDK for Python for the purpose. It can also convert all popular industry standard documents from one format to another without depending on any third-party tool or software.

All you need to convert PDF to DOCX in Python follow these steps:

Before we begin with coding, sign up with groupdocs.cloud to get your APP SID and APP Key.
Install groupdocs-conversion-cloud package from pypi with the following command.

>pip install groupdocs-conversion-cloud

Open your favorite editor and copy paste following code into the script file
1. Import the GroupDocs.Conversion Cloud Python package
2. Initialize the API
3. Upload source PDF document to GroupDocs default storage
4. Convert the PDF document to editable DOCX

# Import module
import groupdocs_conversion_cloud

# Get your app_sid and app_key at https://dashboard.groupdocs.cloud (free registration is required).
app_sid = "xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx"
app_key = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

# Create instance of the API
convert_api = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.ConvertApi.from_keys(app_sid, app_key)
file_api = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.FileApi.from_keys(app_sid, app_key)

try:

        #upload soruce file to storage
        filename = 'Sample.pdf'
        remote_name = 'Sample.pdf'
        output_name= 'sample.docx'
        strformat='docx'

        request_upload = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.UploadFileRequest(remote_name,filename)
        response_upload = file_api.upload_file(request_upload)
        #Convert PDF to Word document
        settings = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.ConvertSettings()
        settings.file_path =remote_name
        settings.format = strformat
        settings.output_path = output_name

        loadOptions = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.PdfLoadOptions()
        loadOptions.hide_pdf_annotations = True
        loadOptions.remove_embedded_files = False
        loadOptions.flatten_all_fields = True

        settings.load_options = loadOptions

        convertOptions = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.DocxConvertOptions()
        convertOptions.from_page = 1
        convertOptions.pages_count = 1

        settings.convert_options = convertOptions
 .               
        request = groupdocs_conversion_cloud.ConvertDocumentRequest(settings)
        response = convert_api.convert_document(request)

        print("Document converted successfully: " + str(response))
except groupdocs_conversion_cloud.ApiException as e:
        print("Exception when calling get_supported_conversion_types: {0}".format(e.message))

And that’s it. PDF document is converted to DOCX and API response includes the URL of the resultant document. Read more.

How to Create and Read Barcodes in C#

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 10:04:45 +0000

If I have a requirement to create and read barcodes in my application, I would prefer to use some webservice. Because it eliminates the overhead to install and maintain a separate software to create and read barcodes. In this article I will share a REST API solution, Aspose.BarCode Cloud, for working with the barcode in your application.

Aspose.BarCode Cloud is a barcode generation and recognition REST API solution, that supports the generation and recognition of 1D (Linear), 2D and postal barcodes of 60+ symbologies.

In this article, I will use Aspose.BarCode Cloud SDK for .NET with C#. However, if you are using some other programming language you can check SDKs of other popular programming languages and can user it directly in your favorite platform. You can read the blog post for more details.

Let's start the code:

Create Barcode

Step 1: First thing first, sign up with aspose.cloud to get your AppSID and AppKey
Step 2: Create a new project in Visual Studio and install Aspose.BarCode SDK for .NET package from NuGet

PM> Install-Package Aspose.BarCode-Cloud

Step 3: Copy paste the following code in the new project to create a barcode and run it. We are creating datamatrix 2D barcode as PNG image. The used API method returns barcode image as stream, you can consume it as per your requirement.

// Get App Key and App SID from https://dashboard.aspose.cloud/
// Instantiate Aspose BarCode Cloud API SDK
var barCodeApi = new BarCodeApi(AppKey, AppSid);

// Set Filename of image
String datafolder = "C:/Temp/";

// Set Filename of image
String name = "sample-barcode";

// Set Text to encode inside barcode
String text = "Aspose.BarCode";

// Set Barcode Symbology
String type = "datamatrix";

// Set Barcode Image Format
String format = "PNG";

// Sets if checksum will be added to barcode image.
String enableChecksum = null;

// Set optional params (if any) 
float? resolutionX = null;
float? resolutionY = null;
float? dimensionX = null;
float? dimensionY = null;
try
    {
     // Invoke Aspose.BarCode Cloud SDK API to create barcode and returns result as stream in the response
     using (Stream response = barCodeApi.BarCodeGetBarCodeGenerate(new BarCodeGetBarCodeGenerateRequest(text, type, format, resolutionX, resolutionY, dimensionX, dimensionY, enableChecksum)))
     // Download generated barcode from api response
     using (FileStream stream = File.Create(datafolder + name + "." + format))
     {
         response.CopyTo(stream);
     }
     Console.WriteLine("Generate Barcode to Local File, Done!");
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
     Console.WriteLine("error:" + ex.Message + "\n" + ex.StackTrace);
}

Read Barcode

To read barcode, repeat the above steps 1 and 2, if required.

Step 3: Copy paste the following code in the new project to read the barcode image from local drive. It recognizes the barcode image and return the barcode type and value.

// Get App Key and App SID from https://dashboard.aspose.cloud/
// Instantiate Aspose BarCode Cloud API SDK
var barCodeApi = new BarCodeApi(AppKey, AppSid);

// Set Filename of image
String datafolder = "C:/Temp/";

// Set input file name
String name = "sample-barcode.png";

// The barcode type. If this parameter is empty, autodetection of all supported types is used.
String type = "";

// Set mode for checksum validation during recognition
String checksumValidation = "";

// Set if FNC symbol stripping should be performed
bool stripFnc = false;

// Set recognition of rotated barcode
int rotationAngle = 0;

// Set the image file url 
String url = null;

Stream file = System.IO.File.OpenRead(datafolder + name);

try
  {
     // Invoke Aspose.BarCode Cloud SDK API to read barcode from local file
     var apiResponse = barCodeApi.BarCodePostBarCodeRecognizeFromUrlorContent( new BarCodePostBarCodeRecognizeFromUrlorContentRequest(type, checksumValidation, stripFnc, rotationAngle, url, file));

     if (apiResponse != null)
      {
        foreach (var barcode in apiResponse.BarCodes)
        {
         Console.WriteLine("Codetext: " + barcode.BarCodeValue + "\nType: " + barcode.BarCodeType);
        }
         Console.WriteLine("Read Barcode from Local File, Done!");
     }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
     Console.WriteLine("error:" + ex.Message + "\n" + ex.StackTrace);
}

A REST API Solution to Optimize PDF Documents

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 07:46:17 +0000

A PDF document may sometimes contain additional data. Reducing the size of a PDF file will help you optimize the network transfer and storage. This is especially handy for publishing on web pages, sharing on social networks, sending by e-mail, or archiving in storage. Let me show you how easily you can use GroupDocs.Conversion Cloud to optimize PDF document for web or optimize the PDF file size. I will be using cURL in the following examples. You can use the SDK of your favorite programming language, without worrying about underlying REST API calls.

Optimize PDF Document for the Web

Optimization, or linearization for Web, refers to the process of making a PDF file suitable for online browsing using a web browser. The linearized PDF file loads faster over the Internet. Because, linearized PDF files contains information that allow a byte-streaming server to download the PDF file one page at a time. If the byte-streaming is disabled on the server or if the PDF file is not linearized, the entire PDF file must be downloaded before it can be viewed. Check the cURL API command to optimize a PDF file for web display:

// Retrieve access token JWT(JSON Web Token)
// TODO: Get your AppSID and AppKey at https://dashboard.groupdocs.cloud (free registration is required).
curl --request POST https://api.groupdocs.cloud/connect/token 
--header "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" 
--data "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=[APP_SID]&client_secret=[APP_KEY]"

// Optimize PDF document for Web
curl -X POST "https://api.groupdocs.cloud/v2.0/conversion" 
-H "accept: application/json" 
-H "authorization: Bearer [Access_Token]" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json" 
-d "{ "FilePath": "Test.pdf", "Format": "pdf", "ConvertOptions": {"linearize": true }}" 
--output C:/Temp/Test_linerized.pdf

Optimize PDF File Size

To optimize PDF file size, we can use several techniques to optimize PDF. GroupDocs.Conversion Cloud provides following properties to optimize the file size:

compressImages
imageQuality
linkDuplicateStreams
unembedFonts
removeUnusedObjects
removeUnusedStreams

// Retrieve access token JWT(JSON Web Token)
// TODO: Get your AppSID and AppKey at https://dashboard.groupdocs.cloud (free registration is required).
curl --request POST https://api.groupdocs.cloud/connect/token 
--header "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" 
--data "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=[APP_SID]&client_secret=[APP_KEY]"

// Optimize PDF document size
curl -X POST "https://api.groupdocs.cloud/v2.0/conversion" 
-H "accept: application/json" 
-H "authorization: Bearer [Acess_Token]" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json" 
-d "{ "FilePath": "Test.pdf", "Format": "pdf", "ConvertOptions": { "linkDuplicateStreams": true, "removeUnusedObjects": true, "removeUnusedStreams": true, "compressImages": true, "imageQuality": 10, "unembedFonts": false }}" 
--output C:/Temp/Test_optimized.pdf

All you need is to sign up with the groupdocs.cloud. Once you’ve signed up, you’re ready to try the powerful file processing features offered by groupdocs.cloud.

Convert Word Document to EPUB with REST API

Tilal Ahmad Sana — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 04:41:41 +0000

Word and PDF documents do not have good user experience and readability on e-reader. You need to convert these documents to eBook format e.g. EPUB or MOBI. Aspose.Words Cloud supports conversion of Word document to EPUB.

It can convert the industry standard file formats to the EPUB format. The resultant EPUB document adheres the EPUB standards. The content, formatting, images, hyperlinks, metadata and navigation of the source document is preserved in resultant EPUB documents.

In this article, I will show you how easily you can convert a Microsoft Word document to EPUB using the Python SDK. If you are using some other programming language, then you can check SDK of your choice from our GitHub repository. It contains the complete source code of the SDK along with the working examples.

I am converting Word document to EPUB with standard options. However, you can set a lot of parameters to control the out a document using the EpubSaveOptions request parameter. Here we go:

• Install Python package
• Upload source document to Storage
• Convert document to EPUB

Install Python package

Install aspose-words-cloud with PIP from PyPI by:

pip install aspose-words-cloud

Code:

import asposewordscloud
import asposewordscloud.models.requests
api_client = asposewordscloud.ApiClient()
# Get App key and App SID from https://cloud.aspose.com
api_client.configuration.host = 'https://api.aspose.cloud'
api_client.configuration.api_key['api_key'] = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' # Put your appKey here
api_client.configuration.api_key['app_sid'] = 'xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx' # Put your appSid here

words_api = asposewordscloud.WordsApi(api_client)
filename = 'TestFile.docx'
remote_name = 'TestPostDocumentSaveAs.docx'
dest_name = 'TestPostDocumentSaveAs.epub'

#upload DOCX file to storage
request_upload = asposewordscloud.models.requests.UploadFileRequest(filename,remote_name)
response_upload = words_api.upload_file(request_upload)

#Convert DOCX to EPUB and save to storage
save_options = asposewordscloud.SaveOptionsData(save_format='epub', file_name=dest_name)
request_conversion = asposewordscloud.models.requests.SaveAsRequest(remote_name, save_options)
response_conversion = words_api.save_as(request_conversion)
print(response_conversion)