CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.net
NayeemKhan
NayeemKhan

Reputation: 1230

editable word document attachment

Its a general scenario when we provide an option of attaching a file (MS .doc) to end user. This file is stored in DB as binary. When user try to access this attachment next time, we allow them to download it. Now, here I want to give a feature to user where he should be able to open this doc file on click, edit it and save it without downloading.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 1252

Answers (4)

Mikhail
Mikhail

Reputation: 9300

I am not sure if a standalone MS Word Document editor exists. However, this can be done with using a combination of rich text formatting / converting tool (for example, the DevExpress ASPxHtmlEditor + Document Server):

  • Load binary data from a DB;
  • Import loaded data (MS Word content) as HTML content into the ASPxHtmlEditor;
  • Edit imported data via the WYSIWYG ASPxHtmlEditor;
  • Convert the edited HTML back to MS Word content;
  • Save the converted / edited MS Word content back to the DB.

I believe, it is possible to do something like this if you have such products (free or commercial analogs) in your project.

Upvotes: 1

Pekka
Pekka

Reputation: 3654

Word will only open files that are locally stored. What you are looking for is something similar to editing items that SharePoint provides using the WebDAV interface.

You may be able to use this approach to support your requirement. You should be cautious about the security aspects of the solution unless you have fully authenticated access to the shared folder on the server.

Upvotes: 1

David Airapetyan
David Airapetyan

Reputation: 5620

.doc is a binary format and not easy to work with - a library such as Aspose, as mentioned by Christian, is definitely the way to go.

However, if .DOCX is acceptable (and that's Office 2007 and higher), then you can achieve what you want in three steps:

  1. Convert .docx to HTML Convert Word to HTML then render HTML on webpage

  2. Display the HTML using any rich text control of your choice What is the best rich textarea editor for jQuery?

  3. Finally, convert HTML back to .docx: Convert Html to Docx in c#

Upvotes: 3

Christian Sauer
Christian Sauer

Reputation: 10909

You would have to "reinvent" Microsoft Office Online (look into your skydrive account). I am unsure if there are any "out of the box" libraries for that, but you could build a simple editing app by leveraging Aspose word (or some other library). But that would be far from simple.

Link to aspose: http://www.aspose.com/.net/word-component.aspx

Upvotes: 1

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