Show "No data available" when there is no data in table

[Tomasz Jagusz]

I have a simple table in my word document:

that I'm filling using "document.MailMerge.ExecuteGroup(table);" (as shown in docs: https://help.syncfusion.com/file-formats/docio/mail-merge/mail-merge-for-group)

This works great if I have rows in DataTable, but sometimes the DataTable is empty and I get a table that has only header.

Instead, I'd like to get this:

I use:

document.MailMerge.RemoveEmptyGroup = true;

document.MailMerge.RemoveEmptyParagraphs = true;

but If I remove that I get empty line.

Can this be done via for example BeforeClearGroupField?

Idea is to merge all fields of table in row, center text and add "No data available".

Best regards,

Tomasz

[Manikandan Ravichandran]

Hi Tomasz,

Thank you for contacting Syncfusion support.

Currently we are preparing the sample for your requirement, we will update the details shortly.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Manikandan Ravichandran

[Tomasz Jagusz]

Hi Manikandan,

thank you for the update :)

[Manikandan Ravichandran]

Hi Tomasz,

Thank you for your patience.

For your requirement with “Preserve No record found text when there is no record in the dtata”, we have prepared the sample and it can be downloaded from the below link.
https://www.syncfusion.com/downloads/support/forum/152998/ze/WinFormsAPP-1218055002

In this sample we have done the followings.
1. Load the template document.
2. Initialize BeforeClearGroupEvent and MergeFieldEvent.
3. Execute the mail merge using ExecuteGroup and Execute APIs.
4. Add alternate value (“No Record Found”) for fields which doesn’t have any record in the BeforeClearGroupEvent
5. Find the “No Record Found” text and get the owner table of the current field.
6. Apply horizontal merge for the particular row of the table.
7. Save the document as PDF and close

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Manikandan Ravichandran 

[Tomasz Jagusz]

Hi Manikandan,

the sample you provided is almost perfect, but I'm looking for a more generic solution.

In the solution, you have provided (which works great BTW), I need to swap data source of the mail merge.

To do this I need to create a list of objects that has an object with the same field as my original data table - my data table has "Podmiot" field, and OrderDetails has "Podmiot" field.

Would it be possible to not create a new object or do it dynamically?

I've tried creating DataTablein this way:

 var dt = new DataTable();

 dt.Columns.Add(args.FieldNames[0]);

 var row = dt.NewRow();

 row[0] = "No Record Found";

 dt.Rows.Add(row);

but I must return IEnumerable instead of DataTable.

EDIT:

I was able to get the results I need using below code:

private static void MailMerge_BeforeClearGroupField(object sender, BeforeClearGroupFieldEventArgs args)

{

    Debug.WriteLine(args);

    var alt = new ExpandoObject();

    var expandoDict = (IDictionary) alt;

    expandoDict.Add(args.FieldNames[0], "No Record Found");

    args.AlternateValues = new List<object> {alt};

}

[Tomasz Jagusz]

There is still something wrong.

When I add extra fields from my Primary DataTable as shown below:

this field is added to group and shown in MailMerge_BeforeClearGroupField, although it doesn't belong to secondary and to template row:

I'm attaching a modified template, the rest can stay the same.

Could you please take a look?

Best regards,

Tomasz

Attachment: Template_v2_2e0a560.zip

[Manikandan Ravichandran]

Hi Tomasz,

Thank you for contacting Syncfusion support.

We can reproduce the mentioned “Unwanted Merge fields added in the Merge group fields collection” at our end. We suspect this could be a defect and We will update you with more details on this on 9^th April 2020.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Manikandan Ravichandran

[Manikandan Ravichandran]

Hi Tomasz,

Thank you for your patience.

We have confirmed that the reported “Unwanted Merge fields added in the Merge group fields collection” is a defect and we have logged a defect report. We will include the fix for this defect in our weekly NuGet release which is estimated to be available on 28^th April 2020.

The status of this bug task can be tracked through the following feedback link:
https://www.syncfusion.com/feedback/13350/unwanted-merge-fields-added-in-the-merge-group-fields-collection

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Manikandan Ravichandran