The ASP.NET Core NuGet packages for DS Server provide all required components to create and merge templates with JSON data. This sample shows how to merge a template server-side with JSON data that has been created with the DocumentEditor.

The following model is used as the merge data model that is loaded into the editor to provide the proper merge field names and also for merging the final document server-side:

public class Report {
  public List<Customer> Customers { get; set; } = new List<Customer>();
}

public class Customer {
  public string Name { get; set; }
  public string Firstname { get; set; }
  public string Company { get; set; }
}

In the HomeController, JSON data is loaded and passed as the view model to the actual view that contains the editor:

public IActionResult Index() {

  // load the merge data from JSON text file
  List<Report> journal = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Report>>(
    System.IO.File.ReadAllText("App_Data/data.json"));

  return View(journal);
}

The actual view contains the editor and a button that calls a JavaScript function to merge the document. The JsonData property is used to load the model we created in the controller:

@using TXTextControl.DocumentServices.DocumentEditor;
@model List<DSServerMerge.Models.Report>

<div class="row">

    <div class="col-12">

        <input class="mb-3" type="button" onclick="mergeDocument()" value="Merge Template" />

        @Html.TXTextControl().DocumentEditor(s => {
            s.Width = "100%";
            s.Height = "40rem";
            s.ServiceUrl = "https://trial.dsserver.io";
            s.OAuthSettings.ClientId = "";
            s.OAuthSettings.ClientSecret = "";
            s.JsonData = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Model);
        }).Render()

    </div>

</div>

The JavaScript function mergeDocument saves the document using the saveDocument method in the internal TX Text Control format in order to send it to the controller HTTP POST endpoint Merge:

function mergeDocument() {

        // save the document in the internal tx format
        TXTextControl.saveDocument(TXTextControl.StreamType.InternalUnicodeFormat,
                                   function (e) {

            var serviceURL = "@Url.Action("Merge", "Home")";

            // send document to controller
            $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: serviceURL,
                data: {
                    document: e.data // the template
                },
                success: successFunc,
                error: errorFunc
            });
        });
}

function successFunc(data, status) {
        // load the resulting document back into the editor
        TXTextControl.loadDocument(TXTextControl.StreamType.InternalUnicodeFormat, data);
}

function errorFunc() {
        alert("Error");
}

In the controller method Merge, the document is being sent with JSON data to the DS Server Web API using the Merge method of DocumentProcessing.

[HttpPost]
public IActionResult Merge(Template template) {

  // private OAuth settings
  var os = new TXTextControl.DocumentServices.DocumentProcessing.OAuth.OAuthSettings(
       "dsserver.EMRWLJ123pZirYLDNAF0gP7QzQaB8OfH",
       "OGC24l8BcjVpc123Ht0gHJhDjtYJP70a");

  // create a new DocumentProcessing object with OAuth settings
  DocumentProcessing s_dp = new DocumentProcessing("https://trial.dsserver.io", os);

  // load the merge data from JSON text file
  List<Report> journal = 
    JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Report>>(
      System.IO.File.ReadAllText("App_Data/data.json"));

  // create a new MergeBody object with merge data and template
  MergeBody mergeBody = new MergeBody() {
    Template = Convert.FromBase64String(template.Document),
    MergeData = journal
  };

  // merge the document
  var results = s_dp.Merge(mergeBody, ReturnFormat.TX).Result;

  return Ok(results[0]);
}

After the sample is started, find the merge fields in the Reporting tab. Insert some text, fields or repeating merge blocks:

After clicking the button Merge Template, the merged document is loaded back into the editor:

Try this on your own, create a trial token and download the sample from our GitHub account.