With the new licensing mechanism introduced in TX Text Control 32.0 SP2, ASP.NET Core projects can be restored and built in Docker. This tutorial shows you how to create an ASP.NET Core Web application with Docker support that uses ServerTextControl. In order to be restored during the Docker build process, the TX Text Control NuGet package is stored in GitHub Packages.

Creating the Application

Make sure that you downloaded the latest version of Visual Studio 2022 that comes with the .NET 6 SDK.

1. In Visual Studio 2022, create a new project by choosing Create a new project.

2. Select ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller) as the project template and confirm with Next.

3. Choose a name for your project and confirm with Next.

4. In the next dialog, choose .NET 8 (Long-term support) as the Framework, disable Configure for HTTPS for effortless testing, check Enable Docker and confirm with Create. Make sure that Windows is selected as the Docker OS.

   

Adding the NuGet Package

5. In the Solution Explorer, select your created project and choose Manage NuGet Packages... from the Project main menu.

   Select Text Control Offline Packages from the Package source drop-down.

   Install the latest versions of the following package:

   • TXTextControl.TextControl.ASP.SDK

   

Using ServerTextControl and MailMerge

6. Find the HomeController.cs file in the Controllers folder. Replace the Index() method with the following code:

   public IActionResult Index() {
   
     using (TXTextControl.ServerTextControl tx = new TXTextControl.ServerTextControl()) {
       tx.Create();
   
       // adding static text
       TXTextControl.Selection sel = new TXTextControl.Selection();
       sel.Text = "Welcome to Text Control\r\n";
       sel.Bold = true;
   
       tx.Selection = sel;
   
       // adding merge fields
       TXTextControl.DocumentServer.Fields.MergeField mergeField = 
         new TXTextControl.DocumentServer.Fields.MergeField() {
           Text = "{{company}}",
           Name = "company",
           TextBefore = "Company name: "
         };
   
       tx.ApplicationFields.Add(mergeField.ApplicationField);
   
       // alternatively load a template
       //TXTextControl.LoadSettings ls = new TXTextControl.LoadSettings() {
       //  ApplicationFieldFormat = TXTextControl.ApplicationFieldFormat.MSWord
       //};
   
       //tx.Load("template.docx", TXTextControl.StreamType.WordprocessingML, ls);
   
       // merge fields with MailMerge engine
       using (TXTextControl.DocumentServer.MailMerge mailMerge = 
         new TXTextControl.DocumentServer.MailMerge()) {
           mailMerge.TextComponent = tx;
           mailMerge.MergeJsonData("[{\"company\": \"Text Control, LLC\" }]");
         }
   
       // return result as HTML
       string result = "";
       tx.Save(out result, TXTextControl.StringStreamType.HTMLFormat);
   
       // alternatively save as PDF
       //byte[] baPdf;
       //tx.Save(out baPdf, TXTextControl.BinaryStreamType.AdobePDF);
   
       ViewBag.Document = result;
     }
   
     return View();
   }

Displaying the Results

7. Find the Index.cshtml file in the Views -> Home folder. Replace the complete file with the following code:

   @{
       ViewData["Title"] = "Home Page";
   }
   
   @Html.Raw(ViewBag.Document)

Configure NuGet in Project

We need to configure the NuGet package source in the project. This is required to restore the TX Text Control NuGet package during the Docker build process.

NuGet Package Server

Because the TX Text Control NuGet packages contain unique serial number information and are installed locally on your computer, they must be hosted in a NuGet hosting product. This tutorial uses the GitHub package registry, but there are other NuGet hosting products available, such as Azure Artifacts.

1. Open an elevated (developer) command prompt to add GitHub as a package source for NuGet.

   dotnet nuget add source --username USERNAME --password [TOKEN] --store-password-in-clear-text --name github "https://nuget.pkg.github.com/[NAMESPACE]/index.json"

   • Replace [TOKEN] with your personal access token (classic). Learn here how to create this token.
   • Replace [NAMESPACE] with your GitHub username.

   Download NuGet

   The NuGet.exe CLI is not automatically installed by Visual Studio and can be downloaded directly here:

   https://www.nuget.org/downloads

2. Use the following command to push the NuGet package to GitHub.

   dotnet nuget push "C:\Program Files (x86)\Text Control GmbH\NuGetPackages\TXTextControl.TextControl.ASP.SDK.32.0.2.nupkg"  --api-key [TOKEN] --source "github"

   • Replace [TOKEN] with your personal access token (classic).

3. In your Visual Studio project, create a new file in the project's root folder named nuget.config and copy the following configuration into it:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <configuration>
     <packageSources>
       <clear />
   
       <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
       <add key="github" value="https://nuget.pkg.github.com/[NAMESPACE]/index.json" />
       
     </packageSources>
     <packageSourceCredentials>
       <github>
         <add key="Username" value="USERNAME" />
         <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="[TOKEN]" />
       </github>
     </packageSourceCredentials>
   
   </configuration>

   • Replace [TOKEN] with your personal access token (classic).
   • Replace [NAMESPACE] with your GitHub username.

Project Settings

Some project settings are required.

1. Select the project in the Solution Explorer and choose Edit Project File from the Project main menu. Make sure that the project settings match the settings in the following example:

   <PropertyGroup>
     <TargetFramework>net8.0-windows</TargetFramework>
     <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
     <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
     <DockerDefaultTargetOS>Windows</DockerDefaultTargetOS>
     <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
     <RuntimeIdentifier>win-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
     <Platforms>AnyCPU;x64</Platforms>
   </PropertyGroup>

Editing the Dockerfile

Now, we need to edit the Dockerfile to restore the TX Text Control NuGet package during the build process.

1. Open the Dockerfile in the project's root folder and replace it with the following content:

   FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0-windowsservercore-ltsc2019 AS base
   WORKDIR /app
   EXPOSE 8080
   
   FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0-windowsservercore-ltsc2019 AS build
   ARG BUILD_CONFIGURATION=Release
   WORKDIR /src
   COPY ["NuGetDockerApp/NuGetDockerApp.csproj", "NuGetDockerApp/"]
   
   COPY NuGetDockerApp/nuget.config .
   
   RUN dotnet restore "./NuGetDockerApp/./NuGetDockerApp.csproj"
   COPY . .
   WORKDIR "/src/NuGetDockerApp"
   RUN dotnet build "./NuGetDockerApp.csproj" -c %BUILD_CONFIGURATION% -o /app/build
   
   FROM build AS publish
   ARG BUILD_CONFIGURATION=Release
   RUN dotnet publish "./NuGetDockerApp.csproj" -r win-x64 -c %BUILD_CONFIGURATION% -o /app/publish /p:UseAppHost=false
   
   FROM base AS final
   WORKDIR /app
   COPY --from=publish /app/publish .
   
   # Install Visual C++ Redistributables
   
   SHELL ["powershell", "-Command", "$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'; $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue';"]
   RUN [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12; \
           Invoke-WebRequest "https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe" -OutFile "vc_redist.x64.exe"; \
           Start-Process "vc_redist.x64.exe" -ArgumentList "/passive" -wait -Passthru; \
           Remove-Item -Force vc_redist.x64.exe;
   
   ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "NuGetDockerApp.dll"]

   • Replace NuGetDockerApp with the name of your project.

Building the Docker Image

Press F5 to build and deploy the application using Docker.