Similar to PDF/A-3b, you can embed any XML data in DOCX documents. Custom XML parts are included in the structure of the document, but they are not visible in the document itself. This is useful for storing metadata or other information that is not intended to be displayed to the user. This article shows how to access the XML data that is stored in a separate part of the document.

Office Open XML Structure

DOCX files are a set of ZIP archives that contain a collection of XML files. The main document is stored in word/document.xml, and the custom XML parts are stored in customXml/item1.xml, customXml/item2.xml, and so on. The custom XML parts are stored in a separate folder called customXml in the root of the ZIP archive.

Custom XML folder structure in DOCX

CustomXMLHandler Implementation

The CustomXMLHandler class is a class that reads the custom XML parts from a DOCX file. The class uses the ZipArchive class to extract the contents of the DOCX file and then reads the custom XML parts from the customXml folder.

using System.IO.Compression;
using System.Text;
namespace TXTextControl.DocumentServer.OfficeOpenXML
{
public class CustomXmlPart
{
public required string FileName { get; set; }
public required string Content { get; set; }
}
public class CustomXMLHandler
{
public static List<CustomXmlPart> Extract(byte[] docxFileContent)
{
var customXmlParts = new List<CustomXmlPart>();
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream(docxFileContent))
using (var archive = new ZipArchive(memoryStream, ZipArchiveMode.Read))
{
var customXmlEntries = archive.Entries
.Where(entry => entry.FullName.StartsWith("customXml/item") && entry.FullName.EndsWith(".xml"));
foreach (var entry in customXmlEntries)
{
using (var entryStream = entry.Open())
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(entryStream))
{
customXmlParts.Add(new CustomXmlPart
{
FileName = entry.Name,
Content = streamReader.ReadToEnd()
});
}
}
}
return customXmlParts;
}
public static byte[] Add(byte[] docxFileContent, List<CustomXmlPart> customXmlEntries)
{
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
// Copy the original DOCX content to the memory stream
memoryStream.Write(docxFileContent, 0, docxFileContent.Length);
using (var archive = new ZipArchive(memoryStream, ZipArchiveMode.Update, true))
{
// Ensure the customXml directory exists within the archive
var customXmlDir = archive.GetEntry("customXml/");
if (customXmlDir == null)
{
archive.CreateEntry("customXml/");
}
foreach (var customXmlPart in customXmlEntries)
{
// Create the custom XML file entry within the customXml directory
var customXmlEntry = archive.CreateEntry($"customXml/{customXmlPart.FileName}");
using (var entryStream = customXmlEntry.Open())
using (var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(entryStream, Encoding.UTF8))
{
streamWriter.Write(customXmlPart.Content);
}
}
}
// Return the modified DOCX content as a byte array
return memoryStream.ToArray();
}
}
}
}
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The static method Extract reads the custom XML parts from the DOCX file and returns an array of CustomXmlPart objects. The Add method adds a list of CustomXmlPart objects to the DOCX file.

Creating a DOCX File with Custom XML Parts

The following code creates a DOCX file using ServerTextControl ╰ TX Text Control .NET Server for ASP.NET
╰ TXTextControl Namespace
╰ ServerTextControl Class
The ServerTextControl class implements a component that provide high-level text processing features for server-based applications. and the CustomXMLHandler class to add custom XML parts to the document.

using TXTextControl.DocumentServer.OfficeOpenXML;
using (TXTextControl.ServerTextControl tx = new TXTextControl.ServerTextControl())
{
tx.Create();
tx.Text = "This is a sample text.";
byte[] docxFileContent;
tx.Save(out docxFileContent, TXTextControl.BinaryStreamType.WordprocessingML);
List<CustomXmlPart> customXmlParts2 = new List<CustomXmlPart>()
{
new CustomXmlPart() { FileName = "item1.xml", Content = "<root><custom>Example Custom XML</custom></root>" },
new CustomXmlPart() { FileName = "item2.xml", Content = "<root><custom>Another Custom XML</custom></root>" }
};
byte[] modifiedDocxContent = CustomXMLHandler.Add(docxFileContent, customXmlParts2);
// save the modified DOCX content to a file
File.WriteAllBytes("modified.docx", modifiedDocxContent);
}
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Reading Custom XML Parts from a DOCX File

The following code reads the custom XML parts from a DOCX file using the CustomXMLHandler class.

var docxFileContentNew = File.ReadAllBytes("modified.docx");
var customXmlParts = CustomXMLHandler.Extract(docxFileContentNew);
foreach (var customXmlPart in customXmlParts)
{
Console.WriteLine(customXmlPart.FileName);
Console.WriteLine(customXmlPart.Content);
}
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Maintaining the Custom XML Parts

Changes to a DOCX file do not automatically update the custom XML parts. To update the custom XML parts in a modified DOCX file, use the following code:

using TXTextControl.DocumentServer.OfficeOpenXML;
// store the custom XML parts in a list
var docxFileContentNew = File.ReadAllBytes("modified.docx");
var customXmlParts = CustomXMLHandler.Extract(docxFileContentNew);
using (TXTextControl.ServerTextControl tx = new TXTextControl.ServerTextControl())
{
tx.Create();
tx.Load(docxFileContentNew, TXTextControl.BinaryStreamType.WordprocessingML);
tx.Text = "This is a modified text.";
tx.Save(out docxFileContentNew, TXTextControl.BinaryStreamType.WordprocessingML);
// re-applying the custom XML parts
docxFileContentNew = CustomXMLHandler.Add(docxFileContentNew, customXmlParts);
// save the modified document
File.WriteAllBytes("modified2.docx", docxFileContentNew);
}
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Conclusion

Custom XML parts, which allow you to store metadata or other information in a separate part of the document, are a powerful feature of DOCX files. This article showed how to access the custom XML parts in a DOCX file using the CustomXMLHandler class.