Merge RTF files

Question

I have a set of RTF's stored in strings in C# is their a way to merge these into one document for printing as the user wants to print them as one document with the print settings appearing once. I can use office interop if necessary, obviously avoiding this is better.

Edit: A page break would be necessary between each document I think I can just insert \page for this though

Solution 1

Here you go (C# code's included in)

Solution 2

You would have to remove the trailing } from the first document.

You would have to remove the {\rtf1... and {fonttbl.. and {colortbl... sections from the second document. Might need to look at any header, margins etc. that you might have.

Separate them by a \page as you say.

This assumes the font and color tables are the same.

Probably better to get the print settings from the user then silently print each document separately, if that's an option.

Document 1:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang5129
{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;}
\margl1134\margr1134\margt1134\margb1134\sectd 
\pard
Document One Content
\line
}

Document 2:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang5129
{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;}
\margl1134\margr1134\margt1134\margb1134\sectd 
\pard
Document Two Content
\line
}

Merged Documents:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang5129
{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;}
\margl1134\margr1134\margt1134\margb1134\sectd 
\pard
Document One Content

\page

\pard

Document Two Content
\line
}

Solution 3

Just removing the font table will work only if both documents use the same set of fonts. You will need to uniquely merge (union) the font tables (font element wise) if you want to preserve font info of both the rtfs. This will work for n number of rtfs but again we need the union of individual font tables.. I am currently workin on developing the code for this union will post once ready.. :)

In our project we also used the Office Doc object to render rtfs and benefit from word's automation. But it creates a dependency of having ms-word installed. Particularly it can raise problem if the code needs to run from a server where memory is also a concern as using word API causes instance of ms-word to be loaded in memory. But the solution does work!!

Okay!! So ready with the code for union of Font tables in two rtfs and merging them to preserve varying fonts..Please read the RTFs in strings.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections;
//Arjun 02nd May
namespace MergeRtf
{
class RTFUtils
{
    public static string getRTFBlock(string blockName,string rtf){

       int i=rtf.IndexOf(@"{\"+blockName);
        int startOfBlock = i;
        //Next find the end of style sheet element tag
        Stack<char> braceHolder=new Stack<char>();
        braceHolder.Push('{');

        string stylesheetBlock = "";

        while (braceHolder.Count != 0&&i<rtf.Length) {
            i++;
            if (rtf[i] == '{') {
                braceHolder.Push('{');
                continue;
            }
            if (rtf[i] == '}') {
                braceHolder.Pop();
            }
        }
        if (braceHolder.Count == 0) { 
        //encountered the ending tag for stylesheet
            stylesheetBlock = rtf.Substring(startOfBlock, i-startOfBlock+1); 
            return stylesheetBlock;
        }
        else
        {
            //Error in doc format
            throw (new Exception("Error in doc format"));
        }


    }



    public static string MergeRTFs(string rtf1,string rtf2,string mergingBreak){ 
        //mergingBreak is the type of break that will be sandwiched between the docs
        //get the fonttbl blocks for both the documents
        string fontTableOfDoc1 = getRTFBlock("fonttbl", rtf1);
        string fontTableOfDoc2 = getRTFBlock("fonttbl", rtf2);

        //get font lists
        List<string> fontList1 = ExtractRTFFonts(fontTableOfDoc1);
        List<string> fontList2 = ExtractRTFFonts(fontTableOfDoc2);

        //Union the font list
        IEnumerable<string> mergedfonts = fontList1.Union(fontList2);
        List<string> fontList3 = new List<string>(mergedfonts);
        string mergedFontListBlock = @"{\fonttbl";
        foreach (string font in fontList3) {
            mergedFontListBlock += font;
        }
        mergedFontListBlock += "}";

        //Find location of the fonttable in doc 1 and doc 2
        int indexOfFontTable1 = rtf1.IndexOf(@"{\fonttbl");
        int indexOfFontTable2 = rtf2.IndexOf(@"{\fonttbl");

        string rtfMerged = "";
        //Get rtf content before and after fonttable
        string headerRTF1 = rtf1.Substring(0, indexOfFontTable1);
        int endOfFontTableIndex=indexOfFontTable1 + (fontTableOfDoc1.Length-1);
        string trailerRTF1 = rtf1.Substring(endOfFontTableIndex + 1,      rtf1.LastIndexOf('}') - (endOfFontTableIndex + 1)); //-2 to remove ending } of 1st doc
        //create the first rtf with merged fontlist
        rtfMerged = headerRTF1 + mergedFontListBlock + trailerRTF1;
        //next identify trailer part after font table in rtf 2
        string trailerRTF2 = rtf2.Substring(indexOfFontTable2 + fontTableOfDoc2.Length);
        rtfMerged += mergingBreak + trailerRTF2;

        return rtfMerged;
    }

    private static List<string> ExtractRTFFonts(string fontTableBlock) {
        Stack<char> braces = new Stack<char>();
        List<string> fonts = new List<string>();
        int fontDefStart=0,fontDefLength;
        braces.Push('{');
        int i=0;
        while (braces.Count > 0 && i < fontTableBlock.Length) { 
            i++;
            if (fontTableBlock[i] == '{') {
                braces.Push('{');
                if (braces.Count == 2) { 
                //means font definition brace started store the position
                    fontDefStart = i;
                }
                continue;
            }
            if (fontTableBlock[i] == '}') {
                braces.Pop();
                if (braces.Count == 1) { 
                //means only root level brace left identifying one font definition ended
                    fontDefLength = i - fontDefStart + 1;
                    fonts.Add(fontTableBlock.Substring(fontDefStart,fontDefLength));
                }
            }
        }

        if (braces.Count == 0)
        {
            //everything is fine then
            return fonts;
        }
        else { 
        //malformed font table passed
            throw (new Exception("Malformed font table passed"));
        }
    }


}
} 

Solution 4

You can use two rich text boxes. Read the rtf file into one rich text box (rtbTemp), and then cut and paste the text into the other (rtbMerged). For example:

RichTextBox rtbTemp = new RichTextBox();
RichTextBox rtbMerged = new RichTextBox();

string Merge(string s1, string s2)
{
    rtbTemp.Rtf = s1;
    rtbTemp.SelectAll();
    rtbTemp.Cut();
    rtbMerged.Paste();

    rtbMerged.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);
    rtbMerged.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);

    rtbTemp.Rtf = s2;
    rtbTemp.SelectAll();
    rtbTemp.Cut();
    rtbMerged.Paste();

    return rtbMerged.Rtf;
}

Solution 5

I only remove 3 charecter from end of first rtf file, and one of first char of second rtf file and it work good!

RichTextBox r = new RichTextBox();
r.Rtf = rtf1.Rtf.Substring(0, rtf1.Rtf.Length - 3) + rtf2.Rtf.Substring(1,rtf2.Rtf.Length - 1)

View more solutions

Comments

[PeteT]

This doesn't work for more complex RTF's like the ones I have. I ended up using interop for now.

[Beta033]

i don't think this will work. this is not updating the codes in the second document as they are applied. what i mean is, in the second document /f2 may be applied to some text, but /f2 is now /f14 in the merged table, so all /f2 codes in the second document have to be updated to /f14 for the font to be maintained.

[Beta033]

This will also not work for documents that don't share the font and color tables exactly

[Scott Chamberlain]

This is why link only answers are discouraged. The link is currently dead.

[Breeze]

@anhldbk please include the needed information in the answer itself, I can't access the linked website, so the answer is currently not helpful for me

[Florian Straub]

Unfortunately doesn't work with images in the RTF file :(

[Florian Straub]

Unfortunately this one also doesn't work with rtfs containing images :(