MATLAB: How to fill holes in a MS Word Template in Report Generator

fillgeneratorMATLAB Report Generatorreporttemplate

While trying out the Report Generator toolbox, we were wondering if there was a way to fill holes or move between holes from a Microsoft Word template in MATLAB?

Best Answer

Yes, it is possible to both fill and move between holes using Report Generator. There are two main ways to do this: using Report API functions or using DOM API functions.

1) Report API: using "fill" and "customizeReport"

a) Use the "customizeReport" function to create a new subclass of the "Report" superclass.

b) Give it properties matching the "Titles" of the holes in the template

c) Create an instance of the subclass, and assign to the properties the values you want to fill the holes with.

d) Use the "fill" function from the Report API to fill the holes automatically.

For example, if you have a hole in the template called "Name", you can create a subclass called "myReport" with the property "Name". Then, use the following code to fill the hole with a name:

rpt = myReport('outputFilename', 'docx', 'myTemplate')
rpt.Name = "John Smith"
fill(rpt)

You can also fill holes with DOM objects (such as paragraphs or ordered lists) using the same process.

2) DOM API: using "moveToNextHole" and "append"

If you do not need to use Report API objects, you can also create a Document Report Container and use the "moveToNextHole" function. Information about this approach and an example can be found at the following link:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/rptgen/ug/fill-in-the-blanks-in-a-report-form.html

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to add a footer in PDF report using only Report API with chapters

The report generation in MATLAB allows you to create a custom template for reporters using 'customizeReporter' method for reporter classes in mlreportgen.report.*. You can create a custom chapter template first and add holes to create a footer in the PDF template. For reference, template holes are places in a template that the report program fills with content.

The following steps illustrate how to add a footer in the report:

Step 1 – Create a custom chapter class with the following command:

>> mlreportgen.report.Chapter.customizeReporter('@customChapter');
               This will create a folder named '@customChapter' in your current directory. It contains the file 'customChapter.m' and a resource directory.

Step 2 – Navigate to the PDF template - @customChapter/resources/templates/pdf, unzip the PDF template using the command:

>> unzip("default.pdftx","default")
              This will create a folder named “default” with "root.html" and "docpart_templates.html"

Step 3 – Edit the PDF template to add a footer containing a hole. For example, you can update the "docpart_templates.html" with following code in the <body> section :

......
<layout>
  <pfooter type="default" template-name="MyPageFooter"/>
</layout>
:
:
<dptemplate name="MyPageFooter">
    <p style="text-align:right;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">
     <hole id="PageFooterHole1" /> </p>
   </dptemplate>
......

For more details on how to add footer, refer to

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2018a/rptgen/ug/add-page-footers-and-headers.html#bu710dp-1

Step 4 – Zip the template (remember to be on the path @customChapter/resources/templates/pdf:

>> zipTemplate("default.pdftx","default")

Step 5 – Edit 'customChapter.m' and add a property that matches the hole ID in the template. Each hole in the report will be replaced by the value of the corresponding property of the report. In this case, create property name 'PageFooterHole1' for 'customChapter' class.

Step 6 – Create a chapter with custom chapter template. Set the content for the footer hole by setting the corresponding property of the report object. In this example, following code would create report and add a chapter with desired footer content:

>> rpt = Report('test','pdf'); %create a report object
>> ch = customChapter;
>> tp = TitlePage;  %create a title page
>> tp.Title = 'Test Case Results';
>> tp.Subtitle = 'Subtitle';
>> tp.Author = 'John';
>> add(rpt,tp);
>> ch.PageFooterHole1 =  mlreportgen.dom.Text("This is my footer1");
>> add(rpt,ch);
>> add(rpt, "body content");
>> add(rpt, mlreportgen.dom.PageBreak);
>> add(rpt, "body content");
>> close(rpt);
>> rptview(rpt); % To view the report

This will create a PDF report with a title page and a chapter with two pages showing the footer with the style specified in "docpart_templates.html".

Files are attached for reference.

Please note that you can adapt this method to add headers as well or any other customization needed by your workflow. For instance, the following MATLAB Answers post discusses an approach to add an image to a header:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/469827-add-image-in-the-header-of-the-report

MATLAB: Has anyone had success in creating a Report generator class to properly fill holes in a Word document

To generate a report from a DOM-based document object:

Derive your report class from mlreportgen.dom.Document class, for example

% MyReport.m
class MyReport < mlreportgen.dom.Document
    method
       function rpt = MyReport(name)
          rpt@mlreportgen.dom.Document(name, 'docx', 'MyTemplate');
       end
    end
end

Provide a public fill<HOLEID> method for each hole in your report template, where HOLEID is the name of the hole, for example,

    class MyReport < mlreportgen.dom.Document
        method
           function rpt = MyReport(name)
              rpt@mlreportgen.dom.Document(name, 'docx', 'MyTemplate');
           end
           % This method is called by mlreportgen.dom.Document's fill method.
           % Do not call it yourself.
           function fillReportDate(rpt)
               append(rpt, date);
           end
        end
    end

Create a report program (i.e., script or function) to run the report.
In the report program, create an instance of your report class and call its fill method (inherited from mlreportgen.dom.Document class), for example,

% runMyReport.m
rpt = MyReport('myreport');
fill(rpt);
rptview(rpt.OutputPath);

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to add a footer in PDF report using only Report API with chapters

MATLAB: Has anyone had success in creating a Report generator class to properly fill holes in a Word document

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