Seperated text line in Apache POI XWPFRun object - apache-poi

Question

I 'm trying to replace a template DOCX document with Apache POI by using the XWPFDocument class. I have tags in the doc and a JSON file to read the replacement data. My problem is that a text line seems separated in a certain way in DOCX when I change its extension to ZIP file and open document.xml. For example [MEMBER_CONTACT_INFO] text becomes [MEMBER_CONTACT_INFO and ] separately. POI reads this in the same way since the DOCX original is like this. This creates 2 XWPFRun objects in the paragraph which show the text as [MEMBER_CONTACT_INFO and ] separately.
My question is, is there a way to force POI to run like Word via merging related runs or something like that? Or how can I solve this problem? I 'm matching run texts while replacing and I can't find my tag because it is split into 2 different run object.
Best

Answer 1

This wasted so much of my time once...
Basically, an XWPFParagraph is composed of multiple XWPFRuns, and XWPFRun is a contagious text that has a fixed same style.
So when you try writing something like "[PLACEHOLDER_NAME]" in MS-Word it will create a single XWPFRun. But if you somehow add a few things more, and then you go back and change "[PLACEHOLDER_NAME]" to something else it is never guaranteed that it will remain a single XWPFRun it is quite possible that it will split to two Runs. AFAIK this is how MS-Word works.
How to avoid splitting of Runs in such cases?
Solution: There are two solutions that I know of:
Copy text "[PLACEHOLDER_NAME]" to Notepad or something. Make your necessary modification and copy it back and paste it instead of "[PLACEHOLDER_NAME]" in your word file, this way your whole "[PLACEHOLDER_NAME]" will be replaced with new text avoiding splitting of XWPFRuns.
Select "[PLACEHOLDER_NAME]" and then click of MS-Word "Replace" option and Replace with "[Your-new-edited-placeholder]" and this will guarantee that your new placeholder will consume a single XWPFRun.
If you have to change your new placeholder again, follow step 1 or 2.

Answer 2

Here is the java code to fix that separate text line issue. It will also handle the mult-format string replacement.
public static void replaceString(XWPFDocument doc, String search, String replace) throws Exception{
for (XWPFParagraph p : doc.getParagraphs()) {
List<XWPFRun> runs = p.getRuns();
List<Integer> group = new ArrayList<Integer>();
if (runs != null) {
String groupText = search;
for (int i=0 ; i<runs.size(); i++) {
XWPFRun r = runs.get(i);
String text = r.getText(0);
if (text != null)
if(text.contains(search)) {
String safeToUseInReplaceAllString = Pattern.quote(search);
text = text.replaceAll(safeToUseInReplaceAllString, replace);
r.setText(text, 0);
}
else if(groupText.startsWith(text)){
group.add(i);
groupText = groupText.substring(text.length());
if(groupText.isEmpty()){
runs.get(group.get(0)).setText(replace, 0);
for(int j = 1; j<group.size(); j++){
p.removeRun(group.get(j));
}
group.clear();
groupText = search;
}
}else{
group.clear();
groupText = search;
}
}
}
}
for (XWPFTable tbl : doc.getTables()) {
for (XWPFTableRow row : tbl.getRows()) {
for (XWPFTableCell cell : row.getTableCells()) {
for (XWPFParagraph p : cell.getParagraphs()) {
for (XWPFRun r : p.getRuns()) {
String text = r.getText(0);
if (text.contains(search)) {
String safeToUseInReplaceAllString = Pattern.quote(search);
text = text.replaceAll(safeToUseInReplaceAllString, replace);
r.setText(text);
}
}
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 3

For me it didn't work as I expected (every time). In my case I used "${PLACEHOLDER} in the text. At first we need to take a look how Apache Poi recognize each Paragraph which we want to iterate through with Runs. If you go deeper with docx file construction you will know that one run is a sequence of characters of text with the same font style/font size/colour/bold/italic etc. That way placeholder sometimes was divided into parts OR sometimes whole paragraph was recognized as a one Run and it was impossible to iterate through words. What I did is to bold placeholder name in a template document. Than when iterating through RUN I was able to iterate through whole placeholder name ${PLACEHOLDER}. When I replaced that value with
for (XWPFRun r : p.getRuns()) {
String text = r.getText(0);
if (text != null && text.contains("originalText")) {
text = text.replace("originalText", "newText");
r.setText(text,0);
}
}
I've added just r.isBold(false); after setText.
That way placeholder is recognized as a different run -> I'm able to replace specific placeholder, and in the processed document I have no bolding, just a plain text. For me one of a additional advantage was that visualy I'm able to faster find placeholders in text.
So finally above loop looks like that:
for (XWPFRun r : p.getRuns()) {
String text = r.getText(0);
if (text != null && text.contains("originalText")) {
text = text.replace("originalText", "newText");
r.setText(text,0);
r.isBold(false);
}
}
I hope it will help to someone, while I spend too much time for that :)

Answer 4

I also had this issue few days ago and I couldn't find any solution. I chose to use PLACEHOLDER_NAME instead of [PLACEHOLDER_NAME]. This is working fine for me and it's seen like a single XWPFRun object.

Answer 5

To be sure that a word will be consider as a single XWPFRun,
You can use merge_field as variable in word like that
Place cursor on the word you want to be a single run.
Press CTRL and F9 together and { } in gray will appear.
Right-click on the { } field and select Edit Field.
In pop-up box, select Mail Merge from Categories and then MergeField from Field Names.
Click OK.