Category Archives: WordWriter

ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, OfficeWriter, WordWriter

What to Do When OfficeWriter Sporadically Throws “General license key exception: Product key not installed.” Error

Problem

Even though the license key is in the registry, OfficeWriter sporadically throws the error “General license key exception: Product key not installed.” on Windows 2008 or above.

This issue has been reported by certain customers running a custom identity on an application pool in IIS 7 or above.  Most commonly this behavior has been seen on applications in 32-bit application pools, but has also been reported with 64-bit applications.

The combination of several factors in IIS 7.5 and Windows 2008 can cause problems for application pools running under a custom identity if they need to read from the registry.  These factors may be responsible for the sporadic OfficeWriter error.

  1. Windows 2008 introduced application pool identities.
  2. Windows 2008 also added new functionality to the user profile in Windows 2008 that causes the OS to more aggressively clean up registry handles when they are not needed.
  3. Additionally, IIS 7 and above does not load the user profiles by default.

Troubleshooting

If you are receiving the “General license key exception” sporadically, changing the ‘Load user profile’ setting in IIS may resolve the issue.

The ‘Load user Profile’ setting

In IIS 7 and above, there is an application pool setting called ‘load user profile’.  When this is set to true IIS will load the user profile for the application pool identity.  This should keep Windows from cleaning the registry handles necessary for OfficeWriter to read the license key.

To set ‘load user profile’ to true:

  1. Open the IIS Management Console.  This can be done by going to Run and typing in inetmgr
  2. Open the Application Pools window by clicking View Application Pools on the Actions pane, and select the Application Pool you want to configure.
  3. Right click the Application Pool and select “Advanced Settings…”
  4. Under the Process Model menu, change ‘Load User Profile’ to true.

 

 

Next Steps

If you find that the “General license key exception’ error still occurs after setting the ‘Load user profile’ setting, please contact OfficeWriter support.

 

Note:  If you are receiving the  “General license key exception: Product key not installed.” error consistently, it is likely that the license key is not installed properly.   Instructions for installing OfficeWriter license keys can be found at httpblog.softartisans.com/tag/how-to-add-a-license-key/

 

ASP.NET, ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, OfficeWriter, Reporting Services, WordWriter

Choosing OfficeWriter Designer or Designer .NET

Overview

OfficeWriter Designer is an add-on for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word that allows users to create new RDL reports and design pre-existing reports inside of Excel or Word. Until OfficeWriter 8.6, the original OfficeWriter Designer was the only tool available with this functionality.

However, as of OfficeWriter 8.6, SoftArtisans will include a second, new version of OfficeWriter Designer called the OfficeWriter Designer .NET. The OfficeWriter Designer .NET is a completely rewritten version of its predecessor, created from .NET/C# using VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office run time).

Benefits of OfficeWriter Designer .NET

  • Office 64-bit support
  • No dependencies on COM/VBA
  • More robust handling of modifications to queries in Visual Studio/Report Builder
  • Better parameter support with the View functionality, including support for cascading parameters

Which Designer Should I Use?

The new OfficeWriter Designer .NET does not currently support all of the features of the previous Designer. For full functionality support, use the original OfficeWriter Designer. Please see the feedback section below for more information about submitting requests for new features. Continue reading Choosing OfficeWriter Designer or Designer .NET →

Knowledge Base, OfficeWriter, WordWriter

How to prevent line breaks after an empty merge field

Problem

When you use the WordTemplate object to populate a WordWriter template document with data retrieved from a data source, you may have situations in which a merge field is not bound to a value. The most common scenario is creating a mailing address. Each field of a mailing address may be represented by a merge field. Typically, the second line of the address is optional. In the generated document, if the merge field corresponding to the second line of the address does not have a value, a blank line may be present.

In Microsoft Word, a blank line generated during a mail merge can be suppressed using application settings. With WordWriter, a blank line is not automatically removed.

WordWriter template document:

Generated document:

Solution

The following discussion uses a merge field called AddressLine2 as an example, but is applicable to any field with optional value.

In the WordWriter template document, if the line break is separate from the AddressLine2 merge field, the line break will be present in the generated document whether or not Continue reading How to prevent line breaks after an empty merge field →

ASP.NET, ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, OfficeWriter, Reporting Services, SSRS, WordWriter

How to create a custom SQL Server Reporting Services error page

Problem

When SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) encounters an error, it returns an error message which is displayed by Report Manager. The error message can include technical details that reveal more information than necessary or are potentially confusing or intimidating to a user. One example is the scenario in which the user attempts to export a report from Report Manager using the “Excel designed by OfficeWriter” option, but the report is not created using the OfficeWriter Designer. In this case, SSRS would return the following error:

 Error SA008050: This report was not designed for the selected OfficeWriter rendering extension.

Depending on configuration, Report Manager may also display a detailed error message and a stack trace. In this case, the error message is self-explanatory. However, often it is desirable to provide a friendly custom error page that hides the technical details of the internal exception and provides more helpful instructions to users.

Configuring a custom error page for Report Manager is no different from doing so for other ASP.NET applications. The custom error page is simply a web page that you create. You can configure ASP.NET to display a custom error page to all users. Alternatively, the custom error page can be displayed only to users accessing Report Manager from a remote machine, which is usually the case in production. For users accessing Report Manager from the same machine, the full error would be displayed. Typically, a detailed error message is helpful for debugging purpose during development.

Additionally, you can configure a custom error page to be displayed for specific HTTP status codes. For example, the OfficeWriter error above is an internal server error, which results in HTTP status code 500.

Solution

To configure a custom error page for Report Manager:

  1. Browse to Report Manager folder.
    • For SSRS 2005, its typical location is DRIVE:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.x\Reporting Services\ReportManager, where x is the instance
    • For SSRS 2008 and SSRS 2008 R2, DRIVE:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.SSRS\Reporting Services\ReportManager .
  2. Make a copy of the existing Web.config as backup
  3. Open Web.config in a text editor, or in Visual Studio to get Intellisense support
  4. Under the section, locate the `1 section
  5. Modify the existing section, or insert a new one, with the appropriate settings
  6. Restart the Report Server

The possible values for the mode attribute of the tag are Off, On, and RemoteOnly. The default is Off. In order to enable a custom error page, mode must be set to On or RemoteOnly. For example, the below section specifies the following: 1) a custom error page be displayed for remote users only, 2) a specific page for HTTP status code 500, and 3) a default page for all other HTTP status codes. Note that attributes are case-sensitive.

Excel, ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, OfficeWriter, SQL Server, SSRS, WordWriter

How to open a report from SQL Server Reporting Services with the Application object

Problem

You want to modify your reports with the WordApplication or ExcelApplication object after they’ve been populated with data by SQL Server Reporting Services. The ExcelApplication or WordApplication object’s Open method can’t pull a report from a report server, so how do you open a SSRS report with OfficeWriter?

Solution

For simplicity and ease of reading the code examples and text in this article refer to the ExcelApplication object exclusively. However, the exact same techniques can be used with the WordApplication object. The only strict requirement for opening reports from SSRS is for the Open method to have an overload that takes a Stream argument, which both objects have.

SQL Server Reporting Services exposes a web service that lets programs access and work with the reports on the server. The web service has a number of functions for interacting with a report server and in fact is the same API that the Report Manager tool is built on top of. One of its functions will let us retrieve a fully rendered report that we can then pass to the ExcelApplication object. Once the ExcelApplication object has opened the report, it can be used as if it were any other file.

Getting a Reference to the Report Server

There are a number of different ways to access a report server to manage your reports. The MSDN documentation has detailed instructions for all the different techniques. The most powerful way, and the one that the Report Manager application uses, is to use the report server’s web service, or SOAP API. The easiest way to use the web service is to add the report server as a web reference in Visual Studio. This will allow us to make web service calls to the report server as though it were any other object in a .NET project. I’ll provide a brief overview of the steps to add a report server as a web reference; details can be found at MSDN. Continue reading How to open a report from SQL Server Reporting Services with the Application object →

ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, WordWriter

How to run different versions of OfficeWriter side-by-side

Problem

You have existing applications using an older version of ExcelWriter or WordWriter. You want to use the latest version of the product for new application development without affecting existing applications. Is this possible?

Solution

Yes, if you are using the .NET version of OfficeWriter, it is easy to run different versions side-by-side (in different applications). You just need to be aware of considerations regarding the automatic installer and the product license keys.

Note: If you are using OfficeWriter’s SSRS integration, a single instance of Reporting Services can only have one version of OfficeWriter installed. However, you may use the newer version in other standalone applications.

Installation

Only one version of OfficeWriter can be installed with the automatic installer. The usual upgrade process is to first remove the previous version through Add/Remove programs and then run the new installer. Therefore, in order to use two versions side-by-side, at least one of the installations will need to be manual.

License Keys

When your company purchased OfficeWriter, the main contact for your order received license keys for the product which must be installed on each server. These keys can be entered either through the automatic installer or by using our LicenseManager.exe utility (which is unpacked to the OfficeWriter Program Folder).

Every major version of OfficeWriter requires a new set of license keys. Minor upgrades can continue using the same license keys. If the new version you wish to install is a major upgrade from the previous version, you will need to enter a new license key.

Instructions

First, download the new installer package from the product updates page.

Assuming the previous version of the product was installed with the automatic installer, you now have two options:

  1. Do a normal automated upgrade and then reinstall the old license key manually.
  2. Leave the old installation untouched and do a manual upgrade.

Option 1:

  1. (optional) Back up the OfficeWriter Program folder from the previous version.
  2. Uninstall OfficeWriter from Add/Remove Programs. This will not affect the DLLs in your applications.
  3. Run the new installer. Make sure to use the correct license key for the new version.
  4. If this was a major upgrade, the new license key will not work for the older version so you need to reinstall the older license key

To reinstall the older license key:

  1. Double-click on the LicenseManager.exe utility in the program folder.
  2. Enter the older key in the first textbox and click “Add/Upgrade.” Exit the application.

Option 2:

  1. Do NOT uninstall the previous version.
  2. Unpack the files from the new installer by running it on a different machine. (Note: If the other machine does not have a license for OfficeWriter, please uninstall the product when you are through with this process)
  3. Copy the OfficeWriter DLLs to the destination server from the bin directory in the OfficeWriter Program folder.

If this is a major upgrade:

  1. Copy the new LicenseManager.exe from the OfficeWriter program folder. The older version of this utility that you may have on your server will not be able to accept the license keys for the new major version of OfficeWriter.
  2. Double-click on the .exe. It will show you which keys are already installed.
  3. Enter the new key in the first textbox and click “Add/Upgrade.” Exit the application.

You are now ready to use the new version of OfficeWriter in any application.

ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, Reporting Services, WordWriter

What are the system requirements for OfficeWriter?

The system requirements for OfficeWriter are outlined in our documentation for the two major versions that are currently supported:

OfficeWriter 8

OfficeWriter 8 Documentation Home

OfficeWriter 4

OfficeWriter 4 Documentation Home

ExcelWriter, Knowledge Base, WordWriter

Can a web application send additional information after streaming a file to the browser?

Problem

Your web application uses OfficeWriter to generate and stream a document or spreadsheet to the browser. Subsequently, you want to send additional instructions to the browser to update the web page, display a pop-up confirmation message, or re-direct to another web page.

Solution

It is not possible for a web application to stream a file to the browser and subsequently send additional information in the same response. This limitation is a consequence of the request-response nature of web programming and is not specific to OfficeWriter. The same limitation applies to any web application which performs media streaming or file downloading.

The HTTP protocol mandates that there can be only one response to each request. A response consists of HTTP headers and content. The HTTP headers provides information about the file and optionally specifies how it should be handled. In the case of file downloading, the response’s content must contain only file data. If there are non-file data in the response, such as HTML code to update the web page or perform additional actions, the foreign data would be taken to be part of the file, causing the file to be corrupted.

After a web application streams a file to the browser using OfficeWriter’s Save method, attempting to redirect to another web page may generate the following error: “Cannot redirect after HTTP headers have been sent.” This is because OfficeWriter’s Save method sets the appropriate HTTP headers before streaming the file and the instruction to redirect requires another set of HTTP headers.

Knowledge Base, WordWriter

How to import data into a Word document with WordWriter

Solution

WordWriter has two approaches for importing data:

Approach 1: WordTemplate

Use WordTemplate to import data into existing templates with merge fields.

Additional reading:

Approach 2: WordApplication

Call ImportData to generate Table in the document with the data.

Additional reading:

Knowledge Base, WordWriter

Updating the Table of Contents in a WordWriter generated document

Problem

In Microsoft Word, a table of contents is not automatically updated when a document is opened. If a table of contents (TOC) is created and the document is modified afterwards (either in Word on the client, or using WordWriter on the server) the TOC will need to be updated in order to accurately reflect the changes. Otherwise, you may experience some of the following problems:

  • If your TOC points to MergeFields in your template, even though the mergefield will be correctly populated by WordWriter on the server, the TOC entry will display a copy of the original MergeField.
  • Page numbers may be inaccurate.
  • If your headers are generated using SetRepeatBlock, the TOC will show only those which which existed in the template at design-time.

The TOC can be updated manually by the end-user (by right-clicking on the TOC and choosing “update field”). However, a more user-friendly approach is to include VBA in your template which will cause the TOC to be updated automatically when the new document is opened on the client.

This article explains how to build a table of contents, and how to create a VBA macro which will refresh the TOC client-side.

Solution

Creating a table of contents in your template

In Microsoft Word, a table of contents is created in the following manner:

1. Insert text in your document for the headings 2. Apply one of the heading styles to the text using “Format>Styles and Formats” from the menu, or the Styles dropdown in the formatting toolbar:

3. Add a new table of contents

Word 2010/2007: On the Insert Tab, go to Quick Parts > Field > TOC. Click on ‘Table of Contents’.

Word 2003: Through the menu, choose Insert > Reference > Index and Tables > Table of Contents tab.

4. Once in the Table of Contents window, choose the format of your table of contents (for example, how many level of headers you want to include, if you have nested headers). Word will automatically pick up all text with heading styles and put it into the TOC.

Below is an example of a template with a TOC which references a heading in a repeat block. The <> in the table of contents is not a merge field. It is just picking up the text from the actual merge field in the document. When the WordWriter-generated file is opened on the client, the TOC will still look this way if it is not updated manually or through a macro.

Using macros to update the TOC on the client

If you add the following macro to the Document_Open event of your template Word document, the table of contents will automatically update itself when the user opens the newly-generated file. If you have multiple TOCs, it will update all of them:

Private Sub Document_Open()
For i = 1 To ThisDocument.TablesOfContents.Count
ThisDocument.TablesOfContents.Item(i).Update
Next
End Sub
After the macro runs, the TOC will reflect all of the changes in the populated document:

Note: If you do not wish your users to get a macro security prompt every time they open the document, one option to consider is digitally signing your macros. See: Digitally sign a macro project.