deleteBlock / replaceBlock doesn't work properly

[timothe]

Hi,

PHPWord is a terrific solution for my needs. Unfortunately I'm not able to use the "deleteBlock" feature since PHPWord doesn't detect the blocks in my files.
I raised a ticket in StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25402045/regexp-in-a-word-xml-why-does-it-not-match
Basically I achieved to understand the regexp itself doesn't detect the block in the docx.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

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[STiTCHi]

I have the same issue with this.. Has anyone worked it out?

[timothe]

On my side I just created different templates... no other choice.
On StOv they pointed out that RegExp is not the best option to parse XML... I guess it's accurate :)

[STiTCHi]

Thanks for the reply, Only I don't think i'm going to be able to create different templates as the client has specific requirements.

The strange bit about it is if I copy the whole template from the 'Sample_23_TemplateBlock.docx' and paste it at the end of my template the DELETEME block gets removed.

But if I paste it in the middle of my template the DELETEME block isn't removed?..

So I guess I will have to look at other ways to phrase the xml to remove the blocks any help in the right direction would be great thanks.

[chc88]

I have found a fix for the cloneBLock regex/function which seems to fix this problem in my numerous cases.

/**
 * Clone a block
 *
 * @param string $blockname
 * @param integer $clones
 * @param boolean $replace
 * @return string|null
 */
public function cloneBlock($blockname, $clones = 1, $replace = true)
{
    $xmlBlock = null;
    preg_match(
        '/(<w:p.*>\${' . $blockname . '}<\/w:.*?p>)(.*)(<w:p.*\${\/' . $blockname . '}<\/w:.*?p>)/is',
        $this->documentXML,
        $matches
    );
    if (isset($matches[2])) {
        $xmlBlock = $matches[2];
        $cloned = array();
        for ($i = 1; $i <= $clones; $i++) {
            $cloned[] = preg_replace('/\${(.*?)}/','${$1_'.$i.'}', $xmlBlock);
        }
        if ($replace) {
            $this->documentXML = str_replace(
                $matches[1] . $matches[2] . $matches[3],
                implode('', $cloned),
                $this->documentXML
            );
        }
    }

[brad-jones]

I was still having issues with the regular expression, I just couldn't get it to match my template.
Here is my version of the method that uses SimpleXML to find the start and end tags, which for me at least seems to be much more robust. It also incorprates chc88's _1, _2, _3, etc for cloned variables.

    /**
     * Clone a block
     *
     * @param string $blockname
     * @param integer $clones
     * @param boolean $replace
     * @return string|null
     */
    public function cloneBlock($blockname, $clones = 1, $replace = true)
    {
        // Parse the XML
        $xml = new \SimpleXMLElement($this->documentXML);

        // Find the starting and ending tags
        $startNode = false; $endNode = false;
        foreach ($xml->xpath('//w:t') as $node)
        {
            if (strpos($node, '${'.$blockname.'}') !== false)
            {
                $startNode = $node;
                continue;
            }

            if (strpos($node, '${/'.$blockname.'}') !== false)
            {
                $endNode = $node;
                break;
            }
        }

        // Make sure we found the tags
        if ($startNode === false || $endNode === false)
        {
            return null;
        }

        // Find the parent <w:p> node for the start tag
        $node = $startNode; $startNode = null;
        while (is_null($startNode))
        {
            $node = $node->xpath('..')[0];

            if ($node->getName() == 'p')
            {
                $startNode = $node;
            }
        }

        // Find the parent <w:p> node for the end tag
        $node = $endNode; $endNode = null;
        while (is_null($endNode))
        {
            $node = $node->xpath('..')[0];

            if ($node->getName() == 'p')
            {
                $endNode = $node;
            }
        }

        /*
         * NOTE: Because SimpleXML reduces empty tags to "self-closing" tags.
         * We need to replace the original XML with the version of XML as
         * SimpleXML sees it. The following example should show the issue
         * we are facing.
         * 
         * This is the XML that my document contained orginally.
         * 
         * ```xml
         *  <w:p>
         *      <w:pPr>
         *          <w:pStyle w:val="TextBody"/>
         *          <w:rPr></w:rPr>
         *      </w:pPr>
         *      <w:r>
         *          <w:rPr></w:rPr>
         *          <w:t>${CLONEME}</w:t>
         *      </w:r>
         *  </w:p>
         * ```
         * 
         * This is the XML that SimpleXML returns from asXml().
         * 
         * ```xml
         *  <w:p>
         *      <w:pPr>
         *          <w:pStyle w:val="TextBody"/>
         *          <w:rPr/>
         *      </w:pPr>
         *      <w:r>
         *          <w:rPr/>
         *          <w:t>${CLONEME}</w:t>
         *      </w:r>
         *  </w:p>
         * ```
         */

        $this->documentXML = $xml->asXml();

        // Find the xml in between the tags
        $xmlBlock = null;
        preg_match
        (
            '/'.preg_quote($startNode->asXml(), '/').'(.*?)'.preg_quote($endNode->asXml(), '/').'/is',
            $this->documentXML,
            $matches
        );

        if (isset($matches[1]))
        {
            $xmlBlock = $matches[1];

            $cloned = array();

            for ($i = 1; $i <= $clones; $i++)
            {
                $cloned[] = preg_replace('/\${(.*?)}/','${$1_'.$i.'}', $xmlBlock);
            }

            if ($replace)
            {
                $this->documentXML = str_replace
                (
                    $matches[0],
                    implode('', $cloned),
                    $this->documentXML
                );
            }
        }

        return $xmlBlock;
    }

[chc88]

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your input, I'll give it a test-run as well. I was just running into some issues with my version as well.

I'll report back!

Regards

[chc88]

@brad-jones

I have tested your function in a series of documents.
It seems to be working very well!

Maybe put it in a Pull-Request for the project?

Regards!

[brad-jones]

I have actually taken it a little further. Checkout: https://github.com/phpgearbox/pdf

[judgej]

OMG - this thing uses regex to parse XML!?! I was searching for why my cloneBlock() suddenly stopped working after adding some formatting inside the block, and came across this issue. XML and REGEX? Makes the hairs on my neck stand up.

And looking at my document source, yes, it is the REGEX that no longer matches. MS Word puts in a few additional elements of formatting, and the the block tags can no longer be found using the REGEX built into cloneBlock(). I'm also going to assume this is never going to be fixed :-(

Edit: Raised my issue separately, with some analysis:

#867

[samdark]

Duplicate of #316