Free Node.js Library to Create & Manage Word DOCX from Templates

How to Install Docxtemplater?

To install Docxtemplater, you can use npm, the package manager for JavaScript. Please use the following commands for a successful installation.

 npm install --save docxtemplater pizzip

Word Documents Creation via Template in Node.js

The open source Docxtemplater library makes it easy for software developers to Generate Microsoft Word DOCX documents using a template. Software developers can inject dynamic data into the template by passing an object containing key-value pairs to replace placeholders with actual data to create the final output document. The following example demonstrates how developers can load an existing template and generate Word document from it inside Node.js environment.

const fs = require('fs');
const Docxtemplater = require('docxtemplater');

// Load the template
const content = fs.readFileSync('template.docx', 'binary');
const doc = new Docxtemplater(content);

// Set data to fill placeholders
const data = {
  firstName: 'John',
  lastName: 'Doe'
};

// Replace placeholders with actual data
doc.setData(data);

// Render the document
doc.render();

// Save the generated document
const output = fs.writeFileSync('output.docx', doc.getZip().generate({type: 'nodebuffer'}));

console.log('Document generated successfully!');

Add Custom Functions & Filters in Node.js Apps

Custom Functions and Filters in Docxtemplater library offer advanced capabilities for manipulating data and performing specific operations within templates. They enable users to extend the functionality of the library beyond basic placeholder replacement, allowing for dynamic content generation and complex data processing. You can define custom functions and filters to manipulate data or perform specific operations within your templates. Here is an example that shows developers can implement a custom function to calculate the total price of items in a shopping cart and a filter to format currency values.

const fs = require('fs');
const Docxtemplater = require('docxtemplater');

// Define custom function to calculate total price
function calculateTotal(items) {
  return items.reduce((total, item) => total + item.price * item.quantity, 0);
}

// Define custom filter to format currency
function formatCurrency(value) {
  return '$' + value.toFixed(2); // Format as dollars with 2 decimal places
}

// Load the template
const content = fs.readFileSync('template.docx', 'binary');
const doc = new Docxtemplater(content, {
  parser: {
    // Define custom tag for invoking functions
    getFunction: function(tag) {
      if (tag === 'calculateTotal') {
        return calculateTotal;
      }
    },
    // Define custom tag for applying filters
    getFilter: function(tag) {
      if (tag === 'currency') {
        return formatCurrency;
      }
    }
  }
});

// Set data with shopping cart items
const data = {
  items: [
    { name: 'Product 1', price: 10, quantity: 2 },
    { name: 'Product 2', price: 20, quantity: 1 },
    { name: 'Product 3', price: 15, quantity: 3 }
  ]
};

// Replace placeholders with actual data
doc.setData(data);

// Render the document
doc.render();

// Save the generated document
const output = fs.writeFileSync('output.docx', doc.getZip().generate({ type: 'nodebuffer' }));

console.log('Document generated successfully!');

Rich Formatting Support

The open source Docxtemplater simplifies the process of creating and managing Word documents by offering a straightforward template-based approach. Rich formatting support in Word documents refers to the ability to apply various styling attributes such as font styles, colors, sizes, alignments, and more to different elements within the Word document. This includes formatting text, tables, images, paragraph, section formatting, list, bullet points and other content to enhance readability and visual appeal. Here is a simple example that shows how to apply Rich Formatting to a part of text inside a document.

// Render the document with custom parser options for rich formatting
doc.render({
  parser: {
    // Custom tag for interpreting HTML-like tags for rich formatting
    tagToken: function(tag) {
      return {
        tagName: tag.substring(1),
        mode: 'open'
      };
    },
    // Apply rich formatting based on tag names
    commands: {
      b: function(scope, context, tag) {
        return {
          type: 'applyRichText',
          value: { b: true }
        };
      },
      i: function(scope, context, tag) {
        return {
          type: 'applyRichText',
          value: { i: true }
        };
      },
      u: function(scope, context, tag) {
        return {
          type: 'applyRichText',
          value: { u: true }
        };
      },
      strike: function(scope, context, tag) {
        return {
          type: 'applyRichText',
          value: { strike: true }
        };
      }
    }
  }
});

// Save the generated document
const output = fs.writeFileSync('output.docx', doc.getZip().generate({ type: 'nodebuffer' }));

console.log('Document generated successfully!');