Populate Word Template: How to use dynamic files (dynamicFileSchema)

[BlackSnowFlake]

Hi,

I'm using the Premium Populate Microsoft Word Template with a PowerApps instant trigger. I want my template file name to be derived dynamically. The connector requires I pass a "dynamicFileSchema" field of type dynamic. I cannot find an example online or in documentation. Can someone please demonstrate how this works? I tried passing JSON and plain-text but it fails.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/wordonlinebusiness/

[Ankit7]

I am facing the issue myself. I need to populate few word templates and I thought it should have been real simple but looking like it will take them some time to fix

[Simonsen]

Hi 

Old post, but wonder if you ever found a solution?

I've build a solution that extracts mergefields from a word template to a json string with pairs of field id and name, then replaces the merge field names with actual data from CRM and uses it as a dynamicFileSchema for the Populate a Microsoft Word template"-connector.

[NyomanLukas]

@MatthewBrooksST, thanks for validating!

@RichFunk365, thanks for coming up with this idea!

[raf-avag_99]

Could you please elaborate how do you extract mergefields dynamically from word? I'm at the point where I only need to get those fields as JSON dynamically

[Simonsen]

Hi

It's a rather complex flow/flows, but i'll try my best to explain it. 🙂

It goes something like this...

Preparing template:

1. The user uploads a file (Word merge template) to a file field in a "Templates" entity in CRM
2. A cloud flow transfers the file to onedrive, unzips it and fetches the "word/document.xml" file from onedrive
3. The flow then runs the following xpath query against the contents of "word/document.xml":
   //*[local-name()="tag"] | //*[local-name()="id"]
4. This returns alternating results of merge field names and merge field ids which are then composed to a JSON-string in the form:
   { "-613740036": "field1", "-545143976": "field2", "1333568856": "field3", "1877353822": "field4", "-750961460": "field5"}
5. The JSON is then saved in the "Templates" entity along side the word template for later use 

Merging:

1. Before merging a flow reads the dynamicFileSchema from the "Templates" entity into a variable and replaces the merge field names with the corresponding values from the data that is to be merged. 
2. The dynamicFileSchema variable is then used as input for the Populate a Microsoft Word template"-connectors dynamicFileSchema field

The composing of the JSON-string is a little complex in my solution - I'm sure it could be done easier. Even the xpath-query can probably be optimized, but I got it working so... 🙂

[raf-avag_99]

Was having real trouble with the xpath for some reason. Had to convert xml to json then back to xml to make it work, and a Do Until to merge each Excel's row element into the schema. I though this was hopeless, but somehow managed to make it work (albeit it is a complex and ugly solution).

Thanks for the input.

[Simonsen]

Remember to use the XMLify function on contents the document.xml file before running the Xpath query on it.

But perhaps your detour around JSON has the same effect. 🙂

[OheneSiaw]

Hi RichFunk365,

Thank you for this. it worked for me. However, how do I do this with images.

[ehoward1]

I was able to get this to work with images by creating a string variable from the GetFile of the image and adding a few lines in the dynamicFileSchema on the populate template action.