Open and save Presentation in ASP.NET Core Web API

29 Jun 20266 minutes to read

Syncfusion^® PowerPoint is a .NET PowerPoint library used to create, read, and edit PowerPoint presentation programmatically without Microsoft PowerPoint or interop dependencies. Using this library, you can open and save a Presentation in ASP.NET Core Web API.

Steps to Open and save a Presentation programmatically:

The below steps illustrate Open and save a simple PowerPoint Presentation in ASP.NET Core Web API.

Step 1: Create a new C# ASP.NET Core Web API project.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion.Presentation.Net.Core NuGet package as a reference to your project from NuGet.org.

NOTE

Starting with v16.2.0.x, if you reference Syncfusion^® assemblies from trial setup or from the NuGet feed, you also have to add “Syncfusion.Licensing” assembly reference and include a license key in your projects. Please refer to this link to know about registering Syncfusion^® license key in your application to use our components.

Step 3: Add a new API controller empty file in the project.

Step 4: Include the following namespaces in the ValuesController.cs file.

C#

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Syncfusion.Presentation;

Step 5: Add a new action method DownloadPresentation in ValuesController.cs and include the below code snippet to Open and save an PowerPoint Presentation and download it.

C#

[HttpGet]
[Route("api/PowerPoint")]
public IActionResult DownloadPresentation()
{
    try
    {
        var fileDownloadName = "Output.pptx";
        const string contentType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation";
        var stream = OpenandSavePresentation();
        stream.Position = 0;
        return File(stream, contentType, fileDownloadName);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return BadRequest("Error occurred while creating PowerPoint file: " + ex.Message);
    }
}

Step 6: Implement the OpenandSavePresentation method in ValuesController.cs.

C#

public static MemoryStream OpenandSavePresentation()
 {
    IPresentation pptxDoc = Presentation.Open(Path.GetFullPath(@"Data/Template.pptx"));
    //Get the first slide from the PowerPoint presentation.
    ISlide slide = pptxDoc.Slides[0];
    //Get the first shape of the slide.
    IShape shape = slide.Shapes[0] as IShape;
    //Change the text of the shape.
    if (shape.TextBody.Text == "Company History")
        shape.TextBody.Text = "Company Profile";
    // Save the PowerPoint Presentation as stream
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
    pptxDoc.Save(stream);
    pptxDoc.Close();
    stream.Position = 0;
    return stream;
}

Step 7: Build the project.

Click on Build → Build Solution or press Ctrl+Shift+B to build the project.

Step 8: Run the project.

Click the Start button (green arrow) or press F5 to run the app.

A complete working sample is available on GitHub.

Steps for accessing the Web API using HTTP requests

Step 1: Create a console application.

NOTE

Ensure your ASP.NET Core Web API is running on the specified port before running this client. Adjust the port number if your Web API runs on a different port (check the ASP.NET Core app’s launch settings).

Step 2: Add the below code snippet in the Program.cs file for accessing the Web API using HTTP requests.

This method sends a GET request to the Web API endpoint to retrieve and save the generated PowerPoint Presentation.

C#

// Create an HttpClient instance
using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
{
    try
    {
        // Send a GET request to a URL
        HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync("https://localhost:7055/api/Values/api/PowerPoint");
        // Check if the response is successful
        if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            // Read the content as a string
            Stream responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync();
            FileStream fileStream = File.Create("../../../Output/Output.pptx");
            responseBody.CopyTo(fileStream);
            fileStream.Close();
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("HTTP error status code: " + response.StatusCode);
        }
    }
    catch (HttpRequestException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Request exception: " + e.Message);
    }
}

Step 3: Build the project.

Click on Build → Build Solution or press Ctrl+Shift+B to build the project.

Step 4: Run the project.

Click the Start button (green arrow) or press F5 to run the app.

A complete working sample is available on GitHub.

Upon executing the program, the PowerPoint Presentation will be generated as follows.

Looking for the full .NET PowerPoint Library component overview, features, pricing, and documentation? Visit the .NET PowerPoint Library page.