Open and save Presentation in Azure Functions v1

3 Aug 20268 minutes to read

Syncfusion^® PowerPoint is a .NET PowerPoint library used to create, read, edit, and convert PowerPoint documents programmatically without Microsoft PowerPoint or interop dependencies. Using this library, you can open and save a PowerPoint Presentation in Azure Functions v1.

Deprecation notice: The Azure Functions v1 (.NET Framework) runtime was retired by Microsoft in November 2022. The steps below remain valid for existing projects, but for new development we recommend Azure Functions v4.

Steps to open and save Presentation in Azure Functions v1

Step 1: Create a new Azure Functions project. Select the Azure Functions template and choose the Http trigger function type.

Step 2: Configure the project name and select the location.

Step 3: Select the function worker as .NET Framework.

Step 4: Install the Syncfusion.Presentation.AspNet NuGet package as a reference to your project from NuGet.org. This package targets .NET Framework 4.6.2 and later.

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

Step 5: Include the following namespaces in the Function1.cs file.

C#

using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Syncfusion.Presentation;

Step 6: Add the following complete Run method to the Function1 class to open the existing PowerPoint Presentation, modify a shape on the first slide, and return the modified Presentation in the HTTP response.

C#

[FunctionName("Function1")]
public static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Run(
    [HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "post", Route = null)] HttpRequestMessage req,
    TraceWriter log)
{
    //Register the Syncfusion license key (only required once per app domain).
    Syncfusion.Licensing.SyncfusionLicenseProvider.RegisterLicense("YOUR_LICENSE_KEY");

    //Get the input PowerPoint document as a stream from the request.
    Stream stream = await req.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync();

    //Open the existing PowerPoint Presentation.
    using (IPresentation pptxDoc = Presentation.Open(stream))
    {
        //Access the first slide and modify a shape.
        ISlide slide = pptxDoc.Slides[0];
        IShape shape = slide.Shapes[0] as IShape;
        if (shape != null && shape.TextBody != null && shape.TextBody.Text == "Company History")
        {
            shape.TextBody.Text = "Company Profile";
        }

        //Save the modified PowerPoint Presentation to a memory stream.
        using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            pptxDoc.Save(memoryStream);
            memoryStream.Position = 0;

            //Build the HTTP response with the modified Presentation as an attachment.
            HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
            response.Content = new ByteArrayContent(memoryStream.ToArray());
            response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment")
            {
                FileName = "Sample.pptx"
            };
            response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation");
            return response;
        }
    }
}

Step 7: Right-click the project and select Publish. Then, create a new profile in the Publish window.

Step 8: Select the target as Azure and click the Next button.

Step 9: Click the Create new button.

Step 10: Click the Create button.

Step 11: After the app service is created, click the Finish button.

Step 12: Click the Publish button.

Step 13: Publishing has succeeded.

Step 14: Go to the Azure portal and select App Services. After the function is running, click Get function URL and copy it. Then, paste the URL into the client sample in the next section (which will request the Azure Functions to open and save a PowerPoint Presentation using the template PowerPoint document). You will get the output PowerPoint Presentation as follows.

Steps to post the request to Azure Functions

This console application posts a sample Template.pptx (any existing PowerPoint Presentation) to the Azure Function and saves the modified Presentation returned by the function as Sample.pptx.

Step 1: Create a .NET Framework console application (targeting .NET Framework 4.6.2 or later) to request the Azure Functions API. Add a folder named Data to the project and place a sample PowerPoint file named Template.pptx inside it.

Step 2: Add the following code snippet into the Main method to post the request to Azure Functions with the template PowerPoint document and save the returned PowerPoint Presentation to disk.

C#

try
{
    //Read the template PowerPoint file.
    using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(@"../../Data/Template.pptx", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
    using (MemoryStream inputStream = new MemoryStream())
    {
        fs.CopyTo(inputStream);
        inputStream.Position = 0;

        Console.WriteLine("Please enter your Azure Functions URL:");
        string functionURL = Console.ReadLine();

        //Create HttpWebRequest with the hosted Azure Functions URL.
        HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(functionURL);
        //Set request method as POST.
        req.Method = "POST";
        //Get the request stream and write the PowerPoint file stream into it.
        using (Stream requestStream = req.GetRequestStream())
        {
            byte[] buffer = inputStream.ToArray();
            requestStream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        }

        //Get the response from the Azure Functions.
        using (HttpWebResponse res = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse())
        {
            //Save the returned PowerPoint file stream to disk.
            using (FileStream fileStream = File.Create("Sample.pptx"))
            {
                res.GetResponseStream().CopyTo(fileStream);
            }
        }
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Error posting request to Azure Functions: " + ex.Message);
    throw;
}

From GitHub, you can download the console application (.NET Framework client that posts the template PowerPoint to the Azure Function) and the Azure Functions v1 project (.NET Framework Http trigger that opens, edits, and returns the PowerPoint Presentation).

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