Migrate DocIO library from .NET Framework to .NET Core

14 Apr 20232 minutes to read

In this section, we will see about the changes which need to be considered while migrating Syncfusion .NET Word (DocIO) library from .NET Framework to .NET Core.

NuGet packages

Packages targeting .NET Framework	Packages targeting .NET Standard 2.0/.NET Core
Syncfusion.DocIO.WinForms Syncfusion.DocIO.Wpf Syncfusion.DocIO.AspNet Syncfusion.DocIO.AspNet.Mvc4 Syncfusion.DocIO.AspNet.Mvc5	Syncfusion.DocIO.Net.Core
Syncfusion.DocToPDFConverter.WinForms Syncfusion.DocToPDFConverter.Wpf Syncfusion.DocToPDFConverter.AspNet Syncfusion.DocToPDFConverter.AspNet.Mvc4 Syncfusion.DocIToPDFConverter.AspNet.Mvc5	Syncfusion.DocIORenderer.Net.Core

Namespace changes

.NET Framework	Alternate Namespace in .NET Core
Syncfusion.DocToPDFConverter	Syncfusion.DocIORenderer
Syncfusion.OfficeChartToImageConverter	Not applicable - Classes are moved within Syncfusion.DocIORenderer namespace.

Type changes

Missing Types	Alternate Types in .NET Core
DocToPDFConverter	DocIORenderer
ChartToImageConverter	Not applicable - It is handled internally.
DocToPDFConverterSettings	DocIORendererSettings

Property changes

Missing properties	Alternate properties in .NET Core
IWordDocument.ChartToImageConverter	Not applicable - It is handled internally.
WordDocument.ChartToImageConverter	Not applicable - It is handled internally.
DocToPDFConverterSettings.EnableFastRendering	This is the default approach in .NET Core and handled internally.
DocToPDFConverterSettings.RecreateNestedMetaFile	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
DocToPDFConverterSettings.ImageQuality	Not supported
DocToPDFConverterSettings.ImageResolution	Not supported
DocToPDFConverterSettings.PreserveOleEquationAsBitmap	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
SaveOptions.HtmlExportImagesFolder	Not applicable - You can save the images to folder using SaveOptions.ImageNodeVisited event in the application level.
SaveOptions.HtmlExportCssStyleSheetFileName	Not supported
SaveOption.HTMLExportImageAsBase64	This is the default approach in .NET Core and handled internally.
CssStyleSheetType.External	Not supported

Method Changes

Missing methods	Alternate methods in .NET Core
WordDocument.Open(String) WordDocument.Open(String, FormatType)	You can open the document as stream from the file system using WordDocument.Open(Stream, FormatType) API
WordDocument.Save(String) WordDocumentSave(String, FormatType)	You can save the document as stream to the file system using WordDocument.Save(Stream, FormatType) API
WordDocument.Save(string fileName, FormatType formatType, HttpResponse response)	You can save the document as stream and then download from browser.
WParagraph.AppendPicture(Image)	You can open the image as stream and append in paragraph using AppendPicture(Stream imageStream) API.
MailMerge.Execute(OleDbDataReader)	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
MailMerge.Execute(IDataReader)	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
MailMerge.ExecuteGroup(IDataReader)	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
MailMerge.ExecuteNestedGroup(DbConnection, ArrayList)	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
MailMerge.ExecuteNestedGroup(DbConnection, ArrayList, Boolean)	Not supported due to .NET Core limitations.
ChartToImageConverter.SaveAsImage(IOfficeChart, Stream)	WChart.SaveAsImage()

Advantages

Supports Windows, macOS, Linux, docker, Azure, and AWS environments.

Known limitations

EMF and WMF images are not supported in .NET Core platforms.

Notable changes

• Graphics library: In .NET Framework, our library makes use of System.Drawing.Common for any text measuring and graphics-related operations. Whereas in .NET Core, our library uses the SkiaSharp graphics library to provide the same type of graphics operations in all the supported environments.
• The below features are make use of SkiaSharp graphics library, which are separated into a separate package, Syncfusion.DocIORenderer.Net.Core.
  • Word document to PDF
  • Word document to Image
  • Updating table of contents
  • Convert chart to image
• During Word to PDF/Image conversion, if you are facing font-related problems (like accessing font from the environment), you can pass the fonts as streams using our font substitution approach.

NOTE

If you want to migrate without any code changes from “Syncfusion.DocIO.ASP.NET” NuGet in application targeting .NET Framework, you can consider to use anyone of the packages

• Syncfusion.DocIO.WinForms
• Syncfusion.DocIO.Wpf
• Syncfusion.DocIO.AspNet.Mcv4
  But, this is not a recommended approach.