Export Dynamic Word document in Web API

There may be scenarios where you need to dynamically generate word document (which is not saved on the web server) and download it using Web API. In this blog I will show you how to generate a word document and download that word document using Web API.

First we need create an in memory word document. This word document will not be saved on the web server. As we are creating word document on a web server, let use OpenXml. Here is the code which creates a “Hello World” in memory document

using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())

{

    using (WordprocessingDocument package = WordprocessingDocument.Create(ms, WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))

    { 

        MainDocumentPart mainPart = package.AddMainDocumentPart();

        mainPart.Document = new Document();

        var body = new Body();

        Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();

        Run run = new Run(new Text("Hello World!"));

        paragraph.Append(run);

        body.Append(paragraph);

        mainPart.Document.Append(body);

        package.Close();

    }

}

Once the document is created we can push the document through the response stream using the below code:

HttpResponseMessage result = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);

result.Content = new ByteArrayContent(ms.ToArray());

result.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/vnd.ms-word");

result.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment");

result.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName = "HelloWorld.docx";

return result;

Here is the total WebAPI code:

public HttpResponseMessage Get()

{

    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())

    {

        using (WordprocessingDocument package = WordprocessingDocument.Create(ms, WordprocessingDocumentType.Document))

        {

            MainDocumentPart mainPart = package.AddMainDocumentPart();

            mainPart.Document = new Document();

            var body = new Body();

            Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();

            Run run = new Run(new Text("Hello World!"));

            //run.Append(new Text("Hello World!"));

            paragraph.Append(run);

            body.Append(paragraph);

            mainPart.Document.Append(body);

            package.Close();

        }

        HttpResponseMessage result = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);

        result.Content = new ByteArrayContent(ms.ToArray());

        result.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/vnd.ms-word");

        result.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment");

        result.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition.FileName = "HelloWorld.docx";

        return result;

    }

}