Azure Function docx-templates

Many applications have the requirement of generating Word (docx) files based on a template.
Based on the technology your application is using, there are a number of commercial or open-source solutions available.

I really liked docx-templates, a Node (Javascript) based libary that supports GraphQL and other synax.
To make our template-generation unified across the various applications and technologies, I created this Azure Function.

For now, we only support plain json-serialized objects as data.

Publish the Azure Function

You need to create your own Azure Function and deploy the code to it.

Please refere to these steps to set-up your Azure environment.
Create Azure resources

Once you created your function app, navigate to the function source code and restore packages.

cd ./Src/Function
npm install

And publish the function to your created Azure app.

func azure functionapp publish <APP_NAME>

Usage

The function takes a POST request with a multipart content.

first part is the serialized json object with data to map
second part is the word document template

Example request

Here's an example of a request message.

POST /api/docx HTTP/1.1
Host: {my-host}
Content-Type: Content-Type: multipart/form-data;boundary=myMultipartBoundary

--myMultipartBoundary
Content-Disposition: form-data
Content-Type: application/json

{
   "name": "John Smith",
   "email": "john.smith@contoso.com"
}
--myMultipartBoundary
Content-Disposition: file; fileName="template.docx"
Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

{binary-content-of-file}
--myMultipartBoundary--

Example applications

You can see some example applications in various technologies in the ClientExamples folder.

Check-out the source and run the examples using your deployed Azure Function.

Build and local development

You're welcome to check-out the source and modify it to your wishes before creating your own Azure Function. I would like to refere to following Microsoft Doc in order to set-up and pre-configure your local environment. Create a function on Linux using a custom container

Azure functions does not support all Node versions.
Therefore I created a Docker file that allows you to run and test your local source code in a Docker environment with Node 14.

# build a docker image from the docker file
docker build --tag azfnode:dev ./Src/Function

# create a container from the image.
# map your local source directory to the /home/dev/azfnode directory in docker
# map the 7071 (default port used by func start) and the 5858 (for debugging) ports.
docker create -it --name azfnode-docx -v /c/development/projects/github/docx-templates-azure-function/Src/Function:/home/dev/azfnode -p 7071:7071 -p 5858:5858 azfnode:dev

# start the docker image
docker start azfnode-docx

# login to the docker's bash
docker exec -it azfnode-docx bash

# restore packages (first time) and run the local function in the container bash
root@0a8c9387ce87:~/dev/azfnode# npm install
root@0a8c9387ce87:~/dev/azfnode# func start

Debug function

You can debug your function by running the function, passing in the inspect option to listen on a specific port (5858).

root@0a8c9387ce87:~/dev/azfnode# func start --language-worker -- "--inspect:0.0.0.0:5858"

Then press F5 in Visual Code to attach the debugger.
Unfortunatly, breakpoints set in my local source were not hit.
I had to add debugger; in my javascript file to stop in the source code.

RRosier / docx-templates-azure-function