Insert a Picture into the Picture/Image Content Control using Open XML SDK 2.0

Question

I have created a word template as follows
Here PizzaPicture is a Picture Content Control, PizzaName is a Plain Text Content Control and PizzaDescription is a Rich Text Content Control
I am able to assign text to PizzaName and PizzaDescription Easily but not able to even locate the PizzaPicture. Here is my code
using (WordprocessingDocument document = WordprocessingDocument.Open(@".\test.docx", true)) {
MainDocumentPart mainPart = document.MainDocumentPart;
DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing.Text text = null;
SdtContentBlock pizzaNameBlock = null;
SdtContentBlock pizzaDescriptionBlock = null;
//SdtContentBlock pizzaPictureBlock = null;
List<SdtBlock> sdtList = mainPart.Document.Descendants<SdtBlock>().ToList();
foreach (SdtBlock sdt in sdtList)
Console.WriteLine(sdt.SdtProperties.GetFirstChild<Tag>().Val.Value);
SdtBlock s1 = mainPart.Document.Body.Descendants<SdtBlock>().Where(r => r.SdtProperties.GetFirstChild<Tag>().Val == "PizzaName").Single();
SdtBlock s2 = mainPart.Document.Body.Descendants<SdtBlock>().Where(r => r.SdtProperties.GetFirstChild<Tag>().Val == "PizzaDescription").Single();
SdtBlock s3 = mainPart.Document.Body.Descendants<SdtBlock>().FirstOrDefault(r =>
SdtProperties p = r.Elements<SdtProperties>().FirstOrDefault();
if (p != null)
Console.WriteLine("P is not null");
// Is it a picture content control?
SdtContentPicture pict =
p.Elements<SdtContentPicture>().FirstOrDefault();
if (pict != null) Console.WriteLine("Pict is not null");
// Get the alias.
SdtAlias a = p.Elements<SdtAlias>().FirstOrDefault();
if (pict != null && a.Val == "PizzaPicture")
return true;
return false;
if (s3 == null) {
Console.Write(" s3 is Null");
} else {
Console.WriteLine("s3 not null");
if (s1 != null) {
pizzaNameBlock = s1.Descendants<SdtContentBlock>().FirstOrDefault();
text = pizzaNameBlock.Descendants<DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing.Text>().FirstOrDefault();
// here you can set the current time
text.Text = "Peperoni";
Console.WriteLine(text.Text);
string embed = null;
if (s3 != null)
Drawing dr = s3.Descendants<Drawing>().FirstOrDefault();
if (dr != null)
Blip blip = dr.Descendants<Blip>().FirstOrDefault();
if (blip != null)
embed = blip.Embed;
if (embed != null)
IdPartPair idpp = document.MainDocumentPart.Parts
.Where(pa => pa.RelationshipId == embed).FirstOrDefault();
if (idpp != null)
ImagePart ip = (ImagePart)idpp.OpenXmlPart;
using (FileStream fileStream =
File.Open(@"c:\temp\pepperoni.jpg", FileMode.Open))
ip.FeedData(fileStream);
if (s2 != null) {
pizzaDescriptionBlock = s2.Descendants<SdtContentBlock>().FirstOrDefault();
string altChunkId = "AltChunkId12345";
AlternativeFormatImportPart chunk = mainPart.AddAlternativeFormatImportPart(AlternativeFormatImportPartType.Xhtml, altChunkId);
chunk.FeedData(File.Open(@".\html.txt", FileMode.Open));
AltChunk altChunk = new AltChunk();
altChunk.Id = altChunkId;
////Replace content control with altChunk information
OpenXmlElement parent = pizzaDescriptionBlock.Parent;
parent.InsertAfter(altChunk, pizzaDescriptionBlock);
pizzaDescriptionBlock.Remove();
mainPart.Document.Save();
document.Close();
Here the call mainPart.Document.Descendants<SdtBlock>().ToList(); returns me only 2 items PizzaName, PizzaDescription but
no PizzaPicture.
Secondly the line   SdtContentPicture pict =  p.Elements<SdtContentPicture>().FirstOrDefault();
returns NULL. So it seems that there is no element of type SdtContentPicture.
What am I doing wrong? I am pretty sure that I have put PizzaPicture as a Picture content control.
My objective is to locate this control in the document and then insert an image into it programmatically.
MSDNStudent Knows not much!

Answer 1

Hi,
I'm running some test on your code, and I'll come back as soon as I get some update. But before that, I would recommend you to bind customXMLPart with the content controls via Content Control Tool Kit,
which enables us to bind customXMLPart with CC by dragging and dropping.
After binding, you can change contents of the template via OpenXML SDK easily as the following code:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
string fileName = @"C:\CCTest.docx";
WordprocessingDocument wordDoc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(fileName, true);
MainDocumentPart mainPart = wordDoc.MainDocumentPart;
CustomXmlPart customPart = mainPart.CustomXmlParts.FirstOrDefault();
//convert image into string
string picName = @"C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures\Desert.jpg";
System.IO.FileStream fileStream = System.IO.File.Open(picName, System.IO.FileMode.Open);
System.IO.BinaryReader br = new System.IO.BinaryReader(fileStream);
byte[] byteArea;
byteArea = br.ReadBytes(System.Convert.ToInt32(fileStream.Length));
string picString = System.Convert.ToBase64String(byteArea);
//Load the XML template
string DataString = Properties.Resources.XMLData;
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.LoadXml(DataString);
//change the value
XmlNodeList xmlNode = xmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("pizzaPic");
xmlNode[0].InnerText = picString;
xmlNode = xmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("pizzaName");
xmlNode[0].InnerText = "Pizza Name";
xmlNode = xmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("pizzaDescription");
xmlNode[0].InnerText = "Pizza Description";
//write the custom xml data into the customxmlpart
System.Xml.XmlTextWriter writer = new System.Xml.XmlTextWriter(customPart.GetStream(System.IO.FileMode.Create), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
writer.WriteRaw(xmlDoc.InnerXml);
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
fileStream.Close();
br.Close();
mainPart.Document.Save();
wordDoc.Close();
and the XML template of the project would something like:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Pizza xmlns="http://Test/ContentControls/Pizzas">
<pizzaPic></pizzaPic>
<pizzaName></pizzaName>
<pizzaDescription></pizzaDescription>
</Pizza>
I hope this helps.
Calvin Gao[MSFT]
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