Read and replace contents in .docx (Word) file

Question

I need to replace content in some word documents based on User input. I am trying to read a template file (e.g. "template.docx"), and replace First name {fname}, Address {address} etc.

template.docx:

To,
The Office,
{officeaddress}
Sub:  Authorization Letter
Sir / Madam,

I/We hereby authorize  to  {Ename}  whose signature is attested here below, to submit application and collect Residential permit for {name}  
Kindly allow him to support our International assignee

{name}                                          {Ename}  

Is there a way to do the same in Laravel 5.3?

I am trying to do with phpword, but I can only see code to write new word files - but not read and replace existing ones. Also, when I simply read and write, the formatting is messed up.

Code:

$file = public_path('template.docx');
$phpWord = \PhpOffice\PhpWord\IOFactory::load($file);

$phpWord->save('b.docx');

b.docx

To,
The Office,
{officeaddress}

Sub: 
 Authorization Letter
Sir / Madam,


I/We hereby authorize 
 to

{Ename}


whose signature is attested here below, to submit a
pplication and collect Residential permit
 for 
{name}

Kindly allow him to support our International assignee


{name}













{
E
name}

Answer 1

To read and replace content from Doc file, you can use PHPWord package and download this package using composer command:

composer require phpoffice/phpword 

As per version v0.12.1, you need to require the PHP Word Autoloader.php from src/PHPWord folder and register it

require_once 'src/PhpWord/Autoloader.php';
\PhpOffice\PhpWord\Autoloader::register();

1) Open document

$template = new \PhpOffice\PhpWord\TemplateProcessor('YOURDOCPATH');

2) Replace string variables for single

$template->setValue('variableName', 'MyVariableValue');

3) Replace string variables for multi occurrence
- Clone your array placeholder to the count of your array

$template->cloneRow('arrayName', count($array));  

- Replace variable value

for($number = 0; $number < count($array); $number++) {
    $template->setValue('arrayName#'.($number+1), htmlspecialchars($array[$number], ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8'));
}

4) Save the changed document

$template->saveAs('PATHTOUPDATED.docx');

UPDATE
You can pass limit as third parameter into $template->setValue($search, $replace, $limit) to specifies how many matches should take place.