How to read a docx file using nodejs?

Reading .docx files in Node.js typically involves using third-party libraries to parse and process the documents. A commonly used library is officegen, though it is primarily designed for document generation. For reading and parsing .docx files, mammoth or the docx library are preferable options. Here, I will use the mammoth library as an example to demonstrate how to read .docx files.

Step 1: Install the mammoth library

First, install the mammoth library in your Node.js project. You can install it via npm:

bash
npm install mammoth

Step 2: Using mammoth to read .docx files

Once installed, you can use the following code to extract the text content from a .docx file:

javascript
const mammoth = require("mammoth");

mammoth.extractRawText({path: "path/to/your/document.docx"})
    .then(function(result) {
        console.log(result.value); // Output the text content of the .docx file
    })
    .catch(function(err) {
        console.error(err);
    });

In this code, we use the mammoth.extractRawText() method to extract the raw text from the .docx file. This method accepts an object with the file path and returns a promise that resolves to an object containing the text content of the .docx file.

Step 3: Handling more complex document structures

If you need to extract more complex structures (such as headings and tables), you can use methods like mammoth.convertToHtml() or mammoth.extractRawText(). These methods provide additional details about the document structure, for example:

javascript
mammoth.convertToHtml({path: "path/to/your/document.docx"})
    .then(function(result) {
        console.log(result.value); // Output the HTML content generated from the .docx file
    })
    .catch(function(err) {
        console.error(err);
    });

This code converts the .docx file to HTML format, which is useful for applications requiring preserved document formatting.

Summary

Using the mammoth library to read .docx files in Node.js is a simple and efficient approach. This library is primarily designed for extracting text and converting to HTML, though it may not fully preserve all original formatting and elements. However, it is sufficient for most cases. If your application requires more detailed file processing capabilities, you may need to consider other more complex solutions or tools.