How to edit the underlying DDSP file of a Docentric replica

[nkrantic (Nenad Krantic)]

In this post we’ll look at how you can make changes to a DDSP that’s loaded as a data source on a replica.

The first way to accomplish this doesn’t require Visual Studio, just an archiving tool (Winrar, 7-zip etc.)

Archiving tool approach

1. Open the replica file as an archive (if the replica’s already open in Word, you’ll get an error):
   
   

• Side note If you don’t have WinRAR in the list, you can add it like this:
  Click “Choose another app” → “More apps ↓” → “Look for another app on this PC” and then select the WinRAR.exe:
  
  
  
  
  

2. Navigate to the customXml directory:
   

   

3. Extract the item1.xml file, in most cases this is the DDSP, but it doesn’t have to be:
   

   

4. Open the item1.xml file in your editor of choice and edit it:
   

   

5. Drag and drop the item1.xml file back into the archive and confirm the dialog:
   

   

6. The changes made in the DDSP will now be visible on the replica:
   

   

OpenXML Visual Studio extension approach
Installing the extension

1. Open extension menu:
   
   
2. Search for OpenXML and click download:
   
   
3. Close Visual studio and this menu should pop up. Click on modify:
   
   
4. The extension is installed and you can now start Visual Studio again:
   
   

Using the extension

1. Now when we try to open a replica, instead of opening Word, it will open its contents:
   

   
   
   Side note, if we want to open the replica in Word, we can still do that like this:
   
   

2. Inside the contents of the file we can then find and open the DDSP, it will be named something like item1.xml (it doesn’t have to be the first one though):
   

   

3. This will open the DDSP as an unformatted XML file:
   

   

4. To make it easier to work with we can format it, like so:
   

   

5. We can now edit the DDSP and any changes made here will also be visible on the replica itself: