${today} is not rendered inside headers/footers

[ZuhaibT]

When a report template places the ${today} variable in a page header or footer, Faction generates the report without replacing it — the literal string ${today} survives into the delivered .docx. The same variable works correctly in the document body. This forces a manual post-processing step on every generated report.

Steps to reproduce

1. Edit a report template so the header (or footer) contains the text ${today}.
2. Generate a .docx report for any assessment.
3. Open the produced report and inspect the header/footer.

Expected

${today} is replaced with the current date (default format MM/dd/yyyy, or a custom format via ${today <pattern>}), exactly as it is in the document body.

Actual

The header/footer still shows the literal text ${today}. Only body occurrences are replaced.

Root cause

1. Date variables are substituted by replacementDate(String key, Date date). That method rewrites only the main document part:

   private void replacementDate(String key, Date date) {
       String xml = XmlUtils.marshaltoString(
           this.mlp.getMainDocumentPart().getContents(), false, false);
       xml = DocxUtils.replaceDateVariable(xml, key, date);
       this.mlp.getMainDocumentPart().setContents(
           (Document) XmlUtils.unmarshalString(xml));
   }

It never touches HeaderPart / FooterPart. So today, asmtStart, and asmtEnd — all pushed through replacementDate(...) — are only ever resolved in the body.

2. Headers and footers are processed separately, by replaceHeaderAndFooter(Map<String,String> replacements), which does a plain xml.replace("${" + key + "}", value) for each entry in the map. But the map built in replaceAssessment(...) only ever receives non-date keys (asmtName, asmtId, asmtAppId, asmtType, remediation, custom fields cf*, vuln totals, etc.). today (and the other date keys) are never put into that map, because dates are handled by the body-only replacementDate(...) path above.

Net effect: date variables have no code path that reaches header/footer parts.

Notes

• This cannot be fixed from a report ReportManager extension: extensions only receive main-document paragraph text (updateDocWithExtensions / replacement) and never see HeaderPart / FooterPart content.

[shishir-cyber]

Hi @ZuhaibT, thanks for the detailed root cause , i would like to work on this.
I would extend the date variable path so it also reaches HeaderPart and FooterPart, not just the main document part. Two ways to do it. First, modify replacementDate() to also patch header/footer XML the same way it does the main document. Second, resolve date keys into plain strings and fold them into the same map replaceHeaderAndFooter() already uses.
Option two seems less invasive since it reuses the existing plain replace path instead of duplicating XML marshal logic, but wanted your take before I start. I'll add a regression test covering ${today} in a header and footer.

[ZuhaibT]

👋 @shishir-cyber, Thanks for the response.
I agree that Option 2 is better for the reason you mentioned. However, I suggest we get @summitt's view on it as well.

[summitt]

I agree with option 2 as well. I'm happy with you taking a stab this. Would love to have more contributor s! Got for it @shishir-cyber