Download the HtmlEditor control
Html Editor
Html WinForms Editor
Html Editor Goals
Html Editor Non-Goals
Html Editor API
Html Editor Properties
Html Editor Operations
Enumerations
Value Types
Events
Visual Elements
Dialogs
Toolbars
Context Menus
The purpose of the Html Editor is to provide Html Editing
capabilities within a WinForms control. The control should emulate the
operations that are available within a Rich Text control, but have information
persisted and restored from an Html BODY element.
The purpose of the Html Editor is to provide a control that
allows for Html editing satisfying the requirements of input for rich text
layouts and simple portal type information. Examples of the former are case
where the Rich Text control would normally be utilized; documentation, complex
descriptions where text formatting is required, correspondences, bulletins,
etc. Examples of the latter case are such items as dashboards; news clips,
announcements, company references, etc. These are defined by cases where
complex layouts are required that may include images and links.
High level design goals are:
1. Provides robust
WYSIWYG editing capabilities whose contents are persisted in HTML format.
2. Is easily
reusable in other projects.
3. Provides methods
for saving HTML files to and loading files from disk (with the appropriate
security demands).
The basic operations of the control are thus defined as:
Standard Text Editing
1. Support basic
formatting commands such as Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikeout, Font Name, Font
Size, Font Color, Justification (Left, Right, and Center), Bullets and Number
Lists.
Dialogs should be presented to the user for modifying Font and Color
attributes.
2. Provide for
standard Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Select All, and commands.
3. Allow for the
inserting and removing indentation.
4. Allow the
inclusion of images along with alternative text and text alignment options.
5. Allow for the
insertion of web links (Anchor tags), including the definition of the target
frame.
6. Allow for the
insertion of a horizontal line for text separation.
7. Provide a Find
and Replace mechanisms. This dialog should highlight the appropriate text upon
a find, and support a Replace All operation.
8. Provide an
integrated toolbar to perform the standard text editing functions, and other
essential functions (as listed in the above points).
9. Allow for the
Insert mode (overwrite), word wrapping options to be toggled, and the
visibility of scroll bars to be defined.
10. Allow the use of context menus that
include all the required text formatting commands. The context menu should be
sensitive to the user’s selection.
11. Allow for the insert, removal, and
property definition of tables.
Body Properties
12. Have the ability to simply set the text
of the document body, the inner text of an Html Document; a browsable designer
property.
13. Allow for the assignment of the complete
Body element (Body outer Html), preserving and body properties. Also allow for
the assignment of the Body contents, Body inner Html.
14. Support the inclusion of Headings and
Formatted blocks of text. This operation should be able to be performed in
reverse; set to Normal style.
15. Have the ability to define the default
body background and foreground colors.
16. Allow for the ability of the Html content
to be viewed or edited directly.
17. Allow for the pasting of Text and Html
Markup.
External Behavior
18. Allow a reference to a stylesheet to be
applied to the document at runtime.
The purpose is to allow the definition of a corporate wide stylesheet that all
documents should reference for standardizing fonts, colors, etc.
19. Allow a reference to a script source file
to be applied to the document at runtime.
The purpose is to allow the use of a corporate script file that can be used for
handling links requiring programmatic redirection.
20. Allow for the ability to ensure all links
are forwarded to a new browser window; and not rendered within the window
containing the original link.
21. Allow a document to be loaded by a given
URL.
The Html Editor is not designed to provide similar
functionality to Html Editor Products; such as Microsoft FrontPage. For complex
layout requiring Styles, Absolute Positing, Frames, Multi-Media, etc, these
products should be utilized.
Operations that the control does not support are thus
defined as:
1. The toolbar is
non interactive in that it does not toggle Bold, Underline, and Italic state
based on the user selection.
2. Support is only
included for a single Font selection and not Font Families.
3. Support for
2D-Position, Absolute Position, and Live Resize is not included.
4. Multiple
Selections of items is not supported and all operations are based on a single
selected control.
5. Simple Font
properties are used rather than style attributes. The inclusion of style
attributes brings around complexity regarding the use of Span tags.
6. There was the
option to have the control be Tab driven; supporting Design, Edit Html, and
Preview. This would then have made the control look more like a
fully-functional Html editor rather than a replacement to the Rich Text Box.
Textual Properties:
|
Name
|
Type
|
Browsable
|
Description
|
|
InnerText
|
String
|
DesignOnly
|
Defines the Initial
Body Text from the designer; Ignores Html Markup.
|
|
InnerHtml
|
String
|
No
|
The Inner Html of the
Html Body content.
|
|
BodyHtml
|
String
|
No
|
The Outer Html of the
Html Body content.
Used to define new Body contents. Once set the ReadOnly and Body Properties
should be reset based on there original values.
|
|
DocumentHtml
|
String
|
No
|
The complete Html
including the HEAD and BODY tags. Property is Read Only.
|
|
SelectedText
|
String
|
No
|
Insert the given Text over the selected text; or current insertion point.
|
|
SelectedHtml
|
String
|
No
|
Insert the given Html over the selected text; or current insertion point.
|
|
DocumentUrl
|
String
|
No
|
The Url that was used
to load the current document; if any.
|
Body Properties:
|
Name
|
Type
|
Browsable
|
Description
|
|
BodyBackColor
|
Color
|
Yes
|
Defines the Background
Color of the Html content.
Default value should be based on the associated form property; Ambient.
|
|
BodyForeColor
|
Color
|
Yes
|
Defines the Foreground
Color of the Html content.
Default value should be based on the associated form property; Ambient.
|
|
BodyFont
|
HtmlFontProperty
|
Yes
|
Defines the base font
attributes for the Html content.
Default value should be based on the associated form property; Ambient.
|
Runtime Display Properties:
|
Name
|
Type
|
Browsable
|
Description
|
|
ScrollBars
|
DisplayScrollBarOption
|
Yes
|
Controls the display of
the Scroll Bars.
|
|
AutoWordWrap
|
Boolean
|
Yes
|
Controls the Auto
Wrapping of content.
|
|
NavigateAction
|
NavigateActionOption
|
Yes
|
Window into which to
load a Href link.
|
|
ReadOnly
|
Boolean
|
Yes
|
Marks the content as ReadOnly;
not editable.
|
|
ToolbarVisible
|
Boolean
|
Yes
|
Visible state of the
Html editor toolbar.
|
|
EnableVisualStyles
|
Boolean
|
Yes
|
Indicates if the
Control Flat Style is set to System or Standard for all dialogs
|
|
ToolbarDock
|
DockStyle
|
Yes
|
Defines the docking
location of the editor toolbar.
|
Document Processing Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void OpenFilePrompt()
|
Present the user with the
system OpenFileDialog from which they can select an Html file. Upon selection
load the contents into the Html body.
|
|
void SaveFilePrompt()
|
Present the user with
the system SaveFileDialog from which they can select an Html file. Upon selection
persist the Html body as an Html file.
|
|
void NavigateToUrl(string url) |
Allows the loading of a document through Navigation of a
Page Href. |
|
void LoadFromUrl(string
href)
|
Allow the loading of a document through
obtaining the Html stream and setting the editor body.
|
void LoadFromFile
(string filename) |
Allows the loading of a document through loading of a
given file name. |
|
void LinkStyleSheet
(string stylesheetHref)
|
Allow the definition of
a style sheet Href to be used for the document.
Only a single stylesheet is supported to allow for standard visual templates
to be applied.
|
|
string
GetStyleSheetHref()
|
Return to the user the
style sheet Href being used.
|
|
void LinkScriptSource
(string scriptSource)
|
Allow the definition of
a script element that is to be used by the document.
Only a single script source is supported to allow for standard processing
templates to be applied.
|
|
string
GetScriptBlockSource()
|
Return to the user the script
block source being used.
|
|
void HtmlContentsEdit()
|
Allow the user to edit
the contents of the Body Html. A dialog is to be presented with the Body Html
upon which the appropriate contents are replaced.
|
|
void HtmlContentsView()
|
Allow the user to view
the complete Html markup; including the Head and Body tags.
|
|
void DocumentPrint()
|
Print the Html text
using the document print command; print preview not being supported.
|
|
void ToggleOverWrite()
|
Toggle the document
overwrite mode.
|
Document Text Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void TextCut()
|
Cut the currently
selected text to the clipboard.
|
|
void TextCopy()
|
Copy the currently
selected text to the clipboard.
|
|
void TextPaste()
|
Paste the currently
selected text from the clipboard.
|
|
void TextDelete()
|
Delete the currently
selected text from the document.
|
|
void TextSelectAll()
|
Select the entire
document contents.
|
|
void TextClearSelect()
|
Clear the current
document selection.
|
|
void EditUndo()
|
Undo former editing
operation.
|
|
void EditRedo()
|
Redo former Undo.
|
Selected Text Formatting Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void
FormatFontName(string name)
|
Set the Font name of
the selected text.
|
|
void FormatFontSize
(HtmlFontSize size)
|
Set the Font size of
the selected text.
|
|
void FormatBold()
|
Set the Font Bold
attribute of the selected text.
|
|
void FormatUnderline()
|
Set the Font Underline
attribute of the selected text.
|
|
void FormatItalic()
|
Set the Font Italic
attribute of the selected text.
|
|
void FormatSubscript()
|
Set the Font Subscript
attribute of the selected text.
|
|
void
FormatSuperscript()
|
Set the Font
Superscript attribute of the selected text.
|
|
void FormatStrikeout ()
|
Set the Font Strike
Through attribute of the selected text.
|
|
void
FormatFontIncrease()
|
Increase the font size
of the selected text font by one Html font size.
|
|
void
FormatFontDecrease()
|
Decrease the font size of
the selected text font by one Html font size.
|
|
void FormatRemove()
|
Remove any formatting
tags from the selected text.
|
|
void FormatTabRight()
|
Tab the current
selected line to the right; Indent.
|
|
void FormatTabLeft()
|
Tab the current
selected line to the left; Outdent.
|
|
void FormatList
(HtmlListType listtype)
|
Mark the selected text
as an ordered or unordered list.
|
|
void JustifyLeft()
|
Define the font
justification of the selected text as Left justified.
|
|
void JustifyCenter()
|
Define the font
justification of the selected text as Center justified.
|
|
void JustifyRight()
|
Define the font
justification of the selected text as Right justified.
|
Object Insert Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void InsertLine()
|
Insert a horizontal
Line at the selected insertion point; or over the selected text.
|
|
void InsertImage
(string imageLocation)
|
Insert an Image at the
selected insertion point; or over the selected text/control.
|
|
void InsertImagePrompt()
|
Insert an Image at the
selected insertion point, or over the selected text/control, prompting the
user for the Image attributes. If an Image is currently selected the
attributes should be defined based on the selection.
|
|
void InsertLink(string
href)
|
Insert a Link Reference
at the selected insertion point; using the selected text as the description
text.
|
|
void InsertLinkPrompt()
|
Insert a Link Reference
at the selected insertion point, or over the selected text, prompting the
user for the Href attributes. If a Href is currently selected the attributes
should be defined based on the selection.
|
|
void RemoveLink()
|
Remove any link
references contained within the selected text.
|
Text Insert Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void InsertHtmlPrompt()
|
Insert the given Html
over the selected text; or current insertion point; prompting the user for
the Html.
|
|
void InsertTextPrompt()
|
Insert the given Text
over the selected text; or current insertion point; prompting the user for
the Text.
|
|
string[]
GetFormatBlockCommands()
|
Returns the acceptable
values for the possible Format Block commands.
|
|
void InsertFormatBlock
(string command)
|
Formats the selected
text with the given Format Block; possible values are defined by the
GetFormatBlockCommands.
|
|
void
InsertFormattedBlock()
|
Formats the selected
text with the Formatted Format Block; PRE tag.
|
|
pulic void
InsertNormalBlock()
|
Removes and Format
Block commands from the selected text.
|
|
void InsertHeading
(HtmlHeadingType headingType)
|
Formats the selected
text with the Heading Format Block; H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 tag.
|
System Prompt Dialog Functions:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void
SystemInsertImage()
|
Allows the insertion of
an Image using the system dialogs.
|
|
void SystemInsertLink()
|
Allows the insertion of
a Href using the system dialogs.
|
Font and Color Processing Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void
FormatFontAttributes
(HtmlFontProperty font)
|
Using the mshtml
commands apply the font attributes to the selected text.
|
|
void
FormatFontColor(Color color)
|
Using the mshtml commands
apply the color value to the selected text.
|
|
void
FormatFontAttributesPrompt()
|
Present to the user a
dialog for font attributes; basing initial values from the currently selected
text.
Upon completion apply the font attributes to the selected text.
|
|
void
FormatFontColorPrompt()
|
Present to the user a
dialog for color selection; basing initial values from the currently selected
text.
Upon completion apply the color value to the selected text.
|
|
HtmlFontProperty
GetFontAttributes()
|
Determine the font
attributes of the currently selected text.
|
|
bool IsFontBold()
|
Determine if the
selected text is Bold.
|
|
bool IsFontUnderline()
|
Determine if the
selected text is Underline.
|
|
bool IsFontItalic()
|
Determine if the
selected text is Italic.
|
|
bool IsFontStrikeout()
|
Determine if the
selected text is Strikeout.
|
|
bool
IsFontSuperscript()
|
Determine if the
selected text is Superscript.
|
|
bool IsFontSubscript()
|
Determine if the
selected text is Subscript.
|
Find and Replace Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void
FindReplacePrompt()
|
Present the user with a
dialog to allow standard find and replace operations on the document text.
|
|
void FindReplaceReset()
|
Initializes and Find and
Replace operations; to being at the start of the document.
|
|
bool FindFirst(string
findText)
|
Finds the first
occurrence of the given string within the document.
Partial words are acceptable and case is ignored.
|
|
bool FindFirst(string
findText,
bool matchWhole, bool matchCase)
|
Finds the first
occurrence of the given string within the document.
|
|
bool FindNext(string
findText)
|
Finds the next
occurrence of the given string within the document; based on the last
successful find operation.
Partial words are acceptable and case is ignored.
|
|
bool FindNext(string
findText,
bool matchWhole, bool matchCase)
|
Finds the next
occurrence of the given string within the document; based on the last
successful find operation.
|
|
bool FindReplaceOne(string
findText,
string replaceText);
|
Replaces the given
occurrence of the given string within the document; based on the last
successful find or replace operation.
Partial words are acceptable and case is ignored.
|
|
bool FindReplaceOne(string
findText,
string replaceText,
bool matchWhole, bool matchCase)
|
Replaces the given
occurrence of the given string within the document; based on the last
successful find or replace operation.
|
|
bool
FindReplaceAll(string findText,
string replaceText)
|
Replaces all
occurrences of the given string within the document; based on the last
successful find or replace operation.
Partial words are acceptable and case is ignored.
|
|
bool
FindReplaceAll(string findText,
string replaceText,
bool matchWhole, bool matchCase)
|
Replaces all
occurrences of the given string within the document; based on the last
successful find or replace operation.
|
Table Processing Operations:
|
Prototype
|
Description
|
|
void TableInsertPrompt()
|
Insert a Table at the
selected insertion point, or over the selected text/control, prompting the
user for the Table attributes.
If a Table is currently selected the table attributes should be defined based
on the selection.
|
|
bool TableModifyPrompt()
|
Modify the Table at the
selected insertion point, or the selected table, prompting the user for the
Table attributes. The table attributes should be defined based on the
selection.
|
|
void
TableInsert
(HtmlTableProperty tableProperties)
|
Insert a Table at the
current insert point; or over the selected text/control.
|
|
bool
TableModify
(HtmlTableProperty tableProperties)
|
Modify the Table at the
current insert point, or selected table.
|
|
void TableInsertRow() |
Insert a new row into the table based on the current
user row and insertion after. |
|
void TableDeleteRow() |
Delete the existing row from the table based on the
current user row position. |
void
GetTableDefinition(
out HtmlTableProperty table,
out bool tableFound); |
Determine if the
current insertion point or selected text is contained with a Table element;
upon which return the selected table properties. |
The following table list the enumerations used to define Html
properties:
|
Name
|
Description
|
Values
|
|
HtmlListType
|
Defines the type of
list to be inserted.
|
Ordered
Unordered
|
|
HtmlHeadingType
|
Defines the type of
Html Heading to mark text selection.
|
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
|
|
HtmlFontSize
|
Defines the acceptable
values of the size of the FONT.
|
Default
xxSmall
xSmall
Small
Medium
Large
xLarge
xxLarge
|
|
NavigateActionOption
|
Defines the navigation
window action on a user clicking a Href.
|
Default
NewWindow
SameWindow
|
|
ImageAlignOption
|
Defines the image
alignment property.
|
AbsBottom
AbsMiddle
Baseline
Bottom
Left
Middle
Right
TextTop
Top
|
|
HorizontalAlignOption
|
Define the horizontal
alignment property.
|
Default
Left
Center
Right
|
|
VerticalAlignOption
|
Define the vertical alignment
property.
|
Default
Top
Bottom
|
|
DisplayScrollBarOption
|
Defines the visibility
of the scrollbars.
|
Yes
No
Auto
|
|
MeasurementOption
|
Defines the unit of
measure for font attributes.
|
Pixel
Percent
|
In support of these two values types there are supporting
classes to perform conversion from the enumeration values to and from the Html
attribute and style properties.
HtmlFontProperty Struct:
The main purpose of the struct is to be used in replacement
of the Framework Font class. The class restricts the acceptable font sizes and
extends the attributes.
|
Property
|
Type
|
Description
|
|
Name
|
String
|
Name of the Font.
|
|
Size
|
HtmlFontSize
|
Size of the Font.
|
|
Bold
|
Boolean
|
Bold Indicator.
|
|
Italic
|
Boolean
|
Italic Indicator.
|
|
Underline
|
Boolean
|
Underline Indicator.
|
|
Strikeout
|
Boolean
|
Strikeout Indicator.
|
|
Subscript
|
Boolean
|
Subscript Indicator.
|
|
Superscript
|
Boolean
|
Superscript Indicator.
|
HtmlTableProperty Struct:
The main purpose of the struct is to be used in defining the
properties supported for the insertion and maintenance of Html Tables.
|
Property
|
Type
|
Description
|
|
CaptionText
|
String
|
Caption for the Table.
|
|
CaptionAlignment
|
HorizontalAlignOption
|
Alignment of the Table
caption.
|
|
CaptionLocation
|
VerticalAlignOption
|
Location of the Table
caption; top or bottom.
|
|
BorderSize
|
Byte
|
Width of the border.
|
|
TableAlignment
|
HorizontalAlignOption
|
Alignment of the table
on the page.
|
|
TableRows
|
Byte
|
Number of rows in the
Table.
|
|
TableColumns
|
Byte
|
Number of columns in
the Table.
|
|
TableWidth
|
UInt16
|
Width of the Table on
the page.
|
|
TableWidthMeasurement
|
MeasurementOption
|
Measurement option for
the Table width; percent or pixels.
|
|
CellPadding
|
Byte
|
Padding of the Table
cells.
|
|
CellSpacing
|
Byte
|
Spacing of the Table
cells.
|
The following table list the events raised by the Html
Editor:
|
Name
|
Description
|
Arguments
|
|
HtmlException
|
Raised when an error is
captured from an operation performed internally within the control; such as
clicking on a context menu or toolbar.
If no event is captured an internal message box should be displayed.
|
String OperatonException ExceptionObject
|
The following table lists the dialogs to be presented to the
user by the Html Editor. This does not include system defined dialogs; such as
the OpenFileDialog and SaveFileDialog:
|
Name
|
Caller
|
Purpose
|
|
EditHtml
|
HtmlContentsEdit
|
Allow the user to edit
the contents of the Body Html.
|
|
ViewHtml
|
HtmlContentsView
|
Allow the user to view
the complete Html markup.
|
|
EnterHref
|
InsertLinkPrompt
|
Allow the properties of
a Href to be defined.
|
|
EnterImage
|
InsertImagePrompt
|
