Use Lotus script to flexibly operate rich text fields in Lotus Notes

Chen Bin, Senior Software Engineer, IBM Chen Yun, software engineer, IBM Introduction: This article describes how to use LotusScript for flexible operations. Lotus Notes Rich Text domain (Rich Text Field), and provides several examples Program . Users are required to have LotusScript. Programming Experience and proficiency in using Lotus Domino designer.

Introduction

For a long time, rich text fields of Lotus Notes are frequently used. Rich Text fields are used in almost any domino application. Rich Text fields of Lotus Notes are also very powerful. In addition to common text, they also support images, tables, embedded objects, HTTP links, notes links, attachments, and many other types. However, there is a problem that has long plagued LotusScript. it is difficult for developers to flexibly operate various types of content in the Notes Rich Text domain. In fact, many new Lotus scripts have been added during the constant upgrade of Domino. class to operate the rich text fields of notes, but many Lotus scripts. developers are not familiar with this. This article describes how to use these classes to flexibly operate rich text fields.

Lotus script. Class Related to rich text fields in notes

Lotus script. classes related to the operations on the rich text fields of notes include:

• Notesrichtextnavigator: the navigator of rich text fields, used to access various elements in rich text fields;
• Notesrichtextrange indicates a range of rich text fields, which can contain multiple elements;
• Notesrichtextdoclink indicates the document link of Rich Text domain content;
• Notesembeddedobject Embedded Object or file attachment;
• Notesrichtextsection indicates a section in the rich text field;
• Notesrichtexttable indicates a table in the rich text field;
• Notesrichtextstyle. It indicates various attributes of rich text;
• Notesrichtextparagraphstyle. It indicates the attributes of rich text paragraphs;
• Notescolorobject indicates a color.

Example

Next we will use a program to analyze the usage of each class.

First, create a blank Domino application and create a form named "test", which only contains a rich text field named "body, create an action named "test" in the default view ",CodeAs follows. This program generates a document that contains a rich text field and various elements in the rich text field.

Listing 1. Generating various elements

Sub Click(Source As Button)     Dim s As New NotesSession     Dim db As NotesDatabase     Dim doc As NotesDocument     Set db = s.CurrentDatabase     Set doc = New NotesDocument(db)     doc.Form. = "test"     Dim rtf As NotesRichTextItem     Set rtf = doc.CreateRichTextItem ("Body")          'Generate a text paragraph and set its font size, color and other attributes     Dim style. As NotesRichTextStyle. Set style. = s.CreateRichTextStyle. Dim pstyle. As NotesRichTextParagraphStyle. Set pstyle. = s.CreateRichTextParagraphStyle. Dim color As NotesColorObject     Set color = s.CreateColorObject     style.FontSize = 20     style.Bold = True     pstyle.Alignment = ALIGN_LEFT     pstyle.FirstLineLeftMargin = RULER_ONE_INCH     Call color.SetRGB(123, 234, 123)     style.NotesColor = color.NotesColor     Call rtf.AppendStyle(style)     Call rtf.AppendParagraphStyle(pstyle)     Call rtf.AppendText("This is a text paragraph, aligned to the left.")     Call rtf.AddNewline(1)          'Generate a database link, link to the current database     Call rtf.AppendDocLink(db, "Link to the current database", "Current database")          'Generate a section containing a table     Call rtf.AppendStyle(style)     Call rtf.BeginSection("This is a section", style, color, True)     Call rtf.AppendText("This is the beginning of the section")     iRow% = 3     iCol% = 3     style.NotesColor = COLOR_BLUE     Call rtf.AppendStyle(style)     'Add a 3X3 form     Call rtf.AppendTable(iRow%, iCol%)     Call rtf.AppendText("This is the end of the section")     Call rtf.EndSection     Dim nav As NotesRichTextNavigator     Set nav = rtf.CreateNavigator     Call nav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)     style.FontSize=16     style.Bold=False     Call rtf.AppendStyle(style)     For i% = 1 To iRow%         For j% = 1 To iCol%             Call rtf.BeginInsert(nav)             Call rtf.AppendText("line" & i% & ", column "& j%)             Call rtf.EndInsert             Call nav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)         Next     Next          'Add an attachment     Call rtf.EmbedObject(EMBED_ATTACHMENT, "", "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\         Documents\My Pictures\Sample Pictures\Water lilies.jpg")          Call doc.Save(True,True) End Sub

The following describes some of the methods used in this program.

• Notessession. createrichtextstyle: Creates a notesrichtextstyle. object.
• Notessession. createrichtextparagraphstyle: Creates a notesrichtextparagraphstyle. object.
• Notessession. createcolorobject: Creates a notescolorobject object.

  Note that notesrichtextstyle, notesrichtextparagraphstyle. And notescolorobject objects cannot be created using new, because these three classes do not have the new () method and can only be created using notessession.

• Notesrichtextitem. appendstyle: Insert a format object in the current position. The format after this position is used until another format is inserted.
• Notesrichtextitem. appendparagraphstyle: insert a paragraph format object in the current position. This format is used for paragraphs after this position until another paragraph format is inserted.
• Notesrichtextitem. beginsection: Insert a section in the rich text domain.
• Notesrichtextitem. endsection: the end of the section. It must be paired with beginsection.

  You can use various append methods to add various elements between the two methods. When inserting segments, the segments are always at the end of the rich text field. Note that you cannot create a section that contains the existing elements in the rich text domain. The Section created by using the beginsection method is always empty, and the section content must be added by the program.

• Notesrichtextitem. createnavigator: Creates a Rich Text domain navigator object notesrichtextnavigator.

  Only this method can be used to create a Rich Text domain navigator. There is no new method for notesrichtextnavigator. You can also obtain a notesrichtextnavigator object by using the notesrichtextrange. Navigator attribute.

• The notesrichtextnavigator class is the most important class for flexible access to the content in rich text fields. through some of its methods, you can easily access elements in rich text fields.

  The navigator object notesrichtextnavigator maintains a current location. Any get or find operation in the rich text domain may change this location. Navigation always occurs in the same type of elements. You can use the find and get methods to access the corresponding elements. After finding the required elements, you can use the get method to obtain the elements. The following table lists these methods.

Table 1. Method list

Method Name	Description
Findfirstelement	Move the current position to the first element of the specified type
Findnextelement	Move the current position to the next element of the specified type
Findlastelement	Move the current position to the last element of the specified type
Findnthelement	Move the current position to the nth element of the specified type
Findfirststring	Move the current position to the beginning of the first specified string
Findnextstring	Move the current position to the beginning of the next specified string
Getelement	Returns the element at the current position.
Getfirstelement	Returns the first element of the specified type.
Getlastelement	Returns the last element of the specified type.
Getnextelement	Returns the next element of the specified type.
Getnthelement	Returns the nth element of the specified type.

Notesrichtextitem. begininsert: Change the insert position from the end of the rich text field to the start or end of the specified element.

Notesrichtextitem. endinsert: resets the insert position to the end of the Rich Text Field and needs to be paired with begininsert.

You can use various append methods to add various elements between the two methods. Let's take a look at the specific usage of begininsert:

Call notesrichtextitem. begininsert (element, [after])

Parameter description

Element: It can be vertex, notesrichtextdoclink, notesrichtextnavigator, notesrichtextrange, notesrichtextsection, or notesrichtexttable, indicating the location of the object. If it is vertex, it indicates the current location of the notesrichtextnavig.

After: an optional Boolean parameter. "True" indicates that the insert position is at the end of the element. "false" indicates that the insert position starts with the element.

Through the simple example above, we can see how to use LotusScript. to operate rich text fields. Next we will use another example to demonstrate how to use LotusScript. to implement a simple function similar to converting text and tables in Word. It mainly shows how to use the notesrichtextrange class to operate text paragraphs in rich text fields.

First, create a form test, create a rich text field of the body in the form, and then create a form operation named text2table to convert the text into a table. The Code is as follows:

Listing 2 converts text to a table

Sub Click(Source As Button)     Dim s As New NotesSession     Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace     Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument     Set uidoc = ws.CurrentDocument     Dim doc As NotesDocument     Set doc = uidoc.Document     Dim rtf As NotesRichTextItem     Set rtf = doc.GetFirstItem("Body")     'Set the separator to a space     delimiter$ = ""     rowcount% = 0     colcount% = 0     Dim rtnav As NotesRichTextNavigator     Set rtnav = rtf.CreateNavigator     Dim rtrange As NotesRichTextRange     Dim rows()     Dim paraArray As Variant     Dim paraStr As String     Dim firstTime As Boolean     firstTime = True          If rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL) Then         Msgbox "Form already exists!"         Exit Sub     End If     If rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH) Then         Set rtrange = rtf.CreateRange         Do             'Set the beginning of the text range to the position pointed to by rtnav             Call rtrange.SetBegin(rtnav)             'Get the text paragraph at that position             paraStr = rtrange.TextParagraph             paraArray = Split(paraStr)             'Use firstTime to determine whether the format of the text paragraph can be converted into a table             If firstTime Then                 colcount% = Ubound(paraArray)                 firstTime = False             Else                 If colcount% <> Ubound(paraArray) Then                     Msgbox "Text cannot be converted into a table!"                     Exit Sub                 End If             End If             'Define a dynamic array to save all text paragraphs             Redim Preserve rows(rowcount%)             rows(rowcount%) = paraArray             rowcount% = rowcount% + 1         Loop While rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TEXTPARAGRAPH)     Else         Messagebox "There is no text in the rich text field"         Exit Sub     End If     'Clear the rich text field value     rtf.Values = ""     rowcount% = rowcount%-1     'Insert the table, and insert the saved text into the corresponding table cell in turn     Dim row As Variant     Call rtf.AppendTable(rowcount%+1, colcount%+1)     Call rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)     For i% = 0 To rowcount%         row = rows(i%)         For j% = 0 To colcount%             Call rtf.BeginInsert(rtnav)             Call rtf.AppendText(row(j%))             Call rtf.EndInsert             Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)         Next     Next     'Save the document and reopen it to refresh     Call doc.Save(True, True)     Call uidoc.Close(True)     Call ws.EditDocument(False,doc)      End Sub

Create a form operation named table2text to convert the table to text. The Code is as follows:

Listing 3 converts a table to text

Sub Click(Source As Button)     Dim s As New NotesSession     Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace     Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument     Set uidoc = ws.CurrentDocument     Dim doc As NotesDocument     Set doc = uidoc.Document     Dim rtf As NotesRichTextItem     Set rtf = doc.GetFirstItem("Body")          delimiter$ = ""     Dim rtnav As NotesRichTextNavigator     Set rtnav = rtf.CreateNavigator     Dim rtrange As NotesRichTextRange     Set rtrange = rtf.CreateRange     Dim tbl As NotesRichTextTable     Dim rowcount As Integer     Dim colcount As Integer          If rtnav.FindFirstElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLE) Then         Set tbl = rtnav.GetElement         rowcount = tbl.RowCount-1         colcount = tbl.ColumnCount-1         Redim data(rowcount, colcount)         For i% = 0 To rowcount             For j% = 0 To colcount                 Call rtnav.FindNextElement(RTELEM_TYPE_TABLECELL)                 Call rtrange.SetBegin(rtnav)                 If j% = colcount Then                     Call rtf.AppendText(rtrange.TextParagraph)                 Else                     Call rtf.AppendText(rtrange.TextParagraph & delimiter$)                 End If             Next             If i% <rowcount Then                 'Generate a new paragraph                 Call rtf.AddNewline(1)             End If         Next     Else         Messagebox "There are no tables in the rich text field"         Exit Sub     End If          Call tbl.Remove     Call doc.Save(True, True)     Call uidoc.Close(True)     Call ws.EditDocument(False,doc) End Sub

Summary

Based on the introduction and examples and code analysis in this article, I believe that you have an understanding of how to operate the rich text fields in notes. We can see the LotusScript. by using appropriate classes flexibly, we can accomplish many functions that we think cannot be completed. I hope this article will be helpful to readers.