Extended WPF Toolkit – New RichTextBox Control
There has been a new control added to the Extended WPF Toolkit project on CodePlex called the RichTextBox.
The RichTextBox extends the System.Windows.Control.RichTextBox control that represents a rich editing control which operates on FlowDocument objects. The RichTextBox control has a Text dependency property which allows a user to data bind content to the RichTextBox.Document property. The RichTextBox control introduces the concept of Text Formatters. Text Formatters allows a user to format the content of the RichTextBox control into any format of their choice. Three Text Formatters are included; PlainTextFormatter, RtfFormatter, and a XamlFormatter. The RtfFormatter is the default Text Formatter. A user can create their own custom Text Formatter by creating a class that inherits from ITextFormatter and implimenting the contract accordlingly.
Usage
When data binding to the Text property, you must use the Text Formatter that matches the format of the underlying data. If your data is in RTF you must use the RTF formatter. If your data is in plain text, you must use the PlainTextFormatter.
This RichTextBox is bound to an object that has a Notes property. The value of the Notes property is as follows in the RTF format:
{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\uc1\htmautsp\deff2{\fonttbl{\f0\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f2\fcharset0 Segoe UI;}}{\colortbl\red0\green0\blue0;\red255\green255\blue255;}\loch\hich\dbch\pard\plain\ltrpar\itap0{\lang1033\fs18\f2\cf0 \cf0\ql{\f2 {\ltrch This is the }{\b\ltrch RichTextBox}\li0\ri0\sa0\sb0\fi0\ql\par}}}
Text="{Binding Notes}"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" />
Using Formatters
To use a different Text Formatter than the default RtfFormatter use the following syntax:
PlainTextFormatter
Text="{Binding Notes}"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto">
<toolkit:RichTextBox.TextFormatter>
<toolkit:PlainTextFormatter />
</toolkit:RichTextBox.TextFormatter>
</toolkit:RichTextBox>
XamlFormatter
Text="{Binding Notes}"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto">
<toolkit:RichTextBox.TextFormatter>
<toolkit:XamlFormatter />
</toolkit:RichTextBox.TextFormatter>
</toolkit:RichTextBox>
Custom Formatters
To create a custom formatter, create a class that inherits from ITextFormatter and implement accordingly.
{
public string GetText(System.Windows.Documents.FlowDocument document)
{
return new TextRange(document.ContentStart, document.ContentEnd).Text;
}
public void SetText(System.Windows.Documents.FlowDocument document, string text)
{
new TextRange(document.ContentStart, document.ContentEnd).Text = text;
}
}
XAML
Text="{Binding Notes}"
ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto">
<toolkit:RichTextBox.TextFormatter>
<myCustomFormatter:MyFormatter />
</toolkit:RichTextBox.TextFormatter>
</toolkit:RichTextBox>
Possibly hoping for too much but any chance of an html formatter?
@Faz
Although you can write your own HTML formatter, is this something you would like to see as an included formatter?
@Brian, Faz,
I think it would be good to include one in default. There is still demand for viewing/creating HTML content in WPF without using IE interop. Example would be a simple send email dialog.
@Brian,
Thanks for mentioning the Extended WPF Toolkit – I wasn’t aware of it’s existence. There are plenty of controls in there that I could make use of. When I’m not swamped (primarily with IronRuby) I might try to give back ;).
Cheers,
-Charles