Display an html field without any of the html?

[drgarytraub]

I have a text area field in a grid that has some html in it. I would like to be able to display the text in that field WITHOUT the html. If I view the field contents as text, it shows all the html tags - does anyone know of a way to strip out all the tags so that all is left is pure text, with no html tags.

[lgrupido]

Lookup this function:

STRITRAN_SPECIAL()

In the Alpha help. it allows you to specify a start and end string. So if you search for < and > and remove everything in between, I think you should get what you are looking for.

Not sure how good that is going to look if there are multiple paragraphs, but it will get what you are asking for.

[Al Buchholz]

https://documentation.alphasoftware....20Function.xml

[drgarytraub]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for your input, but it does not work in my situation. Let me explain. I have a grid form where a user enters a note in to a text area field that allows html markup so that they can produce nice looking reports. No problem so far.

But say that the user has 10 notes and I present them with a grid listing their 10 notes, showing just the first 20 characters of the note, so they can see what the note is about. The records in the grid list are label controls and I cannot figure a way to get that label control to display the html correctly, and instead it shows html tags. Given that stritran functions are server side, I do not believe they can be used in the calculated field expression. I have looked for ways to do this via MYSQL and have found the REPLACE function but it appears that I would need many REPLACE functions to capture all the possible < > pairs.

Any suggestions would be very appreciated!

[drgarytraub]

Hi Al,

I did not see your post before I responded. I did not know about that function, but same issue as above - how can I use the xbasic function to alter the display of a field in a grid list, give that the fuinction cannot be used in a calculated field expression? Should I be looking at the ServerSide grid events to use that function, and if so, could you advise as to how I would do that?

[Ted Giles]

Just my 3 cents, but if you allow users to format text, that's a slippery slope. You have no control.
Your application should be formatting the data.

[drgarytraub]

I could solve the issue by adding a field to the MYSQL table - for example, if the field where html can occur is called 'notes', then I could add a field to the table, and call it 'notes_nonhtml' , for example. Then I would just add that function (from Larry or Al) to save the nonhtml version of the field, that way there will always be an html version and a nonhtml version of that field. This will work, but it seems a bit 'brute force'.

Is there a better way, or is that a viable way to go.

[drgarytraub]

Hi Ted,

I am not sure I understand what you mean. Are you saying that you have concerns about letting users use the html editors?

[Ted Giles]

As an Assessor for the NHS in the UK, I am cognisant of the need for accurate recording - a speciality of mine. It's your train set, but I would baulk at letting users loose with HTML.
My COPD, Asthma and CHD apps were pretty well locked down regarding reporting.
As I say, your train set but any opening for misinterpretation is best avoided imho.

[drgarytraub]

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your input - could you give me some detail or examples of what risks you are referring to?

[Ted Giles]

In the UK we use Read Codes.
Easily mis transposed.
Then there is both context and content.

If the end recipient is a patient, the text needs to be plain and understandable.

What sort of reports do you need to be formatted according to the creators presentation style?

[drgarytraub]

But what about html do you feel would be not understandable. My thought is that by adding html capability, the user can make it MORE understandable by drawing attention to certain parts of the text via bold, italic, underline, color, background color, etc. I am still not understanding the concern? Are there particular aspects of the HTML ediitor's options that you feel would be problematic, because those could be excluded? And you mentioned a concern about 'mis transposing' - how does html make that any more of an issue than with plain text? I guess I am just not understanding - please explain.

[Ted Giles]

Ah! if you mean stuff like
Exacerbation, Presentation, Dose

Then fine. I thought by the term HTML your users would be adding stuff like <b> and </b>

[drgarytraub]

Great - thanks!

BTW, but what if they do add text like <b>, would that cause problems?

[Ted Giles]

If the user doesn't construct the HTML properly, you may get really unexpected results.
Suggest you do the "idiot test". Not to imply you work with idiots, but it's a way of getting a normal user to try your theory out.
After all, you have to explain it.