Android Question Text color when using TextWriter

[TonyVerberne]

Is it possible to control the color of text using TextWriter.WriteLine and then view it in a message box?

 

[eurojam]

TextWriter.WriteLine writes text to the underlying stream, like a external textfile. you can pass the line anyway to a message box where you can set the color to the desired color. but directly setting the color is not possible, I think...
see https://www.b4x.com/android/help/files.html#textwriter

 

[TonyVerberne]

TextWriter.WriteLine writes text to the underlying stream, like a external textfile. you can pass the line anyway to a message box where you can set the color to the desired color. but directly setting the color is not possible, I think...
see https://www.b4x.com/android/help/files.html#textwriter

Thanks. Its a pity that isn't possible.

 

[Erel]

I think that there is some confusion. TextWriter has nothing to do with the text appearance. It converts string characters to bytes and writes them to a stream.

 

[TonyVerberne]

I think that there is some confusion. TextWriter has nothing to do with the text appearance. It converts string characters to bytes and writes them to a stream.

Thanks Erel but is there a way to control text appearance in the way that I have described? I have written a shopping list app for my own use actually. It works quite well (I think) but would benefit from being able to change text color when writing the list so that I can distinguish items in different parts of the store.
Having fun anyway. Tony

 

[Erel]

Yes. You can display text with different colors.

There are several ways to do it. One way is to use RichString library: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/richstring-library.10680/#content

 

[TonyVerberne]

Yes. You can display text with different colors.

There are several ways to do it. One way is to use RichString library: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/richstring-library.10680/#content

Thanks Erel.
I will check it out.
Tony

 

[TonyVerberne]

Hi Erel I took up your suggestion. I have used the following code inside a spinner:

rsb.Initialize
    rs.Initialize("{R}{T}{Blue}{U}Fruit{R}{T}{Blue}{U}{R}{T}{Blue}{U}Aisle{U}{Blue}{T}{R}")
    rs.Color2(Colors.Blue,"{Blue}")
    rs.RelativeSize2(1.5, "{R}")
    rs.Typeface2("serif", "{T}")
    rs.Underscore2("{U}")
    rs.Color2(Colors.Red, "{Red}")
    rs.Style2(rs.STYLE_BOLD_ITALIC, "{BI}")

rsb.Append(rs)
    Text1 = SpinnerFruit.selectedItem
    outFile.Initialize(File.OpenOutput(File.DirRootExternal, "Text1.txt", True))
outFile.WriteLine(rs)
    outFile.Close

When I look at the richstring (rs) it's formatted as I want it in colour. But when I write the string to my text file it becomes plain unformatted text.

Is it because WriteLine can't handle the formatted text?

 

[DonManfred]

But when I write the string to my text file it becomes plain unformatted text.

I think that there is some confusion. TextWriter has nothing to do with the text appearance.

So, when you save the file and load it back you need to use build the richstring with your text again to display it formatted i think (dont have used richstring)

You cannot store a formatted richstring to a textfile.

 

[TonyVerberne]

This is a serious limitation of TextWriter. Is there another way to write formatted text to a file I wonder?

Thanks for you comments DonManfred!

 

[NJDude]

Since you are saving individual formatted lines, you could use a MAP to save the formatted lines, for example:

myMap.Put("1", rs) 'Where "1" is the line number or any other value you want to use as a key.

And to retrieve the formatted line:

myLabel.Text = myMap.Get("1")

That's an idea.

 

[TonyVerberne]

Thanks - I'll give it a try.