Android Question Use of TAB and CRLF for string formatting...

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

Probably another "not seeing the forest for the trees" question...
It is a nasty problem when combining some substrings together for putting the whole string finally then to an email.

B4X:

    ECont = ECont & "This is the first substring:" & TAB & Label1.Text & CRLF
    ECont = ECont & "This is the second substring:" & TAB & Label2.Text & CRLF
    ECont = ECont & "This is yet the last substring:" & TAB & Label3.Text & CRLF

Why is TAB not really working in this code in opposite to CRLF? Is there a need for defining TAB before using it? Could not find an answer within the forum.
So far my workaround is to determine the length of the substrings and filling the "missing" space with a calculated amount of spaces.
This works well for monospaced fonts. The use of TAB would be much better and easier in this case, because:
Imagine you are using the variable ECont later for filling an Email with text. I am sure, the email-program (whatever it is) is not using a monospaced font.
Any ideas are very welcome.

Cheers BV

Brian Dean · Nov 23, 2021

The TAB characters will be there - try putting the output text into Windows Notepad and you should see them. If you are not seeing them in the email application or whatever it is you are using then that is where the problem is.

Of course, if you do not see TABs when you export the text to Notepad then the problem lies elsewhere, because TAB does work!

William Lancee · Nov 23, 2021

TAB is just an ascii character, chr(9). How it works depends on context. Within the IDE a TAB is equivalent to 4 spaces.
Inside a caption of a label it appears a one space. If TAB stops are defined (for example in a word document), then a tab would go to next tab stop.
The implementation of tab stops is extremely complex, requiring attention to font, kerning, etc. B4X does not have tab stops,
although BBCodeView has [Span][/Span] tags that can function as tab stops.

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

May work on windows, correct.
But also with a simple text-editor from on the phone itself there is no formatting visible. It's a pity.
Simple HTML could work. But this creates a huge overhead for a textfile with the size of 1500 Bytes, everything has to be declared precisely.
For putting simple plain text content in a formatted way into an email a "LOW-LEVEL PLAIN TEXT TO HTML-Encoder" would be a nice thing for defining things like bold, italic, underlining, tab, crlf and maybe the font color. Controlled by small and simple keywords within the sourcetext itself (like already done with "TAB" and "CRLF"...)

This could be a new challenge...

William Lancee · Nov 23, 2021

Take a look at BBCodeView. It has most of the features you are wishing for.

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

I will look for BBCode...

TILogistic · Nov 23, 2021

Can it be a solution?

test:

B4X:

    Dim sb As StringBuilder
    sb.Initialize
    sb.Append("This is the first substring:").Append(Chr(9)).Append("hello").Append(Chr(13))
    sb.Append("This is the second substring:").Append(Chr(9)).Append("hello").Append(Chr(13))
    sb.Append("This is yet the last substring:").Append(Chr(9)).Append("hello").Append(Chr(13))
    Log(sb.ToString)

NotePad++

word:

Note:
CRLF is NewLine Chr(10)
NOT return Char(13) and Newline Char(10)

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

Thank you guys, but I have to explain a little bit more...
I am collecting a subset of strings into a new string. With "filewrite" I put this final string into a file for testing. If I have a look into this file (I can do this on the mobile or when transferred to a windows-pc, the formatting remains intact (using notepad, editor, word). Everything ok.
But putting the content of this final string directly into the body of a simple email to make it directly visible when opening the email (sending with the phonelibrary) destroys all of the formatting.
Sure, I could put it as an attachment to the email, but I have to use fileprovider for doing this. This is a little bit over the top for such small content. When walking to the bakery on the corner for getting fresh bread, you are not dressing up yourself with a tuxedo before doing this...
It is only a small piece of formatted text...
So the question is better defined as: "How to put the assembled substring 1:1 without any changes to an email". This is probably a problem with transferring the content to the used mailing program. And this happens with other email-programs too.

Converted to HTML (with ms-word for testing), the filesize increases up to 500%. This makes 400% overhead (!!!) I have to program additionally into the text...

BBCode could solve this, but I am not sure if I can put the content of several variables during runtime into the file with BBCode. Could work if the BBCode-text gets interpreted as HTML and if the final recipients email-program can handle HTML directly...

Things could be so easy...

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

oparra said:
Can it be a solution?

Probably not. You are creating also a string (with stringbuilder). Can you put the final string into an emails body and transfer it without loosing formatting?

TILogistic · Nov 23, 2021

BlueVision said:
Probably not. You are creating also a string (with stringbuilder). Can you put the final string into an emails body and transfer it without loosing formatting?

?
test email.

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

You are a Hero! I can't believe it! What's the difference?
I will try to rewrite it immediately using StringBuilder! Hope it works...

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

How did you put the final string to the email? This way?

B4X:

Message.Body = ECont.ToString

TILogistic · Nov 23, 2021

BlueVision said:
How did you put the final string to the email? This way?

B4X:

Message.Body = ECont.ToString

stringbuilder

Message.Body = sb.ToString

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

Then, bad news.
I changed "sb" to "Econt". So it is the same. Changed chr(13) to chr(10). This is CRLF. But still no "TABS".

TILogistic · Nov 23, 2021

BlueVision said:
Then, bad news.
I changed "sb" to "Econt". So it is the same. Changed chr(13) to chr(10). This is CRLF. But still no "TABS".

upload an example to know what you want to do.

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

large program...

B4X:

    Dim ECont As StringBuilder
    ECont.Initialize
    ECont.Append("Hallo Helpdesk,").Append(Chr(10))
    ECont.Append("bitte ordern:").Append(Chr(10)).Append(Chr(10))
    ECont.Append("Techniker:").Append(Chr(9)).Append(Chr(9)).Append(ACETCENumber.Text).Append(Chr(10))
    ECont.Append("Rückrufnummer:").Append(Chr(9)).Append(Chr(9)).Append(ACETPhoneCE.Text).Append(Chr(10))
    ECont.Append("Kundenname:").Append(Chr(9)).Append(Chr(9)).Append(ACETCustName.Text).Append(Chr(10))
    ECont.Append("AP des Kunden:").Append(Chr(9)).Append(Chr(9)).Append(ACETCustomer.Text).Append(Chr(10))
    ECont.ToString
    File.WriteString(SharedFolder,"Order.txt",ECont)
    PhoneData.HideKeyboard(Activity)
    Message.To.Add(ACETEmailCE.Text)
    Message.Subject = "CIP - PM-Call - Gebiet:"&SPArea.SelectedItem&"<//>SN:"&ACETSerial2.Text
    Message.Body = ECont.ToString
    StartActivity(Message.GetIntent)
    Sleep(0)
    Message.To.Clear
    Message.Subject = ""
    Message.Body = ""
    Message.Attachments.Clear

Around 4000 lines of code in total, this is huge. Ignore the FileWrite-Command, this is old-level, the "toString" is missing there. Putting

But within the extract you can see the relavant things, defining the stringbuilder, the chained append for the string.
When creating the email it opens with the intent above and I am able to send it.
chr(13) does not work. chr(10) gives me a CRLF and this works.
But chr(9), which is a TAB, is still ignored.

This is within the mail-application before sending. I marked the missing tabs. CRLF works. This is not exactly the place from the code above, but best visible.
Strange thing.

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

I corrected the writing to file. The file is written wrong in the same way. No TABS...

TILogistic · Nov 23, 2021

see:

[B4X] Solving encoding issues with html mails sent with SMTP (Net library)

Encoding the html text with base64 avoids encoding issues, especially with MS Outlook. This code is compatible with B4A and B4J: Dim su As StringUtils smtp.Body = su.EncodeBase64(html.GetBytes("utf8")) 'html = the html body smtp.AdditionalHeaders.Put("Content-Transfer-Encoding", "BASE64")...

www.b4x.com

B4X:

    Dim sb As StringBuilder
    sb.Initialize
    sb.Append("This is the first substring:").Append(Chr(9)).Append("hello").Append(Chr(13))
    sb.Append("This is the second substring:").Append(Chr(9)).Append("hello").Append(Chr(13))
    sb.Append("This is yet the last substring:").Append(Chr(9)).Append("hello").Append(Chr(13))
    Log(sb.ToString)
    
    File.WriteString(File.DirApp, "1.txt", sb.ToString)

BlueVision · Nov 23, 2021

[B4X] Solving encoding issues with html mails sent with SMTP (Net library)

Isn't this for a different method of transferring an email than I am using?

TILogistic · Nov 23, 2021

BlueVision said:
[B4X] Solving encoding issues with html mails sent with SMTP (Net library)

Isn't this for a different method of transferring an email than I am using?

?

B4A - Phone

if this method, I have not used it since our users do not use the email of their mobile phone

So far I have used this one.

B4A - Net

Sorry.

Android Question Use of TAB and CRLF for string formatting...

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