[dcd]

Hi

I'm using a rtf document to update a news section of a website by the means of php.

The code:
<? include("whatson.rtf"); ?>

This works, my problem is in formatting it - I can use the style sheets on it, that all works but it doesn't keep the original formatting of the rtf document - is there a way of doing this?

If you want the example - www.designmedication.co.uk/homepage.php
The rtf: www.designmedication.co.uk/whatson.rtf

Any help would be much appreciated!

Matt

[Bill Posters]

I"m working with something like that on a current job by way of making it simpler for clients to provide important content.

You might find it simpler to switch to plain text (.txt) as it's easier to transfer, store and process.

I've used the following set of php instructions to reformat the text as markup

PHP Code:

$filename = "path/to/textfile.txt";
$file = fopen($filename, "r");
$text = fread($file, filesize($filename));
fclose($file);

$text = ereg_replace("\r","",$text);
$text = ereg_replace("\n","<br />",$text);
$text = ereg_replace("<br /><br />","</p>\n<p>",$text);

echo($text); 


That's just a simplified section of a larger function I've put together that writes and format dynamic modular sections of a gallery site and imports the artists' bios in the scheme.
It does a good job of translating the untagged, loosely formatted text of the txt file into properly tagged, well-presented on-screen text.

With a little tweaking of the \n (php new line) and \t (php new tab) you can set things up to produce seamless, tab-perfect markup that holds up well in view source.

It's great to see it when it works.
I'm still new to php and I only sorted the large artist handler function y/day, so I'm still in that 'isn't php great' and feeling just a little proud of myself.

In the words of the great Hannibal Smith - I love it when a plan comes together.

[dcd]

Thanks

I'll have a play round with that - I'm even newer to php, started y'day!! So yeah, php is GREAT!!!

Matt

[dcd]

You're a genius mate !!

It works, my only problem now is inserting bold and italics into it. Is there any way of doing that?

Matt

[Bill Posters]

If it's certain defined words you wish to emphasise then you can do it using the same method as above.

e.g. if you wanted to turn any reference to your name into a simple, clickable email link or simply style it…

PHP Code:

$text = ereg_replace("Your Name","<a href=\"mailto:yourname@yourdomain.com\">Your Name</a>",$text); 


or

PHP Code:

$text = ereg_replace("Your Name","<strong>Your Name</strong>",$text); 


If you want to allow users/clients to input their own data and have styling applied as and when they want then that's when things get a tad more complex - and I bow out, having hit my ceiling.


You might want to check out the PHP sections of Hotscripts.com to see what's available.
You may well find precisely the facility you're after.
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Tips_and_Tutorials/

[smallbeer]

Bold

$text = str_replace(array('[b]','[b]'),'<strong>',$text);
$text = str_replace(array('[eb]','[EB]'),'</strong>',$text);

Italic

$text = str_replace(array('[i]','[i]'),'<em>',$text);
$text = str_replace(array('[ei]','[EI]'),'</em>',$text);

Links

$text = eregi_replace('\[L]([-_./a-zA-Z0-9!&%#?+,\'=:~]+)\[/L]','<a href="http://\\1">\\1</a>', $text);
$text = eregi_replace(
'\[L=([-_./a-zA-Z0-9 !&%#?+,\'=:~]+)]'.'([-_./a-zA-Z0-9!()&%#?+ ,\'=:~]+)\[EL]',
'<a href="\\1">\\2</a>', $text);

[Bill Posters]

Can you explain that in layman's terms, sb?

tia

[Bill Posters]

Aah, seems you've edited it.
now it makes sense.


Of course, there's that option, but I thought the idea might be to shield users from learning even the most basic hand-code.

Also: if you're simply replacing ad-hoc tags with meaningful ones, why not simply get users to add their own <strong>…</strong> and <em>…</em> tags in the first place?

[smallbeer]

Yeah, edited because the board thought I was entering it's own code at first.

Originally Posted by Bill Posters

Also: if you're simply replacing ad-hoc tags with meaningful ones, why not simply get users to add their own <strong>…</strong> and <em>…</em> tags in the first place?

Because you don't really want a user to be able to enter their own (x)html and invalidate yours or worse, fuck up your layout.

Use htmlspecialcharacters() to neutralise any xhtml that the user enters but give them some "ad-hoc" tags to preform some basic formating.

[Bill Posters]

k, now i geddit. ta

[strawbleu]

I've a similar situation, a client wants to be able to import RTF documents into his intranet, and the nice app will break the document into data fields based on the bulleted lists within the rtf (each item becomes a seperate record within the db).

This is for ASP - but are there any simple references on the subject?

[stickmus]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...hp&btnG=Search

should get you started...

[cam]

Originally Posted by stickmus

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...hp&btnG=Search

should get you started...

Yeah, a google search for "rtf to html" php.

That'll help for a project to be done in asp.

Commercial solution: http://www.easybyte.com/products/rtf2html.html

couldn't find any decent tutorials but i'm sure there'll be some somewhere..

[strawbleu]

now that's annoying - I'm sure I did those searches last night.

>> Feels v stupid / befuddled <<

Thanks, guys!

[andymoo]

$data = "blah
Blah
blah";

nl2br($data);

echo "$data";

would echo:

blah<br>blah<br>blah

easier than replacing as this fucntion converts newlines to br's

hth

[Bill Posters]

I tried that and while it is a good, quick way of achieving markup from text, but it didn't produce markup that satisfied my preference for good, clean, well-tabbed end markup.

-

Fwiw, in PHP 4.05+ nl2br() produces xhtml-compliant <br /> tags.