ansaurus

Question

How do I convert HTML to RTF (Rich Text) in .NET without paying for a component?

Answer 1

A:

I came across this issue, and ~~researched~~ Googled it for several hours. Didn't find anything.

chris 2008-09-29 19:26:37

Answer 2

A:

Maybe what you need is a control to edit the HTML?

GvS 2008-09-30 08:10:05

Answer 3

+1 A:

There are tools, but they are definitely not free. Do you know exactly what you need, because this is a nice open source opportunity.

Gamecat 2008-09-30 21:04:42

Answer 4

+3 A:

It is not perfect of course, but here is the code I use to convert HTML to plain text.

(I was not the original author, I adapted it from code found on the web)

public static string ConvertHtmlToText(string source) {

            string result;

            // Remove HTML Development formatting
            // Replace line breaks with space
            // because browsers inserts space
            result = source.Replace("\r", " ");
            // Replace line breaks with space
            // because browsers inserts space
            result = result.Replace("\n", " ");
            // Remove step-formatting
            result = result.Replace("\t", string.Empty);
            // Remove repeating speces becuase browsers ignore them
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                                                                  @"( )+", " ");

            // Remove the header (prepare first by clearing attributes)
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*head([^>])*>", "<head>",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"(<( )*(/)( )*head( )*>)", "</head>",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(<head>).*(</head>)", string.Empty,
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // remove all scripts (prepare first by clearing attributes)
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*script([^>])*>", "<script>",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"(<( )*(/)( )*script( )*>)", "</script>",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            //result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result, 
            //         @"(<script>)([^(<script>\.</script>)])*(</script>)",
            //         string.Empty, 
            //         System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"(<script>).*(</script>)", string.Empty,
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // remove all styles (prepare first by clearing attributes)
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*style([^>])*>", "<style>",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"(<( )*(/)( )*style( )*>)", "</style>",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(<style>).*(</style>)", string.Empty,
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // insert tabs in spaces of <td> tags
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*td([^>])*>", "\t",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // insert line breaks in places of <BR> and <LI> tags
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*br( )*>", "\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*li( )*>", "\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // insert line paragraphs (double line breaks) in place
            // if <P>, <DIV> and <TR> tags
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*div([^>])*>", "\r\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*tr([^>])*>", "\r\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<( )*p([^>])*>", "\r\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // Remove remaining tags like <a>, links, images,
            // comments etc - anything thats enclosed inside < >
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<[^>]*>", string.Empty,
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            // replace special characters:
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&nbsp;", " ",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);

            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&bull;", " * ",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&lsaquo;", "<",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&rsaquo;", ">",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&trade;", "(tm)",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&frasl;", "/",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"<", "<",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @">", ">",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&copy;", "(c)",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&reg;", "(r)",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            // Remove all others. More can be added, see
            // http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/special_characters/
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     @"&(.{2,6});", string.Empty,
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);


            // make line breaking consistent
            result = result.Replace("\n", "\r");

            // Remove extra line breaks and tabs:
            // replace over 2 breaks with 2 and over 4 tabs with 4. 
            // Prepare first to remove any whitespaces inbetween
            // the escaped characters and remove redundant tabs inbetween linebreaks
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(\r)( )+(\r)", "\r\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(\t)( )+(\t)", "\t\t",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(\t)( )+(\r)", "\t\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(\r)( )+(\t)", "\r\t",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            // Remove redundant tabs
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(\r)(\t)+(\r)", "\r\r",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            // Remove multible tabs followind a linebreak with just one tab
            result = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(result,
                     "(\r)(\t)+", "\r\t",
                     System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
            // Initial replacement target string for linebreaks
            string breaks = "\r\r\r";
            // Initial replacement target string for tabs
            string tabs = "\t\t\t\t\t";
            for (int index = 0; index < result.Length; index++) {
                result = result.Replace(breaks, "\r\r");
                result = result.Replace(tabs, "\t\t\t\t");
                breaks = breaks + "\r";
                tabs = tabs + "\t";
            }

            // Thats it.
            return result;

    }

Andrew 2008-09-30 21:11:35

Answer 5

+3 A:

Your best option would be to use XSL to transform HTML to RTF and vice verca (if needed). I couldn't find the XSLT file you will need, but I can give you the code for the transformation in C#

1) Load the XML document

XPathDocument myXPathDoc = new XPathDocument(<xml file path>);

2) Load the XSL file

XslTransform myXslTrans = new XslTransform() ;
myXslTrans.Load(<xsl file path>);

3) Create a stream for output

XmlTextWriter myWriter = new XmlTextWriter("result.html",null);

4) Perform the actual transformation

myXslTrans.Transform(myXPathDoc,null,myWriter);

You could also write the XSLT yourself, but that would require knowing what all the RTF characters you want to handle are or at least what HTML elements you want to use and their RTF equivalent. Here is a starting point.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"&gt;
    <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:text>{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Arial;}}</xsl:text>
        <xsl:text>\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20</xsl:text>
        <xsl:apply-templates select="items/item/description"/>
        <xsl:text>\par}</xsl:text>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template match="description">
        <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
        <xsl:value-of select="."/>
        <xsl:text>\par</xsl:text>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Ty 2008-09-30 21:22:23

Answer 6

+2 A:

Check out this CodeProject article on XHTML2RTF.

Jonathan Parker 2009-04-16 03:03:40

Answer 7

A:

Try this HTML to RTF .Net library.

Maximus 2009-11-16 12:36:54

I think you missed the part about not paying for a component.

Josh Kodroff 2009-11-16 19:52:12

Answer 8

+3 A:

Never ever buy anything from http://www.sautinsoft.com/ , they will take your money and leave hanging with a piece of buggy crap.

Don 2010-03-30 01:45:42

Answer 9

A:

I don't know if this will do the trick, it's not that extensive (but free): RTF2HTML

FrD 2010-05-14 22:45:06

Answer 10

A:

Weird that it is so hard to find. It should be normaly a part of .net. There is simple way like copy-paste from explorer to wordpad and html gets converted But how to make this copy-paste using libraries inside vb2008.

2010-08-01 20:56:09

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How do I convert HTML to RTF (Rich Text) in .NET without paying for a component?

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