Perhaps the real solution is to save this data in another table. Each entry would be in a separate record with a datetime column for sequencing. This one-to-many solution would eliminate the need to merge two rtf documents.
Dennis McGrath -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of MikeB Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 12:15 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: VarChar Data and RTF And now we know the rest of the story.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "MDRD" <[email protected]> To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 1:03 PM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: VarChar Data and RTF Paul We also type in personal notes and modify the canned text to fit each visit. Saving the notes gives a better history of what was done. Marc From: Paul InterlockInfo Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 11:57 AM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: VarChar Data and RTF Stupid thought here but could you not use a report to do this! On demand and figured if you wanted to review this just recreate the report again. I am questioning the need to save as one? If the user wants to review the instructions given you simply recreate the report again. Of course you could find the 'Bold' & 'Red' commands with var's and recreate them all in one form field with a lot of code and then save this as Mike B. was talking about, but I do not see the need. Just do it on the fly. (Thank you Mike B. for that insight a year ago! Re-create on the fly part. ) Just my view from my desktop & .03 Sincerely, Paul D From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of MDRD Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 12:31 PM To: RBASE-L Mailing List Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: VarChar Data and RTF I have been doing this for years with plain text and it works Great. Then I decided it would be cool to add bold and red text to the notes and I bit off more than I can chew. My goal is to get some formatted text from a Varchar column that is stored in a lookup table such as this [Fname] was instructed to put Ice on his ankle .... Warning do not freeze your foot Do a SRPL to change [Fname] to .vFname ...and a few more SRPL's then add that to the end of the patient notes which are stored in a Varchar column. The patient notes in the Varchar field may already have Bold or red text too I believe you can SRPL plain text for plain text in a Varchar column even if it has bold and red text? At least the limited testing I did seemed to work. Thanks Marc -------------------------------------------------- From: "MikeB" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:54 AM To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: VarChar Data and RTF > You have never specified the original "source" of the RTF. That's why I > listed how to join them, no matter the source. If the text that is stored > contains formatting, _including_ BOLD or FONT, then my description > applies. > If it only contains CRLF, then it is plain text. If the data isn't > sensitive, why don't you show two sources you are trying to combine so we > can go from there? > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "MDRD" <[email protected]> > To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:01 AM > Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: VarChar Data and RTF > > >> Mike >> >> I hope I do not have everyone mixed up on what I am trying to do? >> You may know this already but I am trying to combine 2 Varchar >> columns with formatted data. I am not really joining files. My code >> sets the lookup Varchar data to a Variable then Updates the other Table. >> >> It seems that Varchar variables only hold raw text and can not hold Bold >> or red text >> without converting it to the formatting gibberish and that gibberish >> breaks the Update >> command. >> >> Thanks for all the help >> Marc >> >> >> >> >> -------------------------------------------------- >> From: "MikeB" <[email protected]> >> Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 5:51 PM >> To: "RBASE-L Mailing List" <[email protected]> >> Subject: [RBASE-L] - VarChar Data and RTF >> >>> Marc, >>> >>> Now that I've refreshed my memory a bit on RTF, it seems like there is >>> likely an all RBase way of concatenating RTF with at least a couple of >>> major hurdles. Now it is true this could be an all RBase solution, but >>> as you will read below, it could become cumbersome to the point that it >>> should be done in a DLL for speeds sake. >>> >>> One biggie would be that the originating RTF isn't from a recent >>> version >>> of Word. I looked at the difference in the RTF from WordPad and the >>> same >>> document saved in Word and word has over a hundred lines of crap after >>> the "legal RTF" document description that relates to the Theme (meta) >>> data from Word. >>> >>> The second, is you have to be prepared to programatically manipulate the >>> Font Table. The font table "{\fonttbl" is created with the documents >>> default font as "\f0" and with the first change after that "\f1" and so >>> on in that fashion, so if the merged document has the same fonts, but >>> were created in a different order, the lookup for the font to apply for >>> the text in the font table will display an incorrect font, so merged RTF >>> has to have any disparate (non existing) font added to the base >>> document's Font Table, and the sequencing of the font markup changed to >>> match the order of the Font Table >>> >>> Now for the structure of the RTF. >>> >>> It appears that when there is a complete "file" or document >>> description, >>> the document header line ends in a CRLF, so to determine if the VarChar >>> data is just a snippet or a complete document, you need to test for the >>> presence of expected text in the header, the most obvious is the first 5 >>> characters of the file "{\rtf", with the 6th character being the version >>> of the RTF (1 through 4). >>> >>> So if you test for the headers presence and it is TRUE, then to add >>> another snippet to it, we need to remove the LAST character of the file, >>> which is the last closing brace "}" , then you can concantenate your >>> snippet to it, ADD back the closing brace "}" and you have a complete >>> file. >>> >>> If you are merging TWO Files together, you would remove the header from >>> the second file (after removing the closing brace from the first) and >>> simply concantenate the remainder of the second file to the first >>> (observing what has to happen to the font table as described before). >>> >>> HTH, >>> >>> Mike >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> > >
