Desktop Java

RichText editor component for SWT based applications

This article will go through the task of implementing our own RichText editor component with SWT. I faced the need for such a visual component when developing a desktop based application for one of my customers and wanted to add a functionality to allow users to write rich text comments with bold, italic, strike through, etc. capabilities. At that moment I started to research the web in order to find an open source library that could save me from the work of rolling it out from scratch and I came across this list of “already done” implementations.
Let’s list here the needs I had for that kind of component:
  • It should be a native SWT component, not an Eclipse View or Editor and it must be embeddable in any SWT composite.
  • It should allow basic formatting as bolds, italics, strike through, etc.
  • It should support basic clipboard operations as copy, cut and paste.
  • It should output the text using basic HTML.
  • It needs to be able to parse the basic HTML generated in order to allow editions.
So, most of the solutions I found didn’t fit my needs as they were either Eclipse Views/Editors, too cumbersome to integrate, tried to achieve too much functionality or didn’t align with the icon set I was using to brand my business application (this is a minor issue though but summing it all up it added more reasons for my decision). So at the end I finally decided to write it from scratch based in the StyledText SWT standard component and using this example as a starting point.
The RichText control
Allmost all the work will be performed by the RichText control itself. I will add some support classes that will act as helpers to format the resulting text to basic HTML and as providers of images, localised strings and so on.
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;

import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.CaretListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.ExtendedModifyEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.ExtendedModifyListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.StyleRange;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.StyledText;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.VerifyKeyListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.KeyAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.KeyEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.ModifyListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.VerifyListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Point;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.GridLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Caret;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Composite;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.ToolBar;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.ToolItem;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;

public class RichText extends Composite {

 private List cachedStyles =
   Collections.synchronizedList(new LinkedList());

 private ToolBar toolBar;
 private StyledText styledText;

 private ToolItem boldBtn;
 private ToolItem italicBtn;
 private ToolItem strikeThroughBtn;
 private ToolItem underlineBtn;

 private ToolItem pasteBtn;
 private ToolItem eraserBtn;

 public RichText(Composite parent, int style) {
  super(parent, style);
  initComponents();
 }

 public void addCaretListener(CaretListener listener) {
  styledText.addCaretListener(listener);
 }

 public void removeCaretListener(CaretListener listener) {
  styledText.removeCaretListener(listener);
 }

 public void addExtendedModifyListener(ExtendedModifyListener listener) {
  styledText.addExtendedModifyListener(listener);
 }

 public void removeExtendedModifyListener(ExtendedModifyListener listener) {
  styledText.removeExtendedModifyListener(listener);
 }

 public void addModifyListener(ModifyListener listener) {
  styledText.addModifyListener(listener);
 }

 public void removeModifyListener(ModifyListener listener) {
  styledText.removeModifyListener(listener);
 }

 public void addVerifyKeyListener(VerifyKeyListener listener) {
  styledText.addVerifyKeyListener(listener);
 }

 public void removeVerifyKeyListener(VerifyKeyListener listener) {
  styledText.removeVerifyKeyListener(listener);
 }

 public void addVerifyListener(VerifyListener listener) {
  styledText.addVerifyListener(listener);
 }

 public void removeVerifyListener(VerifyListener listener) {
  styledText.removeVerifyListener(listener);
 }

 public int getCharCount() {
  return styledText.getCharCount();
 }

 public Caret getCaret() {
  return styledText.getCaret();
 }

 public int getCaretOffset() {
  return styledText.getCaretOffset();
 }

 /**
  * Obtain an HTML formatted text from the component contents
  *
  * @return an HTML formatted text
  */
 public String getFormattedText() {
  String plainText = styledText.getText();

  RichStringBuilder builder = new RichStringBuilder();
  Integer[] lineBreaks = getLineBreaks();

  int brIdx = 0;
  int start = 0;
  int end = (lineBreaks.length > brIdx ? lineBreaks[brIdx++] : plainText.length() - 1);

  while (start < end) {
    builder.startParagraph();
    StyleRange[] ranges = styledText.getStyleRanges(start, (end - start));
    if (ranges != null && ranges.length > 0) {
    for (int i = 0;i < ranges.length;i++) {
     if (start < ranges[i].start) {
      builder.append(plainText.substring(start, ranges[i].start));
     }

     List styles = translateStyle(ranges[i]);
     builder.startFontStyles(styles.toArray(new FontStyle[styles.size()]));
     builder.append(plainText.substring(ranges[i].start,
       ranges[i].start + ranges[i].length));
     builder.endFontStyles(styles.size());

     start = (ranges[i].start + ranges[i].length) + 1;
    }
   }
   if (start < end) {
     builder.append(plainText.substring(start, end));
    }
    start = end + styledText.getLineDelimiter().length();
    end = (lineBreaks.length > brIdx ? lineBreaks[brIdx++] : plainText.length() - 1);
   builder.endParagraph();
  }

  return builder.toString();
 }

 public void setFormattedText(String text)
 throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException {
  RichTextParser parser = RichTextParser.parse(text);
  styledText.setText(parser.getText());
  styledText.setStyleRanges(parser.getStyleRanges());
 }

 public int getLineAtOffset(int offset) {
  return styledText.getLineAtOffset(offset);
 }

 public int getLineCount() {
  return styledText.getLineCount();
 }

 public int getLineSpacing() {
  return styledText.getLineSpacing();
 }

 public String getText() {
  return styledText.getText();
 }

 protected void applyFontStyleToSelection(FontStyle style) {
  Point sel = styledText.getSelectionRange();
  if ((sel == null) || (sel.y == 0)) {
   return ;
  }

  StyleRange newStyle;
  for (int i = sel.x; i < (sel.x + sel.y); i++) {
   StyleRange range = styledText.getStyleRangeAtOffset(i);
   if (range != null) {
    newStyle = (StyleRange) range.clone();
    newStyle.start = i;
    newStyle.length = 1;
   } else {
    newStyle = new StyleRange(i, 1, null, null, SWT.NORMAL);
   }

   switch (style) {
   case BOLD:
    newStyle.fontStyle ^= SWT.BOLD;
    break;
   case ITALIC:
    newStyle.fontStyle ^= SWT.ITALIC;
    break;
   case STRIKE_THROUGH:
    newStyle.strikeout = !newStyle.strikeout;
    break;
   case UNDERLINE:
    newStyle.underline = !newStyle.underline;
    break;
   }

   styledText.setStyleRange(newStyle);
  }

  styledText.setSelectionRange(sel.x + sel.y, 0);
 }

 /**
  * Clear all styled data
  */
 protected void clearStylesFromSelection() {
  Point sel = styledText.getSelectionRange();
  if ((sel != null) && (sel.y != 0)) {
   StyleRange style = new StyleRange(
     sel.x, sel.y, null, null, SWT.NORMAL);
   styledText.setStyleRange(style);
  }
  styledText.setSelectionRange(sel.x + sel.y, 0);
 }

 private Integer[] getLineBreaks() {
  List list = new ArrayList();
  int lastIdx = 0;
  while (lastIdx < styledText.getCharCount()) {
    int br = styledText.getText().indexOf(
      styledText.getLineDelimiter(), lastIdx);
    if (br >= lastIdx && !list.contains(br)) {
    list.add(br);
   }
   lastIdx += styledText.getLineDelimiter().length() + 1;
  }
  Collections.sort(list);
  return list.toArray(new Integer[list.size()]);
 }

 protected void handleCutCopy() {
  // Save the cut/copied style info so that during paste we will maintain
  // the style information. Cut/copied text is put in the clipboard in
  // RTF format, but is not pasted in RTF format. The other way to
  // handle the pasting of styles would be to access the Clipboard
  // directly and
  // parse the RTF text.
  cachedStyles = Collections
    .synchronizedList(new LinkedList());
  Point sel = styledText.getSelectionRange();
  int startX = sel.x;
  for (int i = sel.x; i <= sel.x + sel.y - 1; i++) {
    StyleRange style = styledText.getStyleRangeAtOffset(i);
   if (style != null) {
    style.start = style.start - startX;
    if (!cachedStyles.isEmpty()) {
     StyleRange lastStyle = cachedStyles
       .get(cachedStyles.size() - 1);
     if (lastStyle.similarTo(style)
       && lastStyle.start + lastStyle.length == style.start) {
      lastStyle.length++;
     } else {
      cachedStyles.add(style);
     }
    } else {
     cachedStyles.add(style);
    }
   }
  }
  pasteBtn.setEnabled(true);
 }

 private void handleExtendedModified(ExtendedModifyEvent event) {
  if (event.length == 0) return;

  StyleRange style;
  if (event.length == 1
    || styledText.getTextRange(event.start, event.length).equals(
      styledText.getLineDelimiter())) {
   // Have the new text take on the style of the text to its right
   // (during
   // typing) if no style information is active.
   int caretOffset = styledText.getCaretOffset();
   style = null;
   if (caretOffset < styledText.getCharCount())
    style = styledText.getStyleRangeAtOffset(caretOffset);
   if (style != null) {
    style = (StyleRange) style.clone();
    style.start = event.start;
    style.length = event.length;
   } else {
    style = new StyleRange(event.start, event.length, null, null,
      SWT.NORMAL);
   }
   if (boldBtn.getSelection())
    style.fontStyle |= SWT.BOLD;
   if (italicBtn.getSelection())
    style.fontStyle |= SWT.ITALIC;
   style.underline = underlineBtn.getSelection();
   style.strikeout = strikeThroughBtn.getSelection();
   if (!style.isUnstyled())
    styledText.setStyleRange(style);
  } else {
   // paste occurring, have text take on the styles it had when it was
   // cut/copied
   for (int i = 0; i < cachedStyles.size(); i++) {
     style = cachedStyles.get(i);
     StyleRange newStyle = (StyleRange) style.clone();
     newStyle.start = style.start + event.start;
     styledText.setStyleRange(newStyle);
    }
   }
  }

  private void handleTextSelected(SelectionEvent event) {
   Point sel = styledText.getSelectionRange();
   if ((sel != null) && (sel.y != 0)) {
    StyleRange[] styles = styledText.getStyleRanges(sel.x, sel.y);
    eraserBtn.setEnabled((styles != null) && (styles.length > 0));
  } else {
   eraserBtn.setEnabled(false);
  }
 }

 private void handleKeyReleased(KeyEvent event) {
  if ((event.keyCode == SWT.ARROW_LEFT) || (event.keyCode == SWT.ARROW_UP)
    || (event.keyCode == SWT.ARROW_RIGHT) || (event.keyCode == SWT.ARROW_DOWN)) {
   updateStyleButtons();
  }
 }

 private void updateStyleButtons() {
  int caretOffset = styledText.getCaretOffset();
  StyleRange style = null;
  if (caretOffset >= 0 && caretOffset < styledText.getCharCount()) {
   style = styledText.getStyleRangeAtOffset(caretOffset);
  }

  if (style != null) {
   boldBtn.setSelection((style.fontStyle & SWT.BOLD) != 0);
   italicBtn.setSelection((style.fontStyle & SWT.ITALIC) != 0);
   underlineBtn.setSelection(style.underline);
   strikeThroughBtn.setSelection(style.strikeout);
  } else {
   boldBtn.setSelection(false);
   italicBtn.setSelection(false);
   underlineBtn.setSelection(false);
   strikeThroughBtn.setSelection(false);
  }
 }

 private void initComponents() {
  GridLayout layout = new GridLayout();
  layout.numColumns = 1;
  setLayout(layout);

  toolBar = createToolBar(this);
  toolBar.setLayoutData(new GridData(GridData.FILL_HORIZONTAL));

  styledText = new StyledText(this, SWT.BORDER | SWT.MULTI |
    SWT.V_SCROLL | SWT.H_SCROLL);
  styledText.setLayoutData(new GridData(GridData.FILL_BOTH));
  styledText.addKeyListener(new KeyAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {
    handleKeyReleased(e);
   }
  });
  styledText.addExtendedModifyListener(new ExtendedModifyListener() {
   @Override
   public void modifyText(ExtendedModifyEvent event) {
    handleExtendedModified(event);
   }
  });
  styledText.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void mouseUp(MouseEvent e) {
    updateStyleButtons();
   }
  });
  styledText.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent event) {
    handleTextSelected(event);
   }
  });
 }

 private ToolBar createToolBar(Composite parent) {
  ToolBar toolBar = new ToolBar(parent, SWT.FLAT);

  boldBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.CHECK);
  boldBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_BOLD);
  boldBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.boldBtn_tooltipText);
  boldBtn.addSelectionListener(
    new FontStyleButtonListener(FontStyle.BOLD));

  italicBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.CHECK);
  italicBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_ITALIC);
  italicBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.italicBtn_tooltipText);
  italicBtn.addSelectionListener(
    new FontStyleButtonListener(FontStyle.ITALIC));

  underlineBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.CHECK);
  underlineBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_UNDERLINE);
  underlineBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.underlineBtn_tooltipText);
  underlineBtn.addSelectionListener(
    new FontStyleButtonListener(FontStyle.UNDERLINE));

  strikeThroughBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.CHECK);
  strikeThroughBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_STRIKE_THROUGH);
  strikeThroughBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.strikeThroughBtn_tooltipText);
  strikeThroughBtn.addSelectionListener(
    new FontStyleButtonListener(FontStyle.STRIKE_THROUGH));

  new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.SEPARATOR);

  ToolItem cutBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.PUSH);
  cutBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_CUT);
  cutBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.cutBtn_tooltipText);
  cutBtn.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
    handleCutCopy();
    styledText.cut();
   }
  });

  ToolItem copyBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.PUSH);
  copyBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_COPY);
  copyBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.copyBtn_tooltipText);
  copyBtn.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
    handleCutCopy();
    styledText.copy();
   }
  });

  pasteBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.PUSH);
  pasteBtn.setEnabled(false);
  pasteBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_PASTE);
  pasteBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.pasteBtn_tooltipText);
  pasteBtn.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
    styledText.paste();
   }
  });

  new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.SEPARATOR);

  eraserBtn = new ToolItem(toolBar, SWT.PUSH);
  eraserBtn.setEnabled(false);
  eraserBtn.setImage(RichTextImages.IMG_ERASER);
  eraserBtn.setToolTipText(RichTextStrings.eraserBtn_tooltipText);
  eraserBtn.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
   @Override
   public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
    clearStylesFromSelection();
   }
  });

  return toolBar;
 }

 private List translateStyle(StyleRange range) {
  List list = new ArrayList();

  if ((range.fontStyle & SWT.BOLD) != 0) {
   list.add(FontStyle.BOLD);
  }
  if ((range.fontStyle & SWT.ITALIC) != 0) {
   list.add(FontStyle.ITALIC);
  }
  if (range.strikeout) {
   list.add(FontStyle.STRIKE_THROUGH);
  }
  if (range.underline) {
   list.add(FontStyle.UNDERLINE);
  }

  return list;
 }

 private class FontStyleButtonListener extends SelectionAdapter {
  private FontStyle style;

  public FontStyleButtonListener(FontStyle style) {
   this.style = style;
  }

  @Override
  public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent e) {
   applyFontStyleToSelection(style);
  }
 }

}
As you can see our RichText control is basically a wrapper around a ToolBar and a StyledText components with different event listeners hook both controls.  
Support classes
In this section I will show the code I used to implement some of the support classes used by my rich text editor control. I will omit here the classes that provide my control with images and localised strings as there are too many examples out there about how to do it in SWT and I will focus on that classes I needed to format and parse the output/input of the control.
The first of it is a Java enum that will be used to identify the different supported font styles:
public enum FontStyle {
 BOLD, ITALIC, STRIKE_THROUGH, UNDERLINE
}

Next one is called RichStringBuilder and it will be used as a helper class to format the contents of the StyledText component into basic HTML:

import java.util.Stack;

public final class RichStringBuilder {

 public static final String LINE_DELIMITER = "<br/>";

 private StringBuilder builder;
 private Stack fontStyleStack;

 public RichStringBuilder() {
  builder = new StringBuilder();
  fontStyleStack = new Stack();
 }

 public RichStringBuilder append(String text) {
  builder.append(text);
  return this;
 }

 public RichStringBuilder appendLineBreak() {
  builder.append(LINE_DELIMITER);
  return this;
 }

 public RichStringBuilder startParagraph() {
  builder.append("<p>");
  return this;
 }

 public RichStringBuilder startFontStyle(FontStyle fontStyle) {
  fontStyleStack.push(fontStyle);
  internalStartFontStyle(fontStyle);
  return this;
 }

 public RichStringBuilder startFontStyles(FontStyle... fontStyles) {
  for (FontStyle fs : fontStyles) {
   startFontStyle(fs);
  }
  return this;
 }

 public RichStringBuilder endFontStyles(int count) {
  for (int i = 0;i < count;i++) {
     endStyle();
    }
    return this;
   }

   public RichStringBuilder endStyle() {
    if (fontStyleStack.size() > 0) {
   FontStyle style = fontStyleStack.pop();
   internalEndFontStyle(style);
  }
  return this;
 }

 public RichStringBuilder endParagraph() {
  flushStyles();
  builder.append("</p>");
  return this;
 }

 public void flushStyles() {
  while (fontStyleStack.size() > 0) {
   endStyle();
  }
 }

 @Override
 public boolean equals(Object o) {
  if (this == o) return true;
  if (null == o) return false;
  if (!(o instanceof RichStringBuilder)) return false;

  return ((RichStringBuilder) o).builder.equals(builder);
 }

 @Override
 public int hashCode() {
  return builder.hashCode();
 }

 @Override
 public String toString() {
  return builder.toString();
 }

 private void internalStartFontStyle(FontStyle fontStyle) {
  switch (fontStyle) {
  case BOLD:
   builder.append("<b>");
                        break;
                case ITALIC:
                        builder.append("<i>");
                        break;
                case STRIKE_THROUGH:
                        builder.append("<del>");
                        break;
                case UNDERLINE:
                        builder.append("<ins>");
                        break;
                }
        }

        private void internalEndFontStyle(FontStyle fontStyle) {
                switch (fontStyle) {
                case BOLD:
                        builder.append("</b>");
   break;
  case ITALIC:
   builder.append("</i>");
   break;
  case STRIKE_THROUGH:
   builder.append("</del>");
   break;
  case UNDERLINE:
   builder.append("</ins>");
   break;
  }
 }

}

And the third one is a SAX based content handler that will launch events when parsing basic HTML into the StyledText control:

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.StringReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Stack;

import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.custom.StyleRange;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;

public final class RichTextParser {

 public static RichTextParser parse(String formattedText)
 throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException {
  return new RichTextParser(formattedText);
 }

 private StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder();

 private List styleRanges = new ArrayList();

 private RichTextParser(String formattedText)
 throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException {
  StringReader reader = new StringReader(formattedText);
  SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
  SAXParser parser = factory.newSAXParser();
  DefaultHandler handler = new RichTextContentHandler();
  parser.parse(new InputSource(reader), handler);
 }

 public String getText() {
  return text.toString();
 }

 public StyleRange[] getStyleRanges() {
  return styleRanges.toArray(new StyleRange[styleRanges.size()]);
 }

 private class RichTextContentHandler extends DefaultHandler {

  private Stack<List> stylesStack = new Stack<List>();
  private String lastTextChunk = null;

  @Override
  public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length)
    throws SAXException {
   lastTextChunk = new String(ch, start, length);
  }

  @Override
  public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName)
  throws SAXException {
   // If there is not any previous text chunk parsed then return
   if (lastTextChunk == null) return;
   // If the tag found is not a supported one then return
   if (!"p".equals(qName) || !"b".equals(qName) || !"i".equals(qName) ||
     !"ins".equals(qName) || !"del".equals(qName)) {
    return;
   }

   List lastStyles = lastFontStyles(true);
   if (lastStyles != null) {
    StyleRange range = transform(lastStyles);
    range.start = currentIndex() + 1;
    range.length = lastTextChunk.length();
    styleRanges.add(range);
   }

   text.append(lastTextChunk);
   lastTextChunk = null;
  }

  @Override
  public void startElement(String uri, String localName, String qName,
    Attributes atts) throws SAXException {
   // If the tag found is not a supported one then return
   if (!"p".equals(qName) || !"b".equals(qName) || !"i".equals(qName) ||
     !"ins".equals(qName) || !"del".equals(qName)) {
    return;
   }

   List lastStyles = lastFontStyles(false);
   if (lastTextChunk == null) {
    if (lastStyles == null) {
     lastStyles = new ArrayList();
     stylesStack.add(lastStyles);
    }
   } else {
    if (lastStyles != null) {
     StyleRange range = transform(lastStyles);
     range.start = currentIndex() + 1;
     range.length = lastTextChunk.length();
     styleRanges.add(range);
    }

    text.append(lastTextChunk);
    lastTextChunk = null;
   }

   if ("b".equals(qName)) {
    lastStyles.add(FontStyle.BOLD);
   } else if ("i".equals(qName)) {
    lastStyles.add(FontStyle.ITALIC);
   } else if ("ins".equals(qName)) {
    lastStyles.add(FontStyle.UNDERLINE);
   } else {
    lastStyles.add(FontStyle.STRIKE_THROUGH);
   }
  }

  private StyleRange transform(List styles) {
   StyleRange range = new StyleRange();
   range.start = currentIndex() + 1;
   range.length = lastTextChunk.length();
   for (FontStyle fs : styles) {
    if (FontStyle.BOLD == fs) {
     range.fontStyle = (range.fontStyle & SWT.BOLD);
    } else if (FontStyle.ITALIC == fs) {
     range.fontStyle = (range.fontStyle & SWT.ITALIC);
    } else if (FontStyle.STRIKE_THROUGH == fs) {
     range.strikeout = true;
    } else if (FontStyle.UNDERLINE == fs) {
     range.underline = true;
    }
   }
   return range;
  }

  private List lastFontStyles(boolean remove) {
   List lastStyles = null;
   if (stylesStack.size() > 0) {
    if (remove) {
     lastStyles = stylesStack.pop();
    } else {
     lastStyles = stylesStack.peek();
    }
   }
   return lastStyles;
  }

  private int currentIndex() {
   return text.length() - 1;
  }

 }

}
Conclusion
Implementing your own SWT RichText control may not be the best option for your requirements, you will need to balance the pros and cons of doing so and whether it is worth to invest on one of the ready made commercial solutions out there. However, I want to demonstrate with this article doing your own (simple & lightweight) rich text editor embeddable in SWT dialogs and views it’s easy to accomplish and requires little effort compared to the benefits you obtain from that.
Reference: RichText editor component for SWT based applications from our JCG partner Alonso Dominguez at the Code Nibbles blog.
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Jose Renato
Jose Renato
10 years ago

Hi,

I’m facing the same problem… The solutions that I’ve found were too big or to small.

Your solution, at this moment, is the best one.

But, I need to be able to:

– Give the user the ability to undo-redo the typed text (critical).
– Insert images (is a good feature, but not critical).

I downloaded the code and will work on the undo-redo feature.

Is there a plan for implement this functionalities?

Thanks a lot for sharing you solution. If I came up with a solution for undo-redo I will post back to you.

Alonso Dominguez
10 years ago

Hi Jose, It would be really great if you manage to get those features, they are tough ones though! I didn’t implement them as they weren’t requirements when I worked out this editor. The undo-redo feature will require the editor to have some way of reminding the last action taken, so you will need to model first what an action is (i.e.: typing text, changing styles, etc.) It’s hard but doable I guess. The ability to hold images though is going to be fair more complicated since the real problem would be holding the image data and then render the… Read more »

Jose Renato
Jose Renato
10 years ago

Hey Alonso,

i’m current working on the hability of undoing the typed text, i’m not considering the styles yet. For a first version, this is enough. The images I’ll put it a side for while because its not that important.

I’ll keep you informed about my progress.

D G
D G
9 years ago

Bugs in the RichTextParser code:
1. Lines 63 and 84, it should be &&s and not ||s.
2. Line 113 should be: } else if (“del”.equals(qName)) {
(otherwise the default will be strikethrough)

D G
D G
9 years ago

Question: Is the published under the EPL?

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