Question

I have an XML which contains a field of the type:

<mytext><![CDATA[ My name is <color value="FF0000">Bill</color>. ]]></mytext>

Since I’m new to E4X methods, I wonder if there is a simple methodology (using E4X methods) in order to print the inner text: “My name is Bill.” in a text area and having the word “Bill” colored i.e. red.

The generalized situation is, if i can print the inner text and use XML tags to specify formatting attributes of the text per word.

Do E4X supports this type of parsing, or do I have to program my own “little” parser for this situation?

Answer 1

First, let’s normalize the html content (I added a <content> tag to make it valid):

var mytext:XML = XML("<mytext><![CDATA[<content>My name is <color value="FF0000">Bill</color>.</content>]]></mytext>");

Next step is to parse the given XML:

var roughXML:XML = XML(mytext.text().toString());

Then you have to substitute your custom tags with standard tags:

var output:XML = XML("<span/>");
for each(var tag:XML in roughXML.children())
{
    if (tag.name() == "color")
    {       
        var fontTag:XML = XML("<font/>");
        fontTag.@color = [e-mail]();
        fontTag.appendChild(tag.text());
        output.appendChild(fontTag);
    }
    //you can add here any rule for substitution that you need
    else
    {
        output.appendChild(tag);
    }
}

And finally, you can use an s:RicheEditableText to display your text

var textFlow:TextFlow = TextConverter.importToFlow(output.toXMLString(), TextConverter.TEXT_FIELD_HTML_FORMAT);
myRichEditableText.textFlow = textFlow;