Setting textformat to mulitple parts of a string

Question

I'm having an issue with applying textformat to various parts of a string:

feedBackText = "This is <b>bold</b>, and this is some more text, and <b>this is bold too</b>. But this is not bold. This is <b>bold</b>!";

feedbackTextField.htmlText = feedBackText;

var startBoldPos:int = 0;
var closeBoldPos:int = 0;
var i:uint = 0;

while(true) {

startBoldPos = feedBackText.indexOf("<b>", startBoldPos);
closeBoldPos = feedBackText.indexOf("</b>", startBoldPos);

if(startBoldPos > 0) {
    i++;
// Here is the main trouble:
    feedbackTextField.setTextFormat(_boldFormat, startBoldPos-((7)*i), closeBoldPos-((10)*i));
    trace("i is: " + i);
    trace("Feedbacktext: " + feedBackText);
    trace("Start bold: " + startBoldPos);
    trace("End bold: " + closeBoldPos + "\n");
} else {
// This works as expected
    feedbackTextField.setTextFormat(_boldFormat, startBoldPos, closeBoldPos-3);
    //  trace("Feedbacktext: " + feedBackText);
    //  trace("Start bold: " + startBoldPos);
    //  trace("End bold: " + closeBoldPos + "\n");
}       
if(startBoldPos == -1) break;
startBoldPos = closeBoldPos;
}

I'm trying to play around with the index of where the setTextFormat should be assigned, but it doesn't seem to align with startBoldPos and endBoldPos. Even if the traces are showing the correct numbers of where to place setTextFormat it in the string.

Any ideas would be apppreciated!

Regards, Hans Magnus

Answer 1

I tested your code and it works as expected. I don't fully understand what you trying to do, so here some general remarks:

1. You can set some formatting without setTextFormat only with htmlText. After assigning text with html tags textField text will be already partly formatted.

2. setTextFormat works with text property, so start and end index calculated depend on text without html tags. In your case it will be: This is bold, and this is some more text, and this is bold too. But this is not bold. This is bold!

And tracing your code step by step:

1) Setting text with to htmlText property in TextField. After this TextField contained:

This is bold, and this is some more text, and this is bold too. But this is not bold. This is bold!

2) Loop starts. First iteration:

startBoldPos-((7)*i) = 1
closeBoldPos-((10)*i) = 5

TextField: This is bold, and this is some more text, and this is bold too. But this is not bold. This is bold!

3) Second iteration:

startBoldPos-((7)*i) = 39
closeBoldPos-((10)*i) = 52

TextField: This is bold, and this is some more text, and this is bold too. But this is not bold. This is bold!

4) Third iteration:

startBoldPos-((7)*i) = 87
closeBoldPos-((10)*i) = 85

Nothing changed bacause endPosition < startPosition.

5) Fourth iteration:

startBoldPos = -1
closeBoldPos-3 = 12

TextField: This is bold, and this is some more text, and this is bold too. But this is not bold. This is bold!

And final result on screenshot:

UPDATE (formatting without setTextFormat method):

...
[Embed(source="GOTHIC.TTF", fontName="Gothic", embedAsCFF="false", advancedAntiAliasing="true")]
private var gothicFont:Class;

[Embed(source="GOTHICB.TTF", fontName="Gothic", embedAsCFF="false", advancedAntiAliasing="true", fontWeight="bold")]
private var gothicFontBold:Class;   
...
var feedBackText:String = "This is <b>bold</b>, and this is some more text, and <b>this is bold too</b>. But this is not bold. This is <b>bold</b>!";
var feedbackTextField:TextField = new TextField();
feedbackTextField.defaultTextFormat = new TextFormat("Gothic", 14);
feedbackTextField.embedFonts = true;
feedbackTextField.width = 500;
feedbackTextField.htmlText = feedBackText;

And result (with embed font as you see):