RichText control that is editable, copy/pastes, serializable?

Question

Is there a RichText control (has text w/ font size and color) that has these qualities:
1) Editable by user
2) Accepts entries pasted from word and Internet Explorer
3) Its text/content can be stored in SQL server
4) Can be used in silverlight somehow (if can not be added in designer, can it be added to another control's content dynamically and work?)

RichTextBox class may do it, but I am not sure if it is usable in silverlight (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc295153(Expression.30).aspx) 

Also, is there no easier way of storing object (content) in the database than having to know the exact structure, having to traverse object, making XML from it and storing that? 

Answer 1

hi,
Pitiko2,
          First i would like to let you know that RichTextBox of WPF is the only control that will suit your needs, ( unless in future someone makes a custom user control for it.
Now coming to your question :

1 . RichTextBox is ofcourse very much editable

2.  RichTextBox by default can accpet paste from word and IE.

3. I have created a sample Custom RichTextBox for you which can give you the string representation of its contents and also set its contents from from the saved string. So you can now save this xaml string into any presistence repository, including SQL server DB.


4. You cannot use it directly in silverlight, because silverlight before version 4.0 does not support the RichTextBox Class. U can use many custom richtextbox available in the net for silverlight. you may see this : http://www.codeplex.com/richtextedit or  http://www.vectorlight.net/demos/richtextbox.aspx

With Silverlight 4.0 you can Get this RichTextBox : http://michaelsync.net/2008/05/04/silverlight-rich-text-editor-demo

public class CustomRichTextBox : RichTextBox
    {
        public string GetDocumentXamlString()
        {
            var flowDocument = this.Document;
            return XamlWriter.Save(flowDocument);
        }

        public void SetDocumentXamlString(string xamlString)
        {
            FlowDocument document = null;
            try
            {
                var stringReader = new StringReader(xamlString);
                var xmlReader = new XmlTextReader(stringReader);
                document = (FlowDocument)XamlReader.Load(xmlReader);
            }
            catch
            {
                throw new Exception("Could not parse the xaml string");
            }
        }
    }

    

Answer 2

I tested their demos. They are out dated and not usable in silverlight 3 or 4 beta. I try to use RichTextArea dynamically.

Answer 3

Hi Pitiko2,

The following is the MSDN documents on RichTextArea class:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.controls.richtextarea(VS.96).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681613(VS.96).aspx

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Linda Liu

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