BBCode Parser

Question

User-271816210 posted

Hi all,

 I'm looking for a BBCode-style code parser.  Is there one out there?  I want the create the ability for a asp.net form user to be able to use simple formatting, but don't want to allow the person to use standard html tags.

 Thanx
 

Answer 1

User461001010 posted

i am sure u have googled it out & not found anything....thats y u r here.......but writing a parser is very easy with .net as the string datatype has many methods like Split() etc & also u could use the StringBuilder object which also has many useful methods.

Answer 2

User-271816210 posted

Well, I decided to go at it on my own using regular expressions... here's what i have started with...

         'URL replacement [URL]link[/URL] -> <a href="link" target="_blank">link</a>
        inString = Regex.Replace(inString, "\[url\]([^\]]+)\[\/url\]", "<a href=""$1"" target=""_blank"">$1</a>", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
        'URL replacement [URL="link"]text[/URL] -> <a href="link" target="_blank">text</a>
        inString = Regex.Replace(inString, "\[url=([^\]]+)\]([^\]]+)\[\/url\]", "<a href=""$1"" target=""_blank"">$2</a>", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
        'B replacement [B]text[/B] -> <strong>text</strong>
        inString = Regex.Replace(inString, "\[b\]([^\]]+)\[\/b\]", "<strong>$1</strong>", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)

I'm using case insensitivity.  I will eventually be adding more as I go.

If this helps you, you're welcome [:P]
 

Answer 3

User1052221287 posted

 Your welcome to use my bbcode class that I built a while ago.

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace NetCoders.Helpers
{
    /// <summary>
    /// BBCode Helper allows formatting of text
    /// without the need to use html
    /// </summary>
    public class BBCodeHelper
    {
        #region Helper Classes
        interface IHtmlFormatter
        {
            string Format(string data);
        }

        protected class RegexFormatter : IHtmlFormatter
        {
            private string _replace;
            private Regex _regex;

            public RegexFormatter(string pattern, string replace)
                : this(pattern, replace, true)
            {

            }

            public RegexFormatter(string pattern, string replace, bool ignoreCase)
            {
                RegexOptions options = RegexOptions.Compiled;

                if (ignoreCase)
                {
                    options |= RegexOptions.IgnoreCase;
                }

                _replace = replace;
                _regex = new Regex(pattern, options);
            }

            public string Format(string data)
            {
                return _regex.Replace(data, _replace);
            }
        }

        protected class SearchReplaceFormatter : IHtmlFormatter
        {
            private string _pattern;
            private string _replace;

            public SearchReplaceFormatter(string pattern, string replace)
            {
                _pattern = pattern;
                _replace = replace;
            }

            public string Format(string data)
            {
                return data.Replace(_pattern, _replace);
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region BBCode
        static List<IHtmlFormatter> _formatters;

        static BBCodeHelper()
        {
            _formatters = new List<IHtmlFormatter>();

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"<(.|\n)*?>", string.Empty));

            _formatters.Add(new SearchReplaceFormatter("\r", ""));
            _formatters.Add(new SearchReplaceFormatter("\n\n", "</p><p>"));
            _formatters.Add(new SearchReplaceFormatter("\n", "<br />"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[b(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/b(?:\s*)\]", "<b>$1</b>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[i(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/i(?:\s*)\]", "<i>$1</i>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[s(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/s(?:\s*)\]", "<strike>$1</strike>"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[left(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/left(?:\s*)]", "<div style=\"text-align:left\">$1</div>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[center(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/center(?:\s*)]", "<div style=\"text-align:center\">$1</div>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[right(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/right(?:\s*)]", "<div style=\"text-align:right\">$1</div>"));

            string quoteStart = "<blockquote><b>$1 said:</b></p><p>";
            string quoteEmptyStart = "<blockquote>";
            string quoteEnd = "</blockquote>";

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\

", quoteStart));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\

", quoteEmptyStart));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[/quote(?:\s*)\]", quoteEnd));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[url(?:\s*)\]www\.(.*?)\[/url(?:\s*)\]", "<a class=\"bbcode-link\" href=\"http://www.$1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"$1\">$1</a>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[url(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/url(?:\s*)\]", "<a class=\"bbcode-link\" href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"$1\">$1</a>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[url=""((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)""\]((.|\n)*?)\[/url(?:\s*)\]", "<a class=\"bbcode-link\" href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"$1\">$3</a>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[url=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/url(?:\s*)\]", "<a class=\"bbcode-link\" href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"$1\">$3</a>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[link(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/link(?:\s*)\]", "<a class=\"bbcode-link\" href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"$1\">$1</a>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[link=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/link(?:\s*)\]", "<a class=\"bbcode-link\" href=\"$1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"$1\">$3</a>"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[img(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/img(?:\s*)\]", "<img src=\"$1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" />"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[img align=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/img(?:\s*)\]", "<img src=\"$3\" border=\"0\" align=\"$1\" alt=\"\" />"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[img=((.|\n)*?)x((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/img(?:\s*)\]", "<img width=\"$1\" height=\"$3\" src=\"$5\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" />"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[color=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/color(?:\s*)\]", "<span style=\"color=$1;\">$3</span>"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[hr(?:\s*)\]", "<hr />"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[email(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/email(?:\s*)\]", "<a href=\"mailto:$1\">$1</a>"));

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[size=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/size(?:\s*)\]", "<span style=\"font-size:$1\">$3</span>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[font=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/font(?:\s*)\]", "<span style=\"font-family:$1;\">$3</span>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[align=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/align(?:\s*)\]", "<span style=\"text-align:$1;\">$3</span>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[float=((.|\n)*?)(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/float(?:\s*)\]", "<span style=\"float:$1;\">$3</div>"));

            string sListFormat = "<ol class=\"bbcode-list\" style=\"list-style:{0};\">$1</ol>";

            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[\*(?:\s*)]\s*([^\[]*)", "<li>$1</li>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[list(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/list(?:\s*)\]", "<ul class=\"bbcode-list\">$1</ul>"));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[list=1(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/list(?:\s*)\]", string.Format(sListFormat, "decimal"), false));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[list=i(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/list(?:\s*)\]", string.Format(sListFormat, "lower-roman"), false));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[list=I(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/list(?:\s*)\]", string.Format(sListFormat, "upper-roman"), false));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[list=a(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/list(?:\s*)\]", string.Format(sListFormat, "lower-alpha"), false));
            _formatters.Add(new RegexFormatter(@"\[list=A(?:\s*)\]((.|\n)*?)\[/list(?:\s*)\]", string.Format(sListFormat, "upper-alpha"), false));
        }
        #endregion

        #region Format
        public static string Format(string data)
        {
            foreach (IHtmlFormatter formatter in _formatters)
            {
                data = formatter.Format(data);
            }

            return data;
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

Answer 4

User149354829 posted
Thanks for that helper class, found this thread through Google and it was exactly what I was looking for. Works great!

Answer 5

User-2137000532 posted

Hello.

Was there also a version to convert Html to BBCode?

Answer 6

User1914010674 posted

@Mike343 (for any subsequent readers)

The line of code for "color" is slightly wrong.  The replacement <span> should have "color:", not "color=".

Other than that, it's working awesomely for me :).

Answer 7

User-2031403414 posted

Your code has one issue which I've found while testing it issue is if someone enters the url like google.com it will convert it to a invalid url