Re: Deconstructing Text Tables
Thank you, Ken. It took some research and experimentation before I could understand your explanation, but it looks like that’s exactly what I needed. — Charles Jenkins On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Ken Thomases wrote: > On Nov 18, 2014, at 6:38 AM, Charles Jenkins (mailto:cejw...@gmail.com)> wrote: > > > It’s very easy to create an NSAttributedString that represents a text > > table, then show the table in a TextView so the user can edit information > > in the cells. The documentation on how to create a text table > > (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/TextLayout/Articles/TextTables.html) > > is fairly clear. > > > > What I don’t see—and maybe it’s there but I just don’t understand it—is how > > to pull the table apart again. Suppose I want to grab all text from the > > first cell after the user has edited it. How do I do that? > > You would presumably enumerate the attributed string's ranges for the > NSParagraphStyleAttributeName attribute, using > -enumerateAttribute:inRange:options:usingBlock:. For each paragraph style > object, you would check its textBlocks property to determine which cell the > range is part of. > > You're presumably either dealing with just a one-level table or the top-level > table, so you would be interested in the firstObject of the textBlocks array. > After verifying that it's an NSTextTableBlock, you'd check its table, > startingRow, rowSpan, startingColumn, and columnSpan to determine which cell > it's a part of. If you're interested in the entire contents of the first > cell, you'll need to accumulate the ranges that are part of it, since they > won't necessarily all be part of a single range as enumerated. > > Regards, > Ken > > ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
Re: Deconstructing Text Tables
On Nov 18, 2014, at 6:38 AM, Charles Jenkins wrote: > It’s very easy to create an NSAttributedString that represents a text table, > then show the table in a TextView so the user can edit information in the > cells. The documentation on how to create a text table > (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/TextLayout/Articles/TextTables.html) > is fairly clear. > > What I don’t see—and maybe it’s there but I just don’t understand it—is how > to pull the table apart again. Suppose I want to grab all text from the first > cell after the user has edited it. How do I do that? You would presumably enumerate the attributed string's ranges for the NSParagraphStyleAttributeName attribute, using -enumerateAttribute:inRange:options:usingBlock:. For each paragraph style object, you would check its textBlocks property to determine which cell the range is part of. You're presumably either dealing with just a one-level table or the top-level table, so you would be interested in the firstObject of the textBlocks array. After verifying that it's an NSTextTableBlock, you'd check its table, startingRow, rowSpan, startingColumn, and columnSpan to determine which cell it's a part of. If you're interested in the entire contents of the first cell, you'll need to accumulate the ranges that are part of it, since they won't necessarily all be part of a single range as enumerated. Regards, Ken ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
Re: Deconstructing Text Tables
Keary, Thanks for responding. :-) Your answer is what I was afraid of… If “index” only applies to characters, and therefore index 0 is the position of the first visible character in the TextView’s NSAttributedString, I could iterate through, finding the range of each cell’s characters, then jumping to the next index after that and asking again. That should work, but what the heck would I pass as the textBlock pointer? Since a text block is exactly what I’m trying to find, I don’t have a good pointer to start with, do I? — Charles Jenkins On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 12:50, Keary Suska wrote: > On Nov 18, 2014, at 2:38 AM, Charles Jenkins (mailto:cejw...@gmail.com)> wrote: > > > It’s very easy to create an NSAttributedString that represents a text > > table, then show the table in a TextView so the user can edit information > > in the cells. The documentation on how to create a text table > > (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/TextLayout/Articles/TextTables.html) > > is fairly clear. > > > > What I don’t see—and maybe it’s there but I just don’t understand it—is how > > to pull the table apart again. Suppose I want to grab all text from the > > first cell after the user has edited it. How do I do that? > > -rangeOfTextBlock:atIndex: might be your best bet. The hard part is finding > exactly "where" you are interested in. If you are only interested in where a > user has edited, a delegate method may get you there, otherwise, I don't > know. You may need to keep meta-data about constructed tables. > > HTH, > > Keary Suska > Esoteritech, Inc. > > ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
Re: Deconstructing Text Tables
On Nov 18, 2014, at 2:38 AM, Charles Jenkins wrote: > It’s very easy to create an NSAttributedString that represents a text table, > then show the table in a TextView so the user can edit information in the > cells. The documentation on how to create a text table > (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/TextLayout/Articles/TextTables.html) > is fairly clear. > > What I don’t see—and maybe it’s there but I just don’t understand it—is how > to pull the table apart again. Suppose I want to grab all text from the first > cell after the user has edited it. How do I do that? -rangeOfTextBlock:atIndex: might be your best bet. The hard part is finding exactly "where" you are interested in. If you are only interested in where a user has edited, a delegate method may get you there, otherwise, I don't know. You may need to keep meta-data about constructed tables. HTH, Keary Suska Esoteritech, Inc. ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
Deconstructing Text Tables
It’s very easy to create an NSAttributedString that represents a text table, then show the table in a TextView so the user can edit information in the cells. The documentation on how to create a text table (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/TextLayout/Articles/TextTables.html) is fairly clear. What I don’t see—and maybe it’s there but I just don’t understand it—is how to pull the table apart again. Suppose I want to grab all text from the first cell after the user has edited it. How do I do that? — Charles Jenkins ___ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
