TChilkatCharset Delphi ActiveX Reference Documentation
TChilkatCharset
Current Version: 10.0.0
A component/class for converting character data from one encoding to another. This software is unique in that the data required for converting to/from the supported charsets is entirely embedded witin the Chilkat DLL/library. It does not depend on what code pages may or may not be installed on a particular computer. This allows programs to operate correctly regardless of the locale, OS version, or other factors.
Importing the Chilkat ActiveX into Delphi
Important: When upgrading to a new version of Chilkat, make sure to re-imported ActiveX DLL into Delphi to regenerate the files described below.
Chilkat v9.5.*: If using Chilkat v9.5.*, then use "Chilkat_v9_5_0_TLB" instead of "Chilkat_TLB", and the DLLs are named ChilkatAx-9.5.0-win32.dll (or ChilkatAx-9.5.0-x64.dll).
Two things are required to use an ActiveX in Delphi:
- The ActiveX DLL needs to be registered via regsvr32 on the system where the Delphi application runs. See How To Register ActiveX DLLs for detailed information.
- See also: ActiveX Registration Tutorial
- The ActiveX component needs to be "imported". Use the Delphi Import Component Wizard to import the Chilkat type library. This creates the following files: Chilkat_TLB.pas and Chilkat_TLB.dcr. The Chilkat_TLB.pas should be added to your project.
To import the Chilkat type library, do the following:
- In the Delphi RAD Studio, select the menu item "Component" --> "Import a Type Library".
- Find "Chilkat ActiveX" in the list and select it. This will only appear in the list if the ChilkatAx-win32.dll (or ChilkatAx-x64.dll) has been registered w/ regsvr32.
- Check the "Generate Component Wrappers" checkbox.
- Select a directory where the unit files (.pas and .dcr) should be generated.
- Select "Create Unit" and then "Finish".
- Add the .pas to your Delphi project.
To use a Chilkat ActiveX object in your Delphi code, add "Chilkat_TLB" to the "uses" statement. For example:
uses Winapi.Windows, Winapi.Messages, System.SysUtils, System.Variants, System.Classes, Vcl.Graphics, Vcl.Controls, Vcl.Forms, Vcl.Dialogs, Vcl.StdCtrls, Chilkat_TLB;
Object Creation
var obj: TChilkatCharset; ... begin obj := TChilkatCharset.Create(Self); ... // When finished, free the object instance. obj.Free();
Properties
AltToCharset
If the ErrorAction property is set to 6, then this property controls how errors are handled. It specifies an alternate "To" charset. When a character in the input data cannot be converted to the target charset, an attempt is made to convert it to the AltToCharset. If that fails, the input character is dropped.
topDebugLogFilePath
If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.
This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:
- a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
- the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
- there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.
ErrorAction
Controls how errors are handled. When a character in the input data cannot be converted to the target charset, the action taken is controlled by this property. The possible settings are: (0) drop the error characters, (1) substitute the data set by the SetErrorBytes or SetErrorString method, (2) convert to a hex-escaped string (&#xXXXX), (3) RESERVED, (4) RESERVED, (5) RESERVED, (6) convert the error character to the AltToCharset instead, if that fails then drop the character, (7) Pass non-convertible characters to the output unchanged.
topFromCharset
Tells the charset converter the charset of the input data for a conversion. Possible values are:
<font size="2" face="MS Sans Serif"> us-ascii unicode (also known as UTF16LE or simply UTF16) unicodefffe (also known as UTF16BE) ebcdic iso-8859-1 iso-8859-2 iso-8859-3 iso-8859-4 iso-8859-5 iso-8859-6 iso-8859-7 iso-8859-8 iso-8859-9 iso-8859-13 iso-8859-15 windows-874 windows-1250 windows-1251 windows-1252 windows-1253 windows-1254 windows-1255 windows-1256 windows-1257 windows-1258 utf-7 utf-8 utf-32 utf-32be shift_jis gb2312 ks_c_5601-1987 big5 iso-2022-jp iso-2022-kr euc-jp euc-kr macintosh x-mac-japanese x-mac-chinesetrad x-mac-korean x-mac-arabic x-mac-hebrew x-mac-greek x-mac-cyrillic x-mac-chinesesimp x-mac-romanian x-mac-ukrainian x-mac-thai x-mac-ce x-mac-icelandic x-mac-turkish x-mac-croatian asmo-708 dos-720 dos-862 ibm01140 ibm01141 ibm01142 ibm01143 ibm01144 ibm01145 ibm01146 ibm01147 ibm01148 ibm01149 ibm037 ibm437 ibm500 ibm737 ibm775 ibm850 ibm852 ibm855 ibm857 ibm00858 ibm860 ibm861 ibm863 ibm864 ibm865 cp866 ibm869 ibm870 cp875 koi8-r koi8-u </font>top
LastBinaryResult
The binary data returned by the last (binary data returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large varbinary results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting large amounts of data returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for binary properties).
topLastErrorHtml
Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
topLastErrorText
Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
LastErrorXml
Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
topLastInputAsHex
If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last input data in a hexidecimalized string.
topLastInputAsQP
If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last input data in a quoted-printable string.
topLastMethodSuccess
Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of 1 indicates success, a value of 0 indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:
- Any method that returns a string.
- Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
- Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = 1 and failure = 0.
- Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.
Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to 1. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.
topLastOutputAsHex
If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last output data in a hexidecimalized string.
topLastOutputAsQP
If SaveLast is set to true, then the input and output of a conversion is saved to allow the exact bytes that are sent to the converter to be seen (for debugging purposes). This property shows the last output data in a quoted-printable string.
topLastStringResult
The string return value of the last (string returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large string results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting long strings returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for string properties).
LastStringResultLen
The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.
topSaveLast
Tells the component to keep the input/output byte data in memory after a conversion is complete so the data can be examined via the LastInputAsHex/QP and LastOutputAsHex/QP properties. (for debugging purposes)
topToCharset
Tells the charset converter the target charset for a conversion. Possible values are:
<font size="2" face="MS Sans Serif"> us-ascii unicode (also known as UTF16LE or simply UTF16) unicodefffe (also known as UTF16BE) ebcdic iso-8859-1 iso-8859-2 iso-8859-3 iso-8859-4 iso-8859-5 iso-8859-6 iso-8859-7 iso-8859-8 iso-8859-9 iso-8859-13 iso-8859-15 windows-874 windows-1250 windows-1251 windows-1252 windows-1253 windows-1254 windows-1255 windows-1256 windows-1257 windows-1258 utf-7 utf-8 utf-32 utf-32be shift_jis gb2312 ks_c_5601-1987 big5 iso-2022-jp iso-2022-kr euc-jp euc-kr macintosh x-mac-japanese x-mac-chinesetrad x-mac-korean x-mac-arabic x-mac-hebrew x-mac-greek x-mac-cyrillic x-mac-chinesesimp x-mac-romanian x-mac-ukrainian x-mac-thai x-mac-ce x-mac-icelandic x-mac-turkish x-mac-croatian asmo-708 dos-720 dos-862 ibm01140 ibm01141 ibm01142 ibm01143 ibm01144 ibm01145 ibm01146 ibm01147 ibm01148 ibm01149 ibm037 ibm437 ibm500 ibm737 ibm775 ibm850 ibm852 ibm855 ibm857 ibm00858 ibm860 ibm861 ibm863 ibm864 ibm865 cp866 ibm869 ibm870 cp875 koi8-r koi8-u </font>top
VerboseLogging
If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.
topVersion
Methods
CharsetToCodePage
Converts a charset name to a code page number. For example, "iso-8859-1" converts to code page 28591.
topCodePageToCharset
Converts a code page number to a charset name. For example, 65001 converts to "utf-8".
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topConvertData
Converts character data from one charset to another. Before calling ConvertData, the FromCharset and ToCharset properties must be set to the source and destination charset names, such as "iso-8859-1" or "Shift_JIS".
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
ConvertFile
Converts a file from one character encoding to another. The FromCharset and ToCharset properties specify the source and destination character encodings. If the ToCharset is utf-16 or utf-8, then the preamble (also known as BOM) is included in the output. (Call ConvertFileNoPreamble to suppress the output of the BOM.)
Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.
ConvertFileNoPreamble
Converts a file from one character encoding to another. The FromCharset and ToCharset properties specify the source and destination character encodings. No preamble (also known as BOM) is included in the output.
topConvertFromUnicode
Converts Unicode (utf-16) text to the charset specified by the ToCharset property.
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
ConvertFromUtf16
Converts utf-16 text to the charset specified by the ToCharset property.
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
ConvertHtml
Converts HTML text from one character encoding to another. The FromCharset and ToCharset properties must be set prior to calling this method. This method automatically edits the META tag within the HTML that indicates the charset.
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
ConvertHtmlFile
Converts an HTML file from one character encoding to another. The ToCharset properties must be set prior to calling this method. If the FromCharset is not set, it is obtained from the HTML META tag that indicates the charset. This method automatically edits the META tag within the HTML that indicates the charset.
Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.
topConvertToUnicode
Converts multibyte character data to a Unicode string. The FromCharset property should be set before calling this method.
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topConvertToUtf16
Converts the mbData to utf-16 bytes.
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
EntityEncodeDec
Converts non-US-ASCII characters to Unicode decimal entities (&#xxxxx;)
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topEntityEncodeHex
Converts non-US-ASCII characters to Unicode hex entities (&#xXXXX;)
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topGetHtmlCharset
Examines HTML text and extracts the charset name specified by the META tag, if present.
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topGetHtmlFileCharset
Examines an HTML file and extracts the charset name specified by the META tag, if present.
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topHtmlDecodeToStr
HtmlEntityDecode
Decodes HTML entities. See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/entities.html for information on HTML entities. Examples of HTML entities are < , å , å , 水 , Í , etc.
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
HtmlEntityDecodeFile
Decodes HTML entities in a file and creates a new HTML file with the entities decoded. See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/sgml/entities.html for information on HTML entities. Examples of HTML entities are < , å , å , 水 , Í , etc.
Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.
topLowerCase
ReadFile
Convenience method for reading the entire contents of a file into a byte array.
Returns a zero-length byte array (as an OleVariant) on failure.
An empty array will have a VarArrayHighBound of -1 meaning 0 elements.
ReadFileToString
Reads a text file and returns the text converted to a Unicode string. The filename is specified by the first method argument, and the charset of the text data is specified by the 2nd method argument.
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topSetErrorBytes
If the ErrorAction property is set to 1, the bytes passed to this method are used as the result for any characters that cannot be converted during a conversion.
topSetErrorString
If the ErrorAction property is set to 1, the string passed to this method is used as the result for any characters that cannot be converted during a conversion.
topUpperCase
UrlDecodeStr
URL decodes a string.
This method assumes the ANSI byte representation was used for encoding. For example, the letter É, where the ANSI charset is Latin-1, would appear as "%C9" when URL encoded. (As opposed to the utf-8 encoding where É is represented by 2 bytes 0xC3, 0x89 and would appear as "%C3%89" when URl encoded. This method assumes ANSI encoding.
You can use encoding/decoding methods in Chilkat's StringBuilder class to specify the charset from which to decode or encode.
Returns a zero-length WideString on failure
topVerifyData
Returns true if the byte data conforms to the charset passed in the first argument.
topVerifyFile
Returns true if the file contains character data that conforms to the charset passed in the 1st argument.
topWriteFile
Convenience method for saving an entire byte array to a file.
topWriteStringToFile
Converts a Unicode string to a multibyte charset and writes the multibyte text data to a file. The destination charset is specified in the 2nd method argument.
Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.
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