HtmlToText ActiveX Reference Documentation

HtmlToText

Current Version: 10.1.0

HTML to plain-text conversion component. The internal conversion process is much more sophisticated than can be accomplished with the simple regular-expression freeware codes found in the Internet. This is more than simply removing HTML tags from an HTML document.

Object Creation

Note:
For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use "Chilkat_9_5_0.HtmlToText" instead of "Chilkat.HtmlToText"
For a specific major version, use "Chilkat.HtmlToText.<major_version>", such as "Chilkat.HtmlToText.10" for Chilkat v10.*.*
See Chilkat ActiveX Object Creation

(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat.HtmlToText")

(AutoIt)
$obj = ObjCreate("Chilkat.HtmlToText")

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New HtmlToText

(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat.HtmlToText")

(Delphi)
obj := THtmlToText.Create(Self);

(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat.HtmlToText')

(PowerBuilder)
lole_object = create oleobject
li_rc = lole_object.ConnectToNewObject("Chilkat.HtmlToText")

(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.HtmlToText', @obj OUT

(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat.HtmlToText");

Properties

DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

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:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

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DecodeHtmlEntities
DecodeHtmlEntities As Long

If 1, then HTML entities are automatically decoded. For example &amp; is automatically decoded to &. If this property is set to 0, then HTML entities are not decoded. The default value is 1.

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LastBinaryResult
LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

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).

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

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.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (read-only)

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.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

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.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Long

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.

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LastStringResult
LastStringResult As String (read-only)

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).

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LastStringResultLen
LastStringResultLen As Long (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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RightMargin
RightMargin As Long

Used to control wrapping of text. The default value is 80. When the text gets close to this margin, the converter will try to break the line at a SPACE character. Set this property to 0 for no right margin.

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SuppressLinks
SuppressLinks As Long

If 0, then link URL's are preserved inline. For example, the following HTML fragment:

<p><p>Test <a href="https://www.chilkatsoft.com/">chilkat</a></p>
converts to:
Test chilkat <https://www.chilkatsoft.com/>
If this property is 1, the above HTML would convert to:
Test chilkat
The default value of this property is 1.

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Long

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.

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Version
Version As String (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

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Methods

ReadFileToString
ReadFileToString(filename As String, srcCharset As String) As String

Convenience method for reading a text file into a string. The character encoding of the text file is specified by srcCharset. Valid values, such as "iso-8895-1" or "utf-8" are listed at: List of Charsets.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ToText
ToText(html As String) As String

Converts HTML to plain-text.

Returns Nothing on failure

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ToTextSb
ToTextSb(sb As ChilkatStringBuilder) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.97

Converts the HTML in sb to plain-text.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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WriteStringToFile
WriteStringToFile(stringToWrite As String, filename As String, charset As String) As Long

Convenience method for saving a string to a file. The character encoding of the output text file is specified by charset (the string is converted to this charset when writing). Valid values, such as "iso-8895-1" or "utf-8" are listed at: List of Charsets.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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