HtmlToText C Reference Documentation

HtmlToText

Current Version: 10.1.2

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.

Create/Dispose

HCkHtmlToText instance = CkHtmlToText_Create();
// ...
CkHtmlToText_Dispose(instance);
HCkHtmlToText CkHtmlToText_Create(void);

Creates an instance of the HCkHtmlToText object and returns a handle ("void *" pointer). The handle is passed in the 1st argument for the functions listed on this page.

void CkHtmlToText_Dispose(HCkHtmlToText handle);

Objects created by calling CkHtmlToText_Create must be freed by calling this method. A memory leak occurs if a handle is not disposed by calling this function. Also, any handle returned by a Chilkat "C" function must also be freed by the application by calling the appropriate Dispose method, such as CkHtmlToText_Dispose.

Properties

DebugLogFilePath
void CkHtmlToText_getDebugLogFilePath(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, HCkString retval);
void CkHtmlToText_putDebugLogFilePath(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, const char *newVal);
const char *CkHtmlToText_debugLogFilePath(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

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DecodeHtmlEntities
BOOL CkHtmlToText_getDecodeHtmlEntities(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);
void CkHtmlToText_putDecodeHtmlEntities(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If TRUE, then HTML entities are automatically decoded. For example & is automatically decoded to &. If this property is set to FALSE, then HTML entities are not decoded. The default value is TRUE.

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LastErrorHtml
void CkHtmlToText_getLastErrorHtml(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkHtmlToText_lastErrorHtml(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
void CkHtmlToText_getLastErrorText(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkHtmlToText_lastErrorText(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
void CkHtmlToText_getLastErrorXml(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkHtmlToText_lastErrorXml(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
BOOL CkHtmlToText_getLastMethodSuccess(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);
void CkHtmlToText_putLastMethodSuccess(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, BOOL newVal);

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: TRUE means success, FALSE means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages.

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RightMargin
int CkHtmlToText_getRightMargin(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);
void CkHtmlToText_putRightMargin(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, int newVal);

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
BOOL CkHtmlToText_getSuppressLinks(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);
void CkHtmlToText_putSuppressLinks(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If FALSE, 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 TRUE, the above HTML would convert to:
Test chilkat
The default value of this property is TRUE.

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Utf8
BOOL CkHtmlToText_getUtf8(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);
void CkHtmlToText_putUtf8(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, BOOL newVal);

When set to TRUE, all "const char *" arguments are interpreted as utf-8 strings. If set to FALSE (the default), then "const char *" arguments are interpreted as ANSI strings. Also, when set to TRUE, and Chilkat method returning a "const char *" is returning the utf-8 representation. If set to FALSE, all "const char *" return values are ANSI strings.

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VerboseLogging
BOOL CkHtmlToText_getVerboseLogging(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);
void CkHtmlToText_putVerboseLogging(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, BOOL newVal);

If set to TRUE, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is FALSE. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
void CkHtmlToText_getVersion(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, HCkString retval);
const char *CkHtmlToText_version(HCkHtmlToText cHandle);

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

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Methods

ReadFileToString
BOOL CkHtmlToText_ReadFileToString(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, const char *filename, const char *srcCharset, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkHtmlToText_readFileToString(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, const char *filename, const char *srcCharset);

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 TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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ToText
BOOL CkHtmlToText_ToText(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, const char *html, HCkString outStr);
const char *CkHtmlToText_toText(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, const char *html);

Converts HTML to plain-text.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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ToTextSb
BOOL CkHtmlToText_ToTextSb(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, HCkStringBuilder sb);
Introduced in version 9.5.0.97

Converts the HTML in sb to plain-text.

Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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WriteStringToFile
BOOL CkHtmlToText_WriteStringToFile(HCkHtmlToText cHandle, const char *stringToWrite, const char *filename, const char *charset);

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 TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.

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