Problems formatting HTML

[hugoqribeiro]

Hi.

I have the following code to format a string containing HTML:

Dictionary<string, object> parameters = new Dictionary<string, object>()
{
    ["IDSBrand"] = "MyBrand",
    ["IDSColor1"] = "MyColor",
    ["IDSSalutation"] = "MySalutation",
    ["IDSBody"] = "MyBody",
    ["IDSActionLink"] = "MyActionLink",
    ["IDSAction"] = "MyAction",
    ["IDSTimestampDescription"] = "MyTimestampDescription",
    ["IDSCopyrightDescription"] = "MyCopyrightDescription",
    ["NSTimestampEN"] = "MyTimestamp"
};

string inputFile = File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "Files\\InputHtml.txt"));

SmartFormatter formatter = Smart.CreateDefaultSmartFormat();
formatter.Settings.CaseSensitivity = CaseSensitivityType.CaseInsensitive;
formatter.Settings.ParseErrorAction = ErrorAction.MaintainTokens;
formatter.Settings.FormatErrorAction = ErrorAction.MaintainTokens;
formatter.Settings.ConvertCharacterStringLiterals = false;

string outputFile = formatter.Format(inputFile, parameters);

File.WriteAllText(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, "Files\\OutputHtml262.txt"), outputFile);

If I run this with version 2.6.2 the formatter does nothing (no replacements).

If I run this with version 2.5.2 the formatter works more or less correctly (does the replacements but it introduces some errors in the HTML).

This is visible with the following files:

InputHtml.txt - the input HTML
OutputHtml262.txt - the output produced with 2.6.2
OutputHtml252.txt - the output produced with 2.5.2
OutputHtml.txt - the expected output

Comparing 2.6.2 with the expected output... no replacements at all.
Comparing 2.5.2 with the expected output... replacements OK but errors in HTML (e.g. line 68, col 9).

Is this a bug? Something that I need to change in the upgrade from 2.5.2 to 2.6.2?

[axunonb]

Parsing HTML works fine, except - like in your case - when it includes CSS styles and JavaScript. Both have curly braces in their syntax, which Smart.Format interprets as { placeholders }. This did not work with any Smart.Format version.
You can do the following:

1. Replace the CSS style section of your HTML with a placeholder for Smart.Format (e.g. { CssPlaceholder }) and fill it with the content of a variable.
2. Load the CSS styles and JavaScripts from separate files (most simple)
3. Use AngleSharp to exclude style and script tags (e.g. only work with Smart.Format on the body tag)

[hugoqribeiro]

The HTML is user input, including the variables to replace. It makes it hard to implement your suggestions. :)

Did you see the difference between version 2.5.2 and 2.6.2?
One would expect at least the same behavior, given that I'm using MaintainTokens.

[axunonb]

If it is all user input, it takes only few lines of code to solve with AngleSharp:

using AngleSharp;
using AngleSharp.Html.Dom;
using AngleSharp.Html.Parser;
// Create a new parser front-end (can be re-used)
var parser = new HtmlParser();
// Get the DOM representation
IHtmlDocument htmlDocument = parser.ParseDocument(yourUserHtmlInput);
htmlDocument.Body.InnerHtml = Smart.Format(htmlDocument.Body.InnerHtml, yourDataItems);
// This gets the complete HTML as a string
var result = htmlDocument.ToHtml();

Hope this helps.

I did not analyze the differences between versions, because HTML containing CSS styles and/or JavaScript cannot be processed reliably with Smart.Format as per the curly braces both are using.

[hugoqribeiro]

Thank you @axunonb

[axunonb]

Welcome