Detecting a URL in a RichTextBox (Resolved)

[Jacque]

Here is my code:

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpoperation _ As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _ 
"SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long

Private Const SW_MINIMIZE = 6
Private Const SW_MAXIMIZE = 3
Private Const SW_RESTORE = 9
Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Private Const WM_USER = &H400
Private Const EM_AUTOURLDETECT = (WM_USER + 91)

Public Sub DetectURL(p_RichText As Object, p_blnDetect As Boolean)
    Dim lngRet As Long
    Dim strText As String
    
    With p_RichText
        ' this line is needed because the function will not update the
        ' url if you had it before
        strText = .Text
        ' send message to detect urls
        ' notice the Abs function. This is needed to pass 0 or 1
        ' in VB true is -1, so we have to get the absolute value of that
        lngRet = SendMessage(RichTextBox1.hWnd, EM_AUTOURLDETECT, Abs(p_blnDetect), ByVal 0)
        ' rewrite the text into the RichText so it will change all URLs if you
        'had them before
        .Text = strText
    End With
End Sub

Private Sub RichTextBox1_Change()
    DetectURL RichTextBox1, True
    RichTextBox1.SelStart = Len(RichTextBox1.Text)
End Sub

Private Sub RichTextBox1_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, x As Single, y As Single)
    End Sub

First the user can type text and somewhere in that text they can have a url. My code makes it look like it is a hyperlink.

Now all that I need is to figure out how to find when the mouse is over this link and when the user selects it then execute that URL. How do I do this?

[Shawn N]

Roughly what you're looking for.

Private Const WM_USER As Long = &H400
Private Const EM_AUTOURLDETECT As Long = (WM_USER + 91)
Private Const EM_GETSEL As Long = &HB0
 
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
     ByVal hwnd As Long, _
     ByVal wMsg As Long, _
     ByVal wParam As Long, _
     lParam As Any) As Long
 
Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" ( _
     ByVal hwnd As Long, _
     ByVal lpOperation As String, _
     ByVal lpFile As String, _
     ByVal lpParameters As String, _
     ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
     ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
 
 
Option Explicit
 
Private Sub DetectURL(p_RichText As Object, p_blnDetect As Boolean)
    Dim lngRet As Long
    Dim strText As String
    
    With p_RichText
        ' this line is needed because the function will not update the
        ' url if you had it before
        strText = .Text
        ' send message to detect urls
        ' notice the Abs function. This is needed to pass 0 or 1
        ' in VB true is -1, so we have to get the absolute value of that
        lngRet = SendMessage(RichTextBox1.hwnd, EM_AUTOURLDETECT, Abs(p_blnDetect), ByVal 0)
        ' rewrite the text into the RichText so it will change all URLs if you
        'had them before
        .Text = strText
    End With
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
 
    RichTextBox1.Text = "The URL to click is [url]http://www.something.com.[/url]  Please click it."
    
End Sub
 
Private Sub RichTextBox1_Change()
    DetectURL RichTextBox1, True
    RichTextBox1.SelStart = Len(RichTextBox1.Text)
End Sub
 
 
Private Sub RichTextBox1_Click()
 
    Dim lngRetVal As Long
    
    lngRetVal = SendMessage(RichTextBox1.hwnd, EM_GETSEL, 0, 0)
    
    Dim strBuffer As String, intInStr As Integer, intHi As Integer, intLo As Integer
    
    intHi = HiWord(lngRetVal) + 1
    intLo = LoWord(lngRetVal) + 1
    
    intInStr = InStrRev(RichTextBox1.Text, " ", intLo)
    
    If intInStr = 0 Then 'no space
        strBuffer = Mid(RichTextBox1.Text, 1, intLo)
    Else
        strBuffer = Mid(RichTextBox1.Text, intInStr + 1)
    End If
    
    strBuffer = Trim(strBuffer)
    intInStr = InStr(1, strBuffer, " ")
    
    If intInStr <> 0 Then
        strBuffer = Mid(strBuffer, 1, intInStr - 1)
    End If
    
    If InStr(1, strBuffer, "http:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "file:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "mailto:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "ftp:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "https:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "gopher:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "nntp:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "prospero:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "telnet:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "news:") = 0 And _
        InStr(1, strBuffer, "wais:") = 0 Then Exit Sub
        
    Debug.Print strBuffer
    
    'Call ShellExecute(Me.hwnd, "OPEN", strBuffer, vbNullString, vbNullString, 5)
    
End Sub
 
Private Function LoWord(ByVal DWord As Long) As Long
  If DWord And &H8000& Then
    LoWord = DWord Or &HFFFF0000
  Else
    LoWord = DWord And &HFFFF&
  End If
End Function
 
Private Function HiWord(ByVal DWord As Long) As Long
  HiWord = (DWord And &HFFFF0000) \ &H10000
End Function

[Ed_Farias]

I know this is resolved, but I have a question about the above code, and thought I might as well post here. Hopefully someone will look .

I making a chat type program. So I am wanting to add the functionality for hyperlinks to show up. Just like the above code does. The only problem is this.

I created a new program with just above code to do some testing. The initial text added to RichTextBox1 at runtime works fine. But when ever I add text to the text box it does not work correctly anymore. Is there an easy fix for this?

Example. If I clear all the text and type in a URL it only prints out up to the point where I clicked. So if I type http://www.google.com and click on the O, debug.print shows http://www.goo

Also, if I add a return or new lines then it seems to add the returns into the debug.print.