[RESOLVED] Converting the XmlTextReader to plain text

[cary1234]

I'm new to the ticker stuff and specifically to the xml reader functions of .NET, I've got a flicker-free news ticker from this website, and it is working fine.

Now, I want to convert the XmlTextReader to a plain text reader so I can this news ticker to my project. Eventually I will store the news ticker text to database so I guess the first that I need to work out is how to convert that code.

Here's the XmlTextReader function

Private Sub loadthenews()
        Dim readXML As New XmlTextReader(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory & "\news.xml")
        While readXML.Read()
            If readXML.NodeType = XmlNodeType.Text Then
                str += " " & readXML.Value

            End If
        End While
    End Sub

I want to convert it to something simple like this

Private Sub loadthenews()
        Dim news As String = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
        'Read the news variable letter by letter so I can ticker it.
    End Sub

and heres the complete code for the flicker-free news ticker if that matters

Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO

Public Class Form1
    Dim txtTicker As String = "NTB er verdens beste sted å jobbe!"
    Dim widthX As Single
    Dim heightY As Single = 0
    Dim g As Graphics
    Dim xmlst As String 'string from the xml file
    Dim fo As Font
    Dim str As String
    Dim strwidth As SizeF 'gets the xml string's width and height
    Dim douX As Double 'stores the xmlstring's width

    Private Sub Form1_Paint(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles Me.Paint
        'Debug.Write(vbCr & strwidth.Width & vbCr)
        'Debug.Write(String.Format("widthX = {0}", CStr(widthX) &         vbCr))
        ' Debug.Write("Dette er str: " & str)
        SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint Or
ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer Or
ControlStyles.UserPaint, True)

        e.Graphics.Clear(Me.BackColor)
        e.Graphics.DrawString(str, fo, Brushes.Black, widthX, heightY)
        e.Graphics.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias
        ' e.Graphics.SmoothingMode =         Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.HighQuality
        e.Graphics.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.HighSpeed


        ' Debug.Write(String.Format("the string width is {0}",         CStr(strwidth.Width)))

        If widthX <= (0 - douX) Then
            widthX = Me.Width
        Else
            widthX -= 1
        End If

        e.Dispose()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Me.Width = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width
        Me.Location = New Point(0, 20)
        Me.MaximumSize = New Point(Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width, 150)
        Me.Height = 150
        Me.MaximizeBox = False
        Me.MinimizeBox = False
        Me.Text = ""
        Me.Icon = Nothing

        g = Me.CreateGraphics() 'get the graphics object of the form
        widthX = Me.Width ' x co- ordinate or width
        ' Debug.Write(String.Format("The width is {0}",
        'CStr(Me.Width)))
        Me.loadthenews()
        ' Dim gr As Graphics
        Timer1.Interval = 1
        Timer1.Start()

        fo = New Font("SEGOE UI", 16, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Point)
        strwidth = g.MeasureString(str, fo)
        douX = strwidth.Width
    End Sub

    Private Sub loadthenews()
        Dim readXML As New XmlTextReader(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory & "\news.xml")
        While readXML.Read()
            If readXML.NodeType = XmlNodeType.Text Then
                str += " " & readXML.Value

            End If
        End While
    End Sub

    Private Sub tickerTypeWriter()
        Dim a

        Dim lblTicker As New Label
        Me.Controls.Add(lblTicker)



        For a = 1 To txtTicker.Length
            lblTicker.Text = txtTicker.Substring(0, a) & "_"
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
            lblTicker.Update()
        Next
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
        Me.Refresh()
    End Sub
End Class

[jmcilhinney]

I want to convert the XmlTextReader to a plain text reader

I'm not 100% sure what that means but if you want to read text from a Stream, e.g. FileStream or NetworkStream, then you can use a StreamReader. StreamReader inherits TextReader but XmlTextReader, despite the name, does not.

[cary1234]

I'm not 100% sure what that means but if you want to read text from a Stream, e.g. FileStream or NetworkStream, then you can use a StreamReader. StreamReader inherits TextReader but XmlTextReader, despite the name, does not.

Oh, sorry. What I mean is instead of depending on the xml file type I want that reader to depend on the string variable.

Instead of this code

Private Sub loadthenews()
        Dim readXML As New XmlTextReader(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory & "\news.xml")
        While readXML.Read()
            If readXML.NodeType = XmlNodeType.Text Then
                str += " " & readXML.Value

            End If
        End While
    End Sub

I want to change it to something like this

Private Sub loadthenews()
Dim news As String = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
'Read the news variable letter by letter so I can ticker it.
End Sub

I'm not really sure about the words and terms that I am using. I hope you understand.

[jmcilhinney]

If you need actual TextReader functionality then you could use a StringReader, which works much like a StreamReader but with an existing String as a source. Otherwise, you could just pick out the characters yourself. You can call ToCharrArray on your String to get an array of Char or you can pretty much treat the String as though it's an array already. You can use a For Each loop to enumerate the Chars in a String or use a For loop and get Chars by index.

[Edgemeal]

I want to convert it to something simple like this

Private Sub loadthenews()
        Dim news As String = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
        'Read the news variable letter by letter so I can ticker it.
    End Sub

It seems the paint event is drawing the text from the str variable, so just set that variable,

    Private Sub loadthenews()
        str = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
    End Sub

[cary1234]

Oh! I didn't realize that. Thank you so much, that really solves the problem.

[Edgemeal]

Oh! I didn't realize that. Thank you so much, that really solves the problem.

This should basically do the same thing,

Public Class Form1
    Private fo As Font = New Font("SEGOE UI", 16, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Point)
    Private scrollLeftPos As Integer ' keep track of text left start position.
    Private scrollText As String = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"  ' text to scroll

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.DoubleBuffered = True
        scrollLeftPos = Me.ClientSize.Width ' set scrolling start position to far right
        Timer1.Interval = 1  ' timer to scroll text
        Timer1.Start()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
        Me.Invalidate() ' update/draw text
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Paint(sender As Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles Me.Paint
        Dim textformatflag As TextFormatFlags = TextFormatFlags.Top
        TextRenderer.DrawText(e.Graphics, scrollText, fo, New Rectangle(scrollLeftPos, 0, Me.ClientSize.Width - scrollLeftPos, Me.ClientSize.Height), Color.Blue, textformatflag)
        scrollLeftPos -= 1
        If scrollLeftPos > Me.ClientSize.Width OrElse scrollLeftPos < (-(TextRenderer.MeasureText(e.Graphics, scrollText, fo, New Size(Integer.MaxValue, Integer.MaxValue), textformatflag)).Width) Then
            scrollLeftPos = Me.ClientSize.Width
        End If
    End Sub

End Class

[cary1234]

Thank you so much EdgeMeal, it's working great but with less code. The final thing that I want to do now is to apply that ticker message inside the textbox text property.

I've tried changing every `clientSize` to `TextBox1` but I realize that the Form1_Paint is the one that is responsible for painting the text inside the form itself.

Public Class Form1

    Private fo As Font = New Font("SEGOE UI", 16, FontStyle.Regular, GraphicsUnit.Point)
    Private scrollLeftPos As Integer ' keep track of text left start position.
    Private scrollText As String = "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"  ' text to scroll

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.DoubleBuffered = True
        scrollLeftPos = Me.TextBox1.Width ' set scrolling start position to far right
        Timer1.Interval = 1  ' timer to scroll text
        Timer1.Start()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
        Me.Invalidate() ' update/draw text
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Paint(sender As Object, e As System.Windows.Forms.PaintEventArgs) Handles Me.Paint
        Dim textformatflag As TextFormatFlags = TextFormatFlags.Top
        TextRenderer.DrawText(e.Graphics, scrollText, fo, New Rectangle(scrollLeftPos, 0, Me.TextBox1.Width - scrollLeftPos, Me.TextBox1.Height), Color.Blue, textformatflag)
        scrollLeftPos -= 1
        If scrollLeftPos > Me.TextBox1.Width OrElse scrollLeftPos < (-(TextRenderer.MeasureText(e.Graphics, scrollText, fo, New Size(Integer.MaxValue, Integer.MaxValue), textformatflag)).Width) Then
            scrollLeftPos = Me.TextBox1.Width
        End If
    End Sub

End Class

[cary1234]

I've tried changing some of the codes again and it seems that adapting it to textbox1 text property is hard and will affect everything.

[Edgemeal]

I've tried changing some of the codes again and it seems that adapting it to textbox1 text property is hard and will affect everything.

Not sure a textbox would be the best control but I posted similar example but using a picbox in post #8 here.

Some other scrolling text examples here.

[cary1234]

Thank you so much Edgemeal for your assistance!