Adding Emoticons to a RichEdit

If you already have a method that works when the richedit isn't read only, then why not simply use MyRichEdit.ReadOnly := False; before using your code then MyRichEdit.ReadOnly := True; after using it.

Thx for the reply and I should have made this more clear in my original post  but I don't have any methods at all. What I should have said is I read an article saying it would be possible but have never seen the code to actually try it out.

So to repharase my question what I am looking for is some code that will....

A.) Replace specific strings in a RichEdit control with images as the user is typing into it and ...

B.) Have those same strings automatically converted if a user loads text into it using the Richedit.Lines.LoadFromFile function.

Again I just want to say I currently DO NOT have a method to accomplish either of these task but I hope one of you might have already done this and would be willing to share your code with the rest of us.

Thx again for all replies in advance.

Ok in the JVCL examples folder I found a small messagner type app which had a procedure called AddImageToRichEdit which takes an image from an imagelist and insterts it into the RichEdit control which is want I am wanting to do BUT I can only get it to work when I press a button or something so my question now is    there anyway to incoporate the code below into a custom StringReplace procedure so that it will add the image to the richedit when the user is typing into it .

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Begin Code
----------------------------------------------------------------------

procedure TForm1.AddImageToRichEdit(const AImageIndex: Integer);
var
  Bitmap: TBitmap;
begin
  Bitmap := TBitmap.Create;
  try
    ImageList1.GetBitmap(AImageIndex, Bitmap);
    JvRichEdit1.InsertBitmap(Bitmap, False);

    { Move cursor }
    with JvRichEdit1.GetSelection do
      JvRichEdit1.SetSelection(cpMin + 1, cpMin + 1, False);
  finally
    Bitmap.Free;
  end;
end;

------------------------------------------------------------------
 End Code
------------------------------------------------------------------

Thx again for your replies.

procedure TForm1.JvRichEdit1Change(Sender: TObject);
var
  p: Integer;
begin
  p := Pos(':)', JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text);
  while p > 0 do
  begin
    JvRichEdit1.SelStart := p - (JvRichEdit1.LineFromChar(p) + 1);
    JvRichEdit1.SelLength := 2;
    AddImageToRichEdit(0);
    p := Pos(':)', JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text);
  end;
end;

Thx for the reply again but I noticed a couple of things.

1. The code works fine as long as you are on the first line of the richedit control but once you go to the 2nd line you are left with the ":" character before the image so not sure why it's doing that and ...

2. This works for one image but what if I have more then one image ? (example plz)

Thx Again.

I'm not sure about the lines problem yet, but this should let you handle multiple images easier.

procedure TForm1.JvRichEdit1Change(Sender: TObject);

  procedure HandleImage(Str: String; Index: Integer);
  var
    p: Integer;
  begin
    p := Pos(Str, JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text);
    while p > 0 do
    begin
      JvRichEdit1.SelStart := p - 1;
      JvRichEdit1.SelLength := Length(Str);
      AddImageToRichEdit(Index);
      p := Pos(Str, JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text);
    end;
  end;

begin
  // Use this as many times as you need
  HandleImage(':)', 0);
  HandleImage(':(', 1);
end;

OK change the HandleImage procedure above to this and it will work on multiple lines:

  procedure HandleImage(Str: String; Index: Integer);
  var
    p: Integer;
  begin
    p := Pos(Str, JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text);
    while p > 0 do
    begin
      JvRichEdit1.SelStart := p - JvRichEdit1.CaretPos.Y - 1;
      JvRichEdit1.SelLength := Length(Str);
      AddImageToRichEdit(Index);
      p := Pos(Str, JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text);
    end;
  end;

Thx again but there still seems to be some problems.

Set the richedit controls width to 544 and put 2 buttons on the form and put the code below in each of the buttons OnClick events to see the result.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Code for button 1
------------------------------------------------------------------
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
JvRichEdit1.Clear;
JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text := 'This is a typical richedit control with a twist. You can insert images in place of some text such as this :) but as you can see if the text is on the 2nd line or below then we encounter some problems so how can we fix it.';
end;

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Code for button 2
---------------------------------------------------------------------
procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
JvRichEdit1.Clear;
JvRichEdit1.Lines.Text := 'Another example to show how it works now. Here is the :) again and look at the result this time.';
end;

OK its a little more complicatied than I first thought but the replace the HandleImage procedure with the below and it seems to work fine:

  procedure HandleImage(Str: String; Index: Integer);
  var
    p, l, i, start: Integer;
  begin
    for l := 0 to JvRichEdit1.Lines.Count - 1 do
    begin
      p := Pos(Str, JvRichEdit1.Lines[l]);
      while p > 0 do
      begin
        start := p + l - 1;

        for i := 0 to l-1 do
          start := start + Length(JvRichEdit1.Lines[i]);

        JvRichEdit1.SelStart := start;
        JvRichEdit1.SelLength := Length(Str);
        AddImageToRichEdit(Index);
        p := Pos(Str, JvRichEdit1.Lines[l]);
      end;
    end;
  end;

Sorry to keep saying this but it's still not working. Set the richedit  width and height like it is below and then type or copy & paste the text below into the richedit and see what  happens.

RichEdit Width = 433
RichEdit Height = 193

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Type or copy and paste this in the richedit control
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is yet another example to show the problem we are having with the inserted images and the line wrapping problem. If the image is inserted on the first line then it seems to work fine but if once the text wraps around to the second line or above we start to have problems like this. Type the :) character and see what happens.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Something I did notice is that in the AddImageToRichEdit  procedure there is some code that moves the cursor after the image is added which might be conflicting with the code your using Im not sure but here is the line from the procedure just incase.

    { Move cursor }
    with JvRichEdit1.GetSelection do
      JvRichEdit1.SetSelection(cpMin + 1, cpMin + 1, False);

Once again thx for your replies in advance.

Not sure if you have given up on the question or if your busy but Im still looking for some help on this one so if ANYONE wants to try and take a stab at it plz do.

To paulb1989

Well I found a way to do both of the things I need to do (it's dirty  but it works)

For the "as you type" part I used a FindLastWord function to grab the last word typed into the richedit control and then if it was the same as one of my "keywords"  it would replace the word with the emoticon and delete the word.

For the "automatic loading" part  I just used the saveToFile / LoadFromFile functions which works fine.

Since I came up with this solution on my own I am going to ask the moderators to delete this question but I will start another question and award you 200 points for your effort.

Thx Again.
Blue220