HtmlTextBox and spaces

[NiccoMlt]

Hi,

how should I transform data from my DataSource to show spaces correctly in HtmlTextBox?

The HTML renderer ignores repeated spaces (as I expeceted), so I thought about replacing space character " " with the non-breaking space HTML entity " ".

It is actually feasible with HtmlTextBoxes with a constant content, but the space collapse is also applied on strings from DataSource, and this behavior is not acceptable, as those spaces are meaningful.

Is there a way to transform values from DataSource? I tried to wrap Fields references with the Replace() expression, trying to replace spaces with related HTML entity, but it does not work.

I paste a TRDX with embedded JSON data source down here:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Report DataSourceName="jsonDataSource1" Width="17cm" Name="Try not to collapse spaces" SnapGridSize="0.1cm" xmlns="http://schemas.telerik.com/reporting/2021/1.0">
  <DataSources>
    <JsonDataSource Name="jsonDataSource1">
      <Source>
        <String>ew0KICAiZm9vIjogInRoZSBzcGFjZXMgIGluc2lkZSAgIHRoaXMgICAgc3RyaW5nICAgICBzaG91bGQgbm90IGJlIGNvbGxhcHNlZCINCn0=</String>
      </Source>
    </JsonDataSource>
  </DataSources>
  <Items>
    <DetailSection Height="7cm" Name="detailSection1">
      <Items>
        <HtmlTextBox Width="16cm" Height="1cm" Left="0.5cm" Top="1.7cm" Value="HTMLTextBox with Field: {Fields.foo}" Name="htmlTextBox1" />
        <HtmlTextBox Width="16cm" Height="1cm" Left="0.5cm" Top="6cm" Value="These&nbsp;spaces&nbsp;&nbsp;should&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;not&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;be dropped" Name="htmlTextBox2" />
        <HtmlTextBox Width="16cm" Height="1cm" Left="0.5cm" Top="3.4cm" Value="HTMLTextBox with Field: {Replace(Fields.foo, " ", " ")}" Name="htmlTextBox3" />
        <HtmlTextBox Width="16cm" Height="1cm" Left="0.5cm" Top="4.6cm" Value="HTMLTextBox with Field: {HtmlEncode(Fields.foo)}" Name="htmlTextBox4" />
        <TextBox Width="16cm" Height="0.9cm" Left="0.5cm" Top="0.3cm" Value="Standard TextBox with Field: {Fields.foo}" Name="textBox1" />
      </Items>
    </DetailSection>
  </Items>
  <PageSettings PaperKind="A4" Landscape="False">
    <Margins>
      <MarginsU Left="2cm" Right="2cm" Top="2cm" Bottom="2cm" />
    </Margins>
  </PageSettings>
  <StyleSheet>
    <StyleRule>
      <Style>
        <Padding Left="2pt" Right="2pt" />
      </Style>
      <Selectors>
        <TypeSelector Type="TextItemBase" />
        <TypeSelector Type="HtmlTextBox" />
      </Selectors>
    </StyleRule>
  </StyleSheet>
</Report>

 

What do you think I'm doing wrong?

[Todor]

Hi NiccoMlt,

I confirm the observed behavior. Note that to overcome it, you may use the following Expression in 'Html view' of the HtmlTextBox editor:

=Replace(Fields.foo, " ", " ")

Here is a link to a silent video demonstrating the this worked locally.

Regards,
Todor
Progress Telerik

[NiccoMlt]

Hi Todor,

thank you for your answer, but it doesn't solve my problem.

Your solution only works if the content of the HtmlTextBox is the aformentioned expression. If the expression is embedded inside some text it doesn't work.

Try for example setting as value:

Hello, {Replace(Fields.foo, " ", " ")}

[Todor]

Hello NiccoMlt,

You are right that the approach doesn't work with embedded expressions. You may transform any embedded expression into a regular one. For example:

="Hello, " + Replace(Fields.foo, " ", " ")

Regards,
Todor
Progress Telerik

[NiccoMlt]

Oh I understand, thank you.

Do you think this limitation is here to stay or are there any plans to change this behavior in a future version of Telerik Reporting?

I'm implementing an automatic converter from an old technology to Telerik and your solution complicates the implementation noticeably...

[Todor]

Hi NiccoMlt,

I'm afraid it is not in our immediate plans to fix the observed behavior. You may log it in our public feedback portal so that other users to be able to vote and increase its priority.

Regards,
Todor
Progress Telerik