creating HTML in a windows forms application

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I have a windows forms application which generates a string containing valid HTML. The string is eventually used in an eBay listing. The method I wrote just concatenates hardcoded strings and the incoming string variables. It works fine but is inflexible (what if I have two pictures?), inelegant, and ugly. There must be a better way to create HTML than just a couple of strings and a sledgehammer.

I've spent the afternoon Googling. I've looked at XDocument, HtmlDocument, DOM, StringBuilder, HtmlTextWriter, and probably more.

HtmlTextWriter seemed promising, but it is part of ASP.Net and I can't figure out how to get to it from a windows forms app. And, I suspect if it is that hard to get to it might not be the right solution. Should I just use StringBuilder?

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks much.

C#

public static string MakeListingDescription(string title,string description,string pictureLocation1)
   {
       string doc = (
     "
    .
    .
    .
  a mess of html
    .
    .
"
 + description +
"
     .
     .
   a mess of html 
     .
     .
"
+ pictureLocation1 +
 "
      .
      .
   more html
      .
      .
"
 + title + 
"
      .
      .
 last of the html
      .
      .
" 
      return doc;
   }

Posted 3-Oct-10 15:41pm

Dell.Simmons

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Ibrahim Yusuf · Answer 1 · 2010-10-03T15:59:00

Solution 1

I got an idea - seems silly but simple and may help. Why don't include your HTML file into your project, put a WebBrowser control on your windows form, and then open it? :-D

Posted 3-Oct-10 15:59pm

Ibrahim Yusuf

Comments

Dell.Simmons 3-Oct-10 22:04pm

Not too silly, I hope - that's one of the solutions I thought about this afternoon. I'll think about it some more. Thanks. Other ideas anyone?

aidin Tajadod · Answer 2 · 2010-10-03T18:13:00

Hi,

what do you want exactly?
if you want to make a dynamic HTML page you can have a HTML file with the TOKENS as value. read the HTML file in you WinApp and replace all tokens with your data.
some thing like this:

MSIL

<HTML>
<body>
  <table>
  <tr>
   <td>FirstName:</td>
   <td>@TOKEN_FirstName@</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td>LastName:</td>
   <td>@Token_LastName@</td>
  </tr>
 </table>

Now you can replace the tokens in your WinApp and saveitin a new file.
(Replacing strings can take resources. so this way might have performance problem. even if you use StringBuilder)

hope this can help.