Formatting

In addition to the standard formatters, you can define script formatters. These formatters are displayed as objects in the project script and fire an event that lets you format the text of a field. There are three formatter types: Date, Double, and Text. Depending on the formatter type, a different event is fired.

A visual example of the Script Formatter Event.

Example part 1

Private Sub MyFormatter_FormatField(ByVal FieldText As String, FormattedText As String, ErrDescription As String, ValidFormat As Boolean)

The FieldText parameter is the field text before the formatting is applied. The FormattedText parameter contains the formatted text. Use the ErrorDescription parameter to define a message that is displayed to the user in Validation if there is an issue. Set the ValidFormat flag to indicate the outcome of the script formatting.

Example part 2

Private Sub Formatting_FormatDoubleField(ByVal FieldText As String, FormattedText As String, ErrDescription As String, ValidFormat As Boolean, ByRef DoubleVal As Double, ByRef DoubleFormatted As Boolean)

In addition to the parameters used in example part 1, example part 2 also includes the DateVal parameter. This parameter contains the date value of the field if the date formatting is successful. It also includes the DateFormatted flag that indicates if the DateVal is set.

Examples part 3

Private Sub Formatting_FormatDateField(ByVal FieldText As String, FormattedText As String, ErrDescription As String, ValidFormat As Boolean, ByRef DateVal As Date, ByRef DateFormatted As Boolean)

In addition to the parameters used in example part 1 and part 2, example part 3 also includes the DoubleVal parameter that contains the double value of the field if the date formatting is successful. The DoubleFormatted flag indicates when the DoubleVal parameter is set.

Sometimes, the current locale means that dates require different formatting. You can do this using the following script formatter that calls other defined date formatters in its implementation.

Private Sub RegionalDateFormatter_FormatField(ByVal FieldText As String, _
         FormattedText As String, ErrDescription As String, ValidFormat As Boolean)

   Select Case Application.UILanguage

      Case "en-US"
         ValidFormat = Project.FieldFormatters.ItemByName("USDateFormatter").FormatFieldText( _
                           FieldText, FormattedText, ErrDescription)

      Case Else
         ValidFormat = Project.FieldFormatters.ItemByName("OtherDateFormatter").FormatFieldText( _
                           FieldText, FormattedText, ErrDescription)

   End Select

End Sub

The following script formatter example sets the value of empty fields to "0.00" or it forwards the formatting task to the StandardAmountFormatter. This is useful for most of the additional amount fields (tax 2-4) that are commonly not present on a document need set to "0.00." The same task can also be performed in the Document_AfterExtract event but then you need to repair all formatting flags so that the field is properly formatted. Note that the invoice validation method requires that all input fields are formatted with an amount formatter. Using a script formatter makes this auto-initialization feature available in Validation in case the user start entering values into an empty document. For example, after splitting a document.

Private Sub EmptyAmounts_FormatDoubleField(ByVal FieldText As String, _
FormattedText As String, ErrDescription As String, ValidFormat As Boolean, _
ByRef DoubleVal As Double, ByRef DoubleFormatted As Boolean)

   Dim pfield As CscXDocField

   If Len(FieldText) = 0 Then
      ' mark the field as correctly formatted and assign the default text
      DoubleVal = 0.0
      FormattedText = "0.00"
      DoubleFormatted = True
      ValidFormat = True
   Else
      ' create a temporary field and forward the formatting to the DefaultAmountFormatter
      ' make sure that there is an amount formatter with that name available in the current project
      Set pfield = New CscXDocField
      pfield.Text = FieldText
      ValidFormat = DefaultAmountFormatter.FormatField(pfield)

      FormattedText = pfield.Text
      ErrDescription = pfield.ErrorDescription
      DoubleVal = pfield.DoubleValue
      DoubleFormatted = pfield.DoubleFormatted

   End If

End Sub

Formatting

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