How to detect BOTH text and (multiple?) images in the clipboard

[kroogar]

Hi gurus

.Net 2.0

I'm on a project where I need to be able to detect if my clipboard contains BOTH images AND text (eg. when copying from a web page).

For some reason Clipboard.ContainsImage() only returns true if the clipboard contains one and only one image. I use Clipboard.GetDataObject().GetDataPresent(DataForma ts.Text) to detect the presence of text.

What I need to figure out is how to detect if the clipboard contains one or more images and/or text at the same time.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks in advance...

./kroogar

[GaryTexmo]

Have a look at this article...

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/shell/clipboard01.aspx

Good luck! :)

[kroogar]

Thanks for the reply GaryTexmo but unfortunately it didn't help :-(

The example works only when trying to detect bitmap images but pasting any other format doesn't work. E.g. when copying both images and text from Internet Explorer the sample code is inadequate.

So I'm back to square one :-(

[GaryTexmo]

Darn, I had thought the section entitled Maintain multiple formats in the Clipboard where they paste both images and text was right up your alley, but I guess that's a single instance of one or the other, isn't it?

I don't know much about this object. I was looking at it but I couldn't see a way to find the data that was actually on the clipboard. It seems the Clipboard class only lets you ask for a type of data... which is downright weird if you ask me. I googled around and couldn't see anything helpful.

If you do copy a group of images and pictures from IE, what exactly do you find in the Clipboard with your code?

[Plater]

Here's a little snipit that might help you out:

DataObject ido = (DataObject)Clipboard.GetDataObject();
string[] formats = ido.GetFormats();
foreach (string f in formats)
{
   object o = ido.GetData(f);
//you can use o.GetType() to see the actual type, but the string f should also have it
}
 

[kroogar]

Thanks for your effort guys - appreciate it

Using Platers snippet (thanks P) I get the following result when copy/pasting from Firefox (FF) and Internet Explorer (IE). The results are "f" / "o.GetType()" with reference to Platers code. Trouble is that I cannot know where the client is copying from hence I would not know the formats to check for in advance...

Here are the results:

Copy/paste from FF - text and images
======================================
text/html / System.IO.MemoryStream
HTML Format / System.String
text/_moz_htmlcontext / System.IO.MemoryStream
text/_moz_htmlinfo / System.IO.MemoryStream
System.String / System.String
UnicodeText / System.String
Text / System.String
text/x-moz-url-priv / System.IO.MemoryStream


Copy/paste from IE - text and images
======================================
System.String / System.String
UnicodeText / System.String
Text / System.String
HTML Format / System.String
Rich Text Format / System.String


Copy/paste from FF - single picture
======================================
application/x-moz-nativeimage / object is null
DeviceIndependentBitmap / System.IO.MemoryStream


Copy/paste from IE - single picture (same picture as above)
======================================
UntrustedDragDrop / System.IO.MemoryStream
FileDrop / System.String[]
FileNameW / System.String[]
FileName / System.String[]
UniformResourceLocatorW / System.IO.MemoryStream
DeviceIndependentBitmap / System.IO.MemoryStream
HTML Format / System.String


Copy/paste from FF - text only
======================================
text/html / System.IO.MemoryStream
HTML Format / System.String
text/_moz_htmlcontext / System.IO.MemoryStream
text/_moz_htmlinfo / System.IO.MemoryStream
System.String / System.String
UnicodeText / System.String
Text / System.String
text/x-moz-url-priv / System.IO.MemoryStream


Copy/paste from IE - text only
======================================
System.String / System.String
UnicodeText / System.String
Text / System.String
HTML Format / System.String
Rich Text Format / System.String

[GaryTexmo]

Do you need to know in advance? With Platter's code, you can just loop through the types on the Clipboard and use a switch statement on the type to take the appropriate action... couldn't you?

You shouldn't need to know where it's copying from, just take the appropriate action with whatever you have at any given time.

[kroogar]

@GaryTexmo
Well... I need to know prior to pasting as pasting of content containing other than (formatted) text OR a single image has to be prevented and the user has to get a warning that he/she is pasting "illegal" content.

@GaryTexmo
I guess my two main sources for content would be a browser and MS Word. I was thinking of detecting the content as HTML and parsing that for existense of <img> tags (if possible) and in the other case (Word) extracting the clipboard content into some sort of officeautomation object and parsing that as XML...

Any thoughts on this approach?

[kroogar]

To stop further investigation into this issue let me start by saying that I have found a suitable workaround.

The project I'm working on has to produce a Word add-in to "transform" Word into an advanced XML editor. To do this we are using VSTO (an MS Office framework from Microsoft). Working with Word is done using a Range object that has a couple of useful collections: Hyperlinks and InlineShapes. Using these I can determine if a pasted Range contains one or more Hyperlinks and/or InlineShapes. If that is the case then reject the paste.

Thanks guys for your effort!

Have a nice weekend!