topic RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text? in Product Forum

How to convert HTML code to plain text?

AnnaRydzewska — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 14:05:00 GMT

Hello,
How can I convert HTML code to plain text? What dll files are used for decoding HTML? How can I reference to this dll in code stage?

Thank you,
Anna Rydzewska

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Anna Rydzewska
RPA Developer
Rockwell Automation
Europe/Warsaw
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

AmiBarrett — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 20:59:00 GMT

The easiest way involves using a read stage in Blue Prism. If you know where the element you want to read is, it's fairly straight-forward. If all-else, you can send the keystrokes to select either the whole page (ctrl-A, ctrl-C), or use ctrl-double-click on the area and copy that to the clipboard.

The only common scenario I can think of where it's not already on a webpage, would be if you're trying to parse HTML out of an e-mail (and for some reason don't want to use the built-in option to read as plain-text). For this case, or other similar scenarios like it, you could write the HTML to a file, then open it up in IE and access it that way with the methods at the start of this post.

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Ami Barrett
Lead RPA Software Developer
Solai & Cameron
Richardson, TX
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

AndreyKudinov — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 06:28:00 GMT

In general this is not an easy question. Depends if you just need text to parse it or do you want it decent looking.
One possible solution: http://www.blackbeltcoder.com/Articles/strings/convert-html-to-text

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Andrey Kudinov
Project Manager
MobileTelesystems PJSC
Europe/Moscow
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

StephanieStrydom — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 12:14:00 GMT

Hi @AmiBarrett, when you say the "built-in option to read as plain-text" - is that with the MS Outlook Email VBO, I am using the action "Get Received Items (Expert)". How do I set it so that the email body is returned in plain text?

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Stephanie Strydom
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

AmiBarrett — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 13:42:00 GMT

I would have sworn from prior builds of the official VBO that there was an input option to toggle if you wanted it to be HTML or not, but I'm not seeing it.

There's an alternate build on GitHub I've been working on that does support this though. You'll see that all three 'Get Received Items' actions are condensed into one - you should still be able to use the same filter string there.

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Ami Barrett
Solution Architect
Karsun Solutions
Plano TX
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

ewilson — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 02:53:00 GMT

There's a flag on the Send Email action that indicates the supplied body text is HTML, but there's no flag in the Get Received Items actions for specifically selecting the format of the body that should be returned.

Within the code stage of the Get Items action there's a line that sets the value of the returned body item based on the value of the BodyFormat property of the specific item. So if the BodyFormat is set to HTML, you'll get back the HTML body. If it's set to plain text, you'll get back the plain text version of the body. You could always change that line of code to only return plain text, or you could add a flag like Amy mentioned.

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

Tejaskumar_Darji — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 17:15:00 GMT

Hello Eric,

Can't we have that in the input parameter itself in the official outlook VBO? If the user wants to get plain text OR HTML text.

I believe most folks would like the plain text but the VBO by default returns the HTML body.

The tweak is fine and easy but we should have the option out of the box from the VBO considering its widespread usability and ease of access to users.

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If I was of assistance, please vote for it to be the "Best Answer".

Thanks & Regards,
Tejaskumar Darji
Sr. Consultant-Technical Lead
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

StephanieStrydom — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 17:29:00 GMT

I ended up solving my problem, by keeping it in HTML and then I used the "Split Lines" from the "Utility - Strings" VBO to convert HTML to a collection, and that worked nice for what I needed to do. Then I had to do other string manipulations to get the pieces of data I needed from the email.

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Stephanie Strydom
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

GaryMannion — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 10:14:00 GMT

I am trying to do this for a different CRM system. (Genesys) The body of the email gets ingested into Blue Prism with HTML around the body. How would I remove the HTML tags to leave just the text on the mail in Blue Prism?

Kind Regards,
Gary

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Gary Mannion
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

at392 — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 12:25:00 GMT

Hi Eric,

Would you please be able to clarify what the change is we need to make to that line of code? Would it be to change 'item.HTMLBody' to 'item.PlainText' ?

Thanks,
Alex

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Alex Traynor
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

ewilson — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:08:00 GMT

@Alex Traynor,

If you only want plain text bodies returned, change that line of code to this:

row("Body") = item.Body

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

ewilson — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:12:00 GMT

Hi @Tejaskumar_Darji,

Apologies for not responding to your comment previously. I must have missed it.

To be clear, the VBO doesn't default to returning the HTML body. The VBO checks the BodyFormat property of the message to determine what format it is in and then it returns the appropriate body value based on that. Since we're talking Outlook, most emails show up in HTML format and that's why you see that most of the time. Yes, we can add an override flag for this.

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

at392 — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:16:00 GMT

Thanks Eric appreciated!

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Alex Traynor
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

Tejaskumar_Darji — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:18:00 GMT

Thank You @ewilson for clarifying and considering the input flag.

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If I was of assistance, please vote for it to be the "Best Answer".

Thanks & Regards,
Tejaskumar Darji
Sr. Consultant-Technical Lead
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RE: How to convert HTML code to plain text?

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:22:00 GMT

Thanks for this information

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Lovely Baghel
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