TextPipe Developer Center

TextPipe can be controlled via a powerful COM interface and via the command line, detailed below. Other useful information:

• FAQ
• Online manual
• How to call TextPipe from a web page
• How to schedule TextPipe
• How to make a batch file to use with TextPipe
• How to poll (repeatedly check) for files to process - or see our new File and Folder Watcher tool
• See how other companies have integrated TextPipe
• See TextPipe's help file under Advanced Topics  for registry settings

Scripting/ActiveX/COM interface

When TextPipe is installed, it provides an extensive COM interface that can be called from Visual Basic, Delphi, C++, Java or any scripting language. The COM interface is used by DataPipe to control TextPipe's changes in a database.

For the most up-to-date documentation, see TextPipe's help file Advanced Topic, or click here for slightly older documentation.

Did you know? You can generate VBScript or JScript code from a filter prototype by choosing File Menu\Export\Export VBScript or Export JScript. You can even generate a web page to run a filter from a friendly front-end.

See these examples:

• Calling TextPipe from C++, VB.net, VB, Delphi (these samples from the TextPipe Engine)
• Calling TextPipe from VBScript
• Calling TextPipe from Microsoft Word
• Calling TextPipe from a customized web page
• Calling TextPipe from a File Menu\Export\Export to web page.

We also have sample code for Visual Basic, VB.Net, Visual C++ and Delphi included in our TextPipe Engine download. If you don't wish to use the Engine, just change references to TextPipeEngine.Application to TextPipe.Application.

Command line interface

Although not as flexible as the COM interface, TextPipe provides extensive command line options that enable you to run pre-saved filters or build filters on the fly. A command line can be constructed from practically any language, including older 16 bit applications or those that do not support a COM interface. For command line documentation, please consult TextPipe's help file Advanced Topics, available when you install it.

Did you know? You can generate a command line for TextPipe using Tools Menu\Command line wizard.

A command line example is included - calling TextPipe from Microsoft Word. This is also the interface used by WordPipe and ResumePipe to control TextPipe's changes to Word documents, emails and attachments.

Embeddable TextPipe Engine

TextPipe also comes in an embeddable Engine DLL that can be included in your applications.

Working with multiple CPUs

The server edition of TextPipe Pro allows multiple processors to be utilised for the most demanding text manipulation tasks.

Working with Microsoft Word

Often the text you need to process is held in an MSWord document. MSWord uses its own compressed, non-readable (or 'binary') format to save information about your text, fonts and images. TextPipe cannot decipher this information, but there are two approaches you can use to process them:

1. If you need the altered documents to be returned to MSWord format, use our WordPipe utility in conjunction with TextPipe to convert the documents to RTF format, process them with TextPipe, and convert them back to MSWord format. You will need to be familiar with how RTF saves information for this approach to be successful - embedded font information may prevent a straight-forward looking search from working. You may be able to simply use WordPipe's non-TextPipe mode to apply a Word search and replace to many documents in one hit.
2. If you don't need the altered documents returned to MSWord format, download our Word Macro to convert your Word documents to Rich Text Files (.RTF) for TextPipe to process.

The latest version of TextPipe also supports a 'RTF Find' facility to search inside RTF documents. Just type in your search string normally, using Pattern (Perl) mode, then right click on the search field and click on 'Allow RTF tags'. This allows any RTF font tags to appear between words.

Other tools

• Macro Scheduler from http://www.mjtnet.com/ - 25% discount to our registered users - just ask us!  [Download Now]  [Buy Now]