Google Apps Script: find all occurrences and set style - google-apps-script

I'm having trouble figuring out how find/next works in Google Apps Script.
In the example here I'm trying to superscript the numbers in a list of authors. But my loop doesn't exit, presumably because it just keeps selecting the first item over and over again.
EDIT: Updated with 'from' parameter: Loop still does not exit? I added some log comments and it is still getting stuck on the first item (start offset and end offset are both = 10)
var doc = DocumentApp.create('test1');
var authors = "Josh Smith1, Zach Johnson2";
var paragraph = doc.getBody().appendParagraph(authors);
var text = paragraph.editAsText();
var range = text.findText('[0-9]+');
while(range)
{
Logger.log("START OFFSET: " + range.getStartOffset());
Logger.log("END OFFSET: " + range.getEndOffsetInclusive());
Logger.log("PARAGRAPH ELEMENT: "+ paragraph.editAsText().getText());
text.setTextAlignment(range.getStartOffset(),range.getEndOffsetInclusive(),DocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUPERSCRIPT);
range = text.findText('[0-9]+', range);
}
ORIGINAL
var authors = "Josh Smith1, Zach Johnson2";
var paragraph = doc.getBody().appendParagraph(authors);
var text = paragraph.editAsText();
var range = text.findText('[0-9]+');
while(range)
{
text.setTextAlignment(range.getStartOffset(),range.getEndOffsetInclusive(),DocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUPERSCRIPT);
range = text.findText('[0-9]+');
}

INFO: The solution provided here is correct, but as for now there is a bug in Google Apps Script, which would make this code to loop. There is no fix to the date.
You are correct about that it's stuck on the first item. However, it's really easy to fix. findText() function can take one or two parameters. The first parameter is always search pattern and the second optional parameter is a place from where it should start searching. So the fixed code is:
var authors = "Josh Smith1, Zach Johnson2";
var paragraph = doc.getBody().appendParagraph(authors);
var text = paragraph.editAsText();
var range = text.findText('[0-9]+');
while(range)
{
text.setTextAlignment(range.getStartOffset(),range.getEndOffsetInclusive(),DocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUPERSCRIPT);
range = text.findText('[0-9]+', range);
}
That should fix it for you.

Related

Google Apps Script Mail Merge - Grabbing Entire Body

I am officially stuck! Hopefully a fresh set of eyes can help...
I can't figure out out to grab the entire body of my source template and place it in one shot on the target document for reception of the data. As you can see from my code below, my workaround (and literally only thing I stumbled upon that worked) was to grab each line of the template document, and then place each line one-by-one on the target document. However, I don't consider this the appropriate solution for a few reasons: it's not pretty, it's a more resource-expensive run, and it absolutely would not work if I was creating a letter.
Thankfully, since this was envelopes, I got through the job, but I'd like to discover the correct solution before my next mailing. I poured through the documentation, and there were a few functions that were potential candidates (such as 'getBody') but seemed not to be available (I would get 'not a function' errors. So, I'm at a loss.
Another issue with getBody(): it seems to only send plain-text forward. It does not retain any formatting or fonts I arranged in my template.
So my objectives are:
1. Grab the rich-text content of my template document
2. With each loop iteration, apply the content to the next page of target document in one-shot (not line by line).
3. Have this content maintain the formatting (font sizes, fonts, tabbing, spacing, etc.) of my template.
4. Update the dynamic fields with the row of information it's on for that iteration and move on.
I would greatly appreciate any help and/or insight!
Thanks!
function envelopeMailMerge() {
var sourceID = "[id of data sheet]";
var rangeData = 'OnePerFamily!A2:E251';
var values = Sheets.Spreadsheets.Values.get(sourceID,rangeData).values;
var templateID = "[id of template document]";
var targetID = "[id of target document]";
var templateBody = DocumentApp.openById(templateID).getBody();
var targetBody = DocumentApp.openById(targetID).getBody();
//obviously what follows is a ridiculous way to do this, hence my issue
var theContent = templateBody.getChild(0).copy();
var theContent2 = templateBody.getChild(1).copy();
var theContent3 = templateBody.getChild(2).copy();
var theContent4 = templateBody.getChild(3).copy();
var theContent5 = templateBody.getChild(4).copy();
var theContent6 = templateBody.getChild(5).copy();
var theContent7 = templateBody.getChild(6).copy();
var theContent8 = templateBody.getChild(7).copy();
var theContent9 = templateBody.getChild(8).copy();
var theContent10 = templateBody.getChild(9).copy();
var theContent11 = templateBody.getChild(10).copy();
var theContent12 = templateBody.getChild(11).copy();
var theContent13 = templateBody.getChild(12).copy();
var theContent14 = templateBody.getChild(13).copy();
var theContent15 = templateBody.getChild(14).copy();
var theContent16 = templateBody.getChild(15).copy();
var theContent17 = templateBody.getChild(16).copy();
//Clear the target document before creating the new merge
targetBody.clear();
if (!values) {
Logger.log('No data found...');
} else {
for (var row=0; row < values.length; row++) {
var name = values[row][0];
var address = values[row][1];
var city = values[row][2];
var state = values[row][3];
var zip = values[row][4];
//Again, what follows is ridiculous and not an ideal solution
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent2.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent3.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent4.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent5.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent6.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent7.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent8.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent9.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent10.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent11.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent12.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent13.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent14.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent15.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent16.copy());
targetBody.appendParagraph(theContent17.copy());
//Update the dynamic fields with this row's data
targetBody.replaceText('{{Name}}',name);
targetBody.replaceText('{{Address}}',address);
targetBody.replaceText('{{City}}',city);
targetBody.replaceText('{{ST}}',state);
targetBody.replaceText('{{ZIP}}',zip);
//Insert page break so next iteration begins on new page
targetBody.appendPageBreak();
}
}
}
In the following example I am using a more Javascript approach using String.prototype.replace() to replace the text. I consider the following:
You have a template DOC where you have some strings like these {{Name}}:
You have a spreadsheet where the data to replace the template lives
You want to create a Google Doc for every of the rows
Considering this as true, the example shows this approach:
Grab all the text from the template doc
Replace the text using String.prototype.replace()
Setting the text of the new doc with the replaced one
Code.gs
const templateDocID = "<Template_DOC_ID>"
const dataSsId = "<Data_SS_ID>"
const doC = DocumentApp.openById(templateDocID)
const sS = SpreadsheetApp.openById(dataSsId).getSheets()[0]
function createDocFromTemplate() {
/* Grab the data from the sheets */
const dataToReplace = sS.getRange('A2:E').getValues().filter(n => n[0] !== "")
dataToReplace.forEach((data) => {
let body = doC.getBody().getText()
/* Create a new doc for each row */
const newDocument = DocumentApp.create('New Document')
/* A quick approach to extract the data */
const [name, address, city, state, zip] = data
/* Using string.replace() */
body = body.replace("{{Name}}", name)
body = body.replace('{{Address}}', address)
body = body.replace("{{City}}", city)
body = body.replace("{{ST}}", state)
body = body.replace("{{ZIP}}", zip)
/* Setting the text */
newDocument.getBody().setText(body)
/* Or sending it as an email */
GmailApp.sendEmail('email#gmail.com', 'From Template', body)
Logger.log(newDocument.getUrl())
})
}
This is an example that can help you, but you can adapt it to meet your needs.
Documentation
SpreadsheetApp
GmailApp
Optimize the replace function

Adding Incrementing Citation ID

I've tried searching the issue and came up with nothing, so I'm looking for help.
What I'm trying to do is add incrementing IDs to individual citations by:
Searching a Google Doc for a specific combination of characters that signal the end of the citation (checking to see if there are any in the document at all).
If the characters are there, I'd like to find the first one, then place a '1' in between the two characters. Then the second one should have a '2' between it, the third should have a '3', and so on and so forth ensuring that all of the sets of characters have been replaced with unique number IDs
What is going wrong currently:
Due to the elemental structure of the Google Doc, my script is replacing ALL instances within a paragraph with the same ID number, which can be 1 instance or it can be 20. When it moves to the next paragraph, every found instance of the character combination is getting the incremented ID.
I need a genius' help.
Here's the code base I've found that I've been struggling to modify:
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
var foundElement = body.findText("]]");
var i = 1;
while (foundElement != null) {
// Get the text object from the element
var foundText = foundElement.getElement().asText();
// Where in the Element is the found text?
var start = foundElement.getStartOffset();
var end = foundElement.getEndOffsetInclusive();
// Change the text
foundText.replaceText("]]","]"+i+"]");
// Find the next match
foundElement = body.findText("]]", foundElement);
i++
}
Issue
replaceText() will replace all the occurence in the element.
Solution
To avoid this, you should use the start and end to delete and insert text.
Please see my code below. This worked on my end.
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
var foundElement = body.findText("]]");
var i = 1;
while (foundElement != null) {
// Get the text object from the element
var foundText = foundElement.getElement().asText();
// Where in the Element is the found text?
var start = foundElement.getStartOffset();
var end = foundElement.getEndOffsetInclusive();
// Change the text
foundText.deleteText(start, end)
foundText.insertText(start, "]"+i+"]")
// Find the next match
foundElement = body.findText("]]", foundElement);
i++
}
As you can see, I just modified the line where you replaceText() and transform it to a combination of deleteText() and insertText() methods.
Try this:
function myfunction() {
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
var foundElement = body.findText("]]");
var i = 1;
while (foundElement != null) {
var foundText = foundElement.getElement().asText();
var start = foundElement.getStartOffset();
var end = foundElement.getEndOffsetInclusive();
foundText.replaceText("]]", "]" + i++ + "]");
foundElement = body.findText("]]", end);//Modifed this and the end point of the last search. And the i++ will use the i as it currently is and then increment it after the current operation.
}
}
Each next search needs to start searching after the location of the preceeding element. range element getEndOffsetInclusive()

Having trouble running custom search function on specific cell data for HTML sidebar display

I'm setting up a sidebar in Google Sheets to display information from rows to give my team a better view of certain data. Through a few of Mogsdad's answers (huge props) I was able to set up the sidebar HTML and display functions that update the DOM with info from whichever row is selected. I'm trying to expand this by running a custom search on a specific cell (string) within the row range and adding an element to the DOM that displays the first 5 Google search results; however, I'm having a tough time pointing to the string value in that specific cell (really a column in the array), running it in my custom search function, and getting the function that adds elements to the HTML to append the results.
The inspiration for this use case comes from Grant Timmerman's Apps Script demo at Angular Connect 2018, where he updates the sidebar with info about event speakers and pulls videos from Youtube using a search string from a specific cell. In the below code, you'll see that I pulled a lot from Mogsdad's sheet polling technique and their walkthrough on setting up a custom search engine using Google's API Key protocol.
Here's my .gs setup:
/**
*This function creates the sidebar in Sheets' UI based on HTML I set up *separately.
*/
function checkUpdates() {
var ui = HtmlService.createTemplateFromFile('CheckSidebar')
.evaluate()
.setSandboxMode(HtmlService.SandboxMode.IFRAME)
.setTitle('Recent Sheet Updates');
SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showSidebar(ui);
};
/**
* Returns the active row.
* All based on Mogsdad's sheet polling function from 2015.
*/
function getRecord() {
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();
var headers = data[0];
var rowNum = sheet.getActiveCell().getRow();
if (rowNum > data.length) return [];
var record = [];
for (var col=0;col<headers.length;col++) {
var cellval = data[rowNum-1][col];
// Here I tried to set another variable to data[rowNum-1][2] to get some //specific data from column #3
Logger.log(cellval);
record.push({ heading: headers[col],cellval: cellval });
}
return record;
}
In a separate editor tab, I have the search function set up, also largely just following Mogsdad's instructions:
function SearchFetch(query) {
var urlTemplate = "https://www.googleapis.com/customsearch/v1?key=%KEY%&cx=%CX%&q=%Q%";
var ApiKey = "custom API Key";
var searchEngineID = "ID for the search engine";
var url = urlTemplate
.replace("%KEY%", encodeURIComponent(ApiKey))
.replace("%CX%", encodeURIComponent(searchEngineID))
.replace("%Q%", encodeURIComponent(query));
var params = {
muteExceptions: true
};
Logger.log(UrlFetchApp.getRequest(url, params));
var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, params);
var respCode = response.getResponseCode();
if (respCode !== 200) {
throw new Error ("Error " +respCode+ " " + response.getContentText());
}
else {
var result = JSON.parse(response.getContentText());
Logger.log("Obtained %s search results in %s seconds.",
result.searchInformation.formattedTotalResults,
result.searchInformation.formattedSearchTime);
return result;
Finally, I have a function between tags in HTML that grabs the values from the array generated by getRecord() and dumps them into a DOM element with the class ID "floatypar" (for floaty-looking paragraphs, naturally). Lots of Mogsdad's markup in here:
function showRecord(record) {
if (record.length) {
for (var i = 0; i < record.length; i++) {
// build field name on the fly, formatted field-1234
var str = '' + i;
var fieldId = 'field-' + ('0000' + str).substring(str.length)
// If this field # doesn't already exist on the page, create it
if (!$('#'+fieldId).length) {
var newField = $($.parseHTML('<div id="'+fieldId+'"></div>'));
$('.floatypar').append(newField);
}
// Replace content of the field div with new record
$('#'+fieldId).replaceWith('<div id="'+fieldId+'" class="floatypar">' +record[i].cellval + '</div>');
}
}
//Setup the next poll
poll();
}
When I run this, the sidebar displays values from each cell in the row in their own div in the sidebar. However, I'm at a loss for passing the values from column #3 to the search engine and displaying results in their own sidebar div. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Please do give props to Mogsdad in any case!

Google Apps Script - How to get Text from Paragraph?

Trying to write a function that pulls text between <> brackets in a document, writes to html and allows the user to replace the bracketed text with a user input field (via the find and replace function). Having trouble getting the actual bracketed text from the google doc. The closest I have gotten is returning the paragraph the bracketed text is in, but that does not work because then the entire paragraph gets replaced instead of only the bracketed text.
This is the most recent error:
TypeError: Cannot find function getStartOffset in object Text. (line
11, file "Code", project "Find and Replace Script")
function doGet() {
var docURL = DocumentApp.openByUrl('XXXX')
var body = docURL.getBody();
var fel0 = body.findText('<*>')
var el0 = fel0.getElement();
var startOffset = el0.getStartOffset();
var endOffset = el0.getEndOffsetInclusive();
var text = el0.asText().getText()
if (elements[0].isPartial())
text = el0.substring(startOffset,endOffset+1);
var template = HtmlService.createTemplateFromFile('urlinput.html');
template.el0 = el0;
return template.evaluate();
}
function findreplace(form){
var docURL = DocumentApp.openByUrl('XXXX')
var body = docURL.getBody();
body.replaceText(body.findText('<*>',fel0).getElement().asText().getText())
}
How do I get the actual found text from that body.findText('<*>') object? A big part that makes this difficult is the * wildcard between the <> brackets.
Try this:
This is just a quick little example to help you to get past your current problem.
function findAndReplace(){
var doc=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body=doc.getBody();
var rel1=body.findText('<.*>');
var el1=rel1.getElement();
var t=el1.asText().getText();
var x=rel1.getStartOffset();
var y=rel1.getEndOffsetInclusive();
var p=rel1.isPartial();
el1.asText().replaceText('<.*>', 'You\'ve been replaced.');
//Logger.log('\nt:%s\nx:%s\ny:%s\np:%s',t,x,y,p?'true':'false');
//var end="is near";
}
This also works:
function findAndReplace(){
DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody().replaceText('<.*>', 'You\'ve been replaced.');
}
This is what you actually asked for:
As usual, I read some of the problem and then went off an did what I wanted to do. I guess you wanted to get the text. So here's another short example.
function findMyText(){
var body=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody();
var rel=body.findText('<.*>');
var el=rel.getElement();
var eltxt=el.asText().getText();
var txt=eltxt.slice(rel.getStartOffset()+1,rel.getEndOffsetInclusive())
DocumentApp.getUi().alert(txt);
}
I think your only problem was that you needed the .* which means zero or more of any character. The search pattern is a regular expression enclosed in quotes. I hope this helps.

replacing strings in a document and undo

In a mailMerge script I'm working on I use .replaceText() to replace fields with their corresponding values in a database.
The interface allows to test in the document to see if the result is looking as expected and I need to have a 'UNDO' function to get my fields in their original position so that I can use it with other values.(this script is bounded to a document in a side bar, see this post for illustration)
The script below does that pretty well by keeping in memory the field names an their replacement values.
The only detail that bothers me is that I had to define a special "empty" label for fields that have no values in the current test data to prevent losing their track in the document.
(I used a numbered identifier like °vide12°).
This is working perfectly but it's not ideal since the document in test mode is not exactly a representation of the final document because of these °videXX° that I use...
The question is : does anyone have a better idea or another approach to "localize" the replacement data when there is no data in a less visible way ? (I know this sound weird... that's why I explain the whole situation :-)
Considering the way Google Docs are build I thought that I could get the complete element structure and rebuild the doc from that info but I'm afraid it won't be possible since the smallest element is a paragraph and fields are mainly just single words...
Here is the relevant part of the code I use, I added a few comments to make it (hopefully) clear.
function valuesInDoc(e){ // this function replaces the fields with database values
var app = UiApp.getActiveApplication();
var listVal = UserProperties.getProperty('listSel').split(',');
var replacements = [];
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
var find = body.findText('#ch');
if(find == null){var ui = DocumentApp.getUi() ; ui.alert("Aucun champ (#chX#) trouvé dans le document... Veuillez insérer des identifiants aux endroits souhaités");return app};
var curData = UserProperties.getProperty('selItem').split('|');
var Headers = [];
var OriHeaders = UserProperties.getProperty('Headers').split('|');
for(n=0;n<OriHeaders.length;++n){
Headers.push('#'+OriHeaders[n]+'#');
}
var fctSpe = 0 ;
for(var i in Headers){if(Headers[i].indexOf('SS')>-1){fctSpe = i}}
for(var n=0;n<listVal.length;++n){
var realIdx = Number(listVal[n]);
var newField = ChampSpecial(curData,realIdx,fctSpe);
if(newField!=''){replacements.push(newField+'∏'+'#ch'+(n+1)+'#')};
//Logger.log('value in '+n+'='+realIdx+' >> '+Headers[realIdx]+' = '+ChampSpecial(curData,realIdx,fctSpe))
app.getElementById('textField'+(n+1)).setHTML(ChampSpecial(curData,realIdx,fctSpe));
if(e.parameter.source!='dataSelection'){
body.replaceText('#ch'+(n+1)+'#',newField);
}
}
UserProperties.setProperty('replacements',replacements.join('|'));// memorize the replacement pattern
cloakOn();// hide hidden fields
return app;
}
function fieldsInDoc(e){ // this function does the reverse process and restores the field identifiers
cloakOff();// show hidden fields
var replacements = UserProperties.getProperty('replacements').split('|');
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
for(var n=0;n<replacements.length;++n){
var field = replacements[n].split('∏')[1];
var testVal = replacements[n].split('∏')[0];
body.replaceText(testVal,field);
}
}
function ChampSpecial(curData,idx,ref){ // this function handles a special case for a specific field, the relevant part is right below, see comment
if(idx==-1){return''};
if(curData[idx-1]==''){return'°vide'+idx+'°'};// this is the "empty" identifier
if(idx<ref){return curData[idx]};
if(idx>ref){return curData[idx-1]}
var firstSpace = curData[idx-1].indexOf(' ');
var apos = curData[idx-1].indexOf("'");
//Logger.log('firstSpace='+firstSpace+' apos='+apos)
if(firstSpace<4&&firstSpace>-1){return curData[idx-1].substring(firstSpace+1)};
if(apos<3&&apos>-1){return curData[idx-1].substring(apos+1)};
return curData[idx-1];
}
EDIT : thanks to Mogsdad's brilliant answer I wrote these 2 functions to hide/show the unused fields. Sinc in my case I use °XX° (XX=2 digit number) to keep track of the unused fields I had to modify his code to look for this particular string and used 2 loops to get all the fields.
I call these function from the menu AND from the two other functions that handle the replacement (I updated the code above as well)
It might appear a waste of time since I iterate more that 100 times but the result is instantaneous... so why bother ?
here is the code in case it gives someone an idea.
function cloakOn() {
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
var found = [];
for(var n=1;n<23;++n){
for(var f=0;f<5;++f){
if(f==0){found[f] = body.findText('°'+Utilities.formatString("%02d",n)+'°')}else{found[f] = body.findText('°'+Utilities.formatString("%02d",n)+'°',found[f-1])}
if(found[f]!=null){
var elemTxt = found[f].getElement().asText();
elemTxt.setFontSize(found[f].getStartOffset(), found[f].getEndOffsetInclusive(),0)
var background = elemTxt.getBackgroundColor(found[f].getStartOffset()) || "#ffffff";
elemTxt.setForegroundColor(found[f].getStartOffset(), found[f].getEndOffsetInclusive(), background);
}
}
}
}
function cloakOff() {
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var body = doc.getBody();
var found = [];
for(var n=1;n<23;++n){
for(var f=0;f<5;++f){
if(f==0){found[f] = body.findText('°'+Utilities.formatString("%02d",n)+'°')}else{found[f] = body.findText('°'+Utilities.formatString("%02d",n)+'°',found[f-1])}
if(found[f]!=null){
var elemTxt = found[f].getElement().asText();
var size = elemTxt.getParent().getFontSize();
elemTxt.setFontSize(found[f].getStartOffset(), found[f].getEndOffsetInclusive(),size)
var background = elemTxt.getBackgroundColor(found[f].getStartOffset()) || "#000000";
elemTxt.setForegroundColor(found[f].getStartOffset(), found[f].getEndOffsetInclusive(), background);
}
}
}
}
Serge, I've been working on the very same problem! I've got a partial workaround to share, and some ideas to take it further.
There is no way to embed hidden text in Google Docs, as eloquently stated by Gill on the old forum. If there was, your mailmerge would be trivial!
How about making your tags or "cookies" (almost) invisible, though? Below is a scriplet that adds a "cloaking" function to a document. It has extras as well; it queries the user for text to cloak, then searches for all instances of that text and cloaks them. The idea I settled on was to make the text as small as possible (fontsize 0) and to match the foreground color to the background color.
// in menu: .addItem('Text Cloaking', 'cloakOn')
/**
* Find all matches of target text in current document, and cloak them.
* At this time, that consists of making the text tiny, but still visible.
* This is an experiment - my hope was to find a way to implement something
* like document variables, placeholders that would not be forgotten, so
* that values could be changed, or even dynamic.
*
* #param {String} target (Optional) The text or regex to search for.
* See Body.findText() for details.
* #param {String} background (Optional) The desired highlight color.
* A default orange is provided.
*/
function cloakOn(target) {
// If no search parameter was provided, ask for one
if (arguments.length == 0) {
var ui = DocumentApp.getUi();
var result = ui.prompt('Text Cloaking',
'Enter text to cloak:', ui.ButtonSet.OK_CANCEL);
// Exit if user hit Cancel.
if (result.getSelectedButton() !== ui.Button.OK) return;
// else
target = result.getResponseText();
}
var doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
var bodyElement = doc.getBody();
var searchResult = bodyElement.findText(target);
while (searchResult !== null) {
var thisElement = searchResult.getElement();
var thisElementText = thisElement.asText();
//Logger.log(url);
thisElementText.setFontSize(searchResult.getStartOffset(), searchResult.getEndOffsetInclusive(),0);
var background = thisElementText.getBackgroundColor(searchResult.getStartOffset()) || "#ffffff";
thisElementText.setForegroundColor(searchResult.getStartOffset(), searchResult.getEndOffsetInclusive(),
background);
// search for next match
searchResult = bodyElement.findText(target, searchResult);
}
}
To make use of this in the text-replacement operation, the replacement text would carry a cloaked tag (as you're doing). I think you'd want to make your tags as short as possible, so that the white space they occupy in the final document is very small - I was playing with using a series of unicode characters as digits, to give a large range of 2-digit 'numbers' that would be unlikely to show up in any other context.