Text files, reading, writing, converting and different code pages

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is still using the old DOS code page for files.  If you create a file with the file variable and write text to that file you will get a DOS file.  The same thing happens when writing to a BLOB and exporting to a file.  The Code example below handles the DOS code page.

[code]OBJECT Codeunit 50000 Read and Write DOS File
{
OBJECT-PROPERTIES
{
Date=30.05.13;
Time=09:16:44;
Modified=Yes;
Version List=Dynamics.is;
}
PROPERTIES
{
OnRun=VAR
LineRead@10000000 : Text[250];
CrLf@10000001 : Text[2];
BEGIN
CrLf[1] := 13;
CrLf[2] := 10;
DOSFileName := FileMgt.ServerTempFileName(‘txt’);
DOSFile.CREATE(DOSFileName);
DOSFile.CREATEOUTSTREAM(OutStr);
StandardText.FINDSET;
REPEAT
OutStr.WRITETEXT(STRSUBSTNO(‘%1,%2’,StandardText.Code,StandardText.Description) + CrLf);
UNTIL StandardText.NEXT = 0;
DOSFile.CLOSE;

DOSFile.OPEN(DOSFileName);
DOSFile.CREATEINSTREAM(InStr);
WHILE NOT InStr.EOS DO BEGIN
InStr.READTEXT(LineRead,MAXSTRLEN(LineRead));
TempStandardText.Code := SELECTSTR(1,LineRead);
TempStandardText.Description := SELECTSTR(2,LineRead);
TempStandardText.INSERT;
END;
DOSFile.CLOSE;

MESSAGE(Text001,DOSFileName);
PAGE.RUNMODAL(PAGE::"Standard Text Codes",TempStandardText);
END;

}
CODE
{
VAR
StandardText@10000007 : Record 7;
TempStandardText@10000006 : TEMPORARY Record 7;
FileMgt@10000003 : Codeunit 419;
DOSFile@10000000 : File;
DOSFileName@10000004 : Text[250];
InStr@10000001 : InStream;
OutStr@10000002 : OutStream;
Text001@10000005 : TextConst ‘ENU=Server File Name : %1;ISL=Skr�arnafn � �j�ni : %1’;

BEGIN
END.
}
}[/code]

Using DotNet for the same job as the below example shows, will create a file with the Windows code page.

[code]OBJECT Codeunit 50001 Read and Write Windows File
{
OBJECT-PROPERTIES
{
Date=30.05.13;
Time=09:26:03;
Modified=Yes;
Version List=Dynamics.is;
}
PROPERTIES
{
OnRun=VAR
LineRead@10000000 : Text[250];
CrLf@10000001 : Text[2];
Loop@10000002 : Integer;
BEGIN
CrLf[1] := 13;
CrLf[2] := 10;
ISOFileName := FileMgt.ServerTempFileName(‘txt’);
StandardText.FINDSET;
REPEAT
dotNetFile.AppendAllText(ISOFileName,STRSUBSTNO(‘%1,%2′,StandardText.Code,StandardText.Description) + CrLf);
UNTIL StandardText.NEXT = 0;

dotNetArray := dotNetFile.ReadAllLines(ISOFileName);
FOR Loop := 0 TO (dotNetArray.Length – 1) DO BEGIN
LineRead := dotNetArray.GetValue(Loop);
TempStandardText.Code := SELECTSTR(1,LineRead);
TempStandardText.Description := SELECTSTR(2,LineRead);
TempStandardText.INSERT;
END;

MESSAGE(Text001,ISOFileName);
PAGE.RUNMODAL(PAGE::"Standard Text Codes",TempStandardText);
END;

}
CODE
{
VAR
dotNetFile@10000011 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.IO.File";
dotNetArray@10000010 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’.System.Array";
StandardText@10000007 : Record 7;
TempStandardText@10000006 : TEMPORARY Record 7;
FileMgt@10000003 : Codeunit 419;
ISOFileName@10000004 : Text[250];
Text001@10000005 : TextConst ‘ENU=Server File Name : %1;ISL=Skr�arnafn � �j�ni : %1’;

BEGIN
END.
}
}
[/code]

And to write and read UTF-8 encoded file

[code]OBJECT Codeunit 50002 Read and Write UTF8 File
{
OBJECT-PROPERTIES
{
Date=30.05.13;
Time=09:26:51;
Modified=Yes;
Version List=Dynamics.is;
}
PROPERTIES
{
OnRun=VAR
LineRead@10000000 : Text[250];
CrLf@10000001 : Text[2];
Loop@10000002 : Integer;
BEGIN
CrLf[1] := 13;
CrLf[2] := 10;
ISOFileName := FileMgt.ServerTempFileName(‘txt’);
StandardText.FINDSET;
REPEAT
dotNetFile.AppendAllText(ISOFileName,STRSUBSTNO(‘%1,%2’,StandardText.Code,StandardText.Description) + CrLf,Encoding.GetEncoding(‘utf-8’));
UNTIL StandardText.NEXT = 0;

dotNetArray := dotNetFile.ReadAllLines(ISOFileName,Encoding.GetEncoding(‘utf-8′));
FOR Loop := 0 TO (dotNetArray.Length – 1) DO BEGIN
LineRead := dotNetArray.GetValue(Loop);
TempStandardText.Code := SELECTSTR(1,LineRead);
TempStandardText.Description := SELECTSTR(2,LineRead);
TempStandardText.INSERT;
END;

MESSAGE(Text001,ISOFileName);
PAGE.RUNMODAL(PAGE::"Standard Text Codes",TempStandardText);
END;

}
CODE
{
VAR
dotNetFile@10000011 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.IO.File";
dotNetArray@10000010 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′.System.Array";
Encoding@10000000 : DotNet "’mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’.System.Text.Encoding";
StandardText@10000007 : Record 7;
TempStandardText@10000006 : TEMPORARY Record 7;
FileMgt@10000003 : Codeunit 419;
ISOFileName@10000004 : Text[250];
Text001@10000005 : TextConst ‘ENU=Server File Name : %1;ISL=Skr�arnafn � �j�ni : %1’;

BEGIN
END.
}
}
[/code]

This also gives us an easy way to convert files from one code page to another. For example from the DOS format to the Windows format.

[code]
ServerISOFileName := FileMgt.ServerTempFileName(‘xml’);
dotNetFile.WriteAllText(
ServerISOFileName,
dotNetFile.ReadAllText(ServerDOSFileName,Encoding.GetEncoding(‘ibm850’)),
Encoding.GetEncoding(‘iso-8859-1’));[/code]

Also if you use the UTF-8 example and replace GetEncoding(‘utf-8’) with GetEncoding(‘ibm850’) you will get a DOS formatted file.  Microsoft offers a list of all supported encoding methods here.  The beauty with the DotNet methods is the possibility to use RunOnClient property to read and write files from the client computer.