Feature Request: Ability to format tags on controller change

[mattmcquin]

I have an application that supports chat message tagging and uses this package for formatting tags. When a user copies a message with a tagged user, then pastes into the TextField, the text displays as the unformatted tag string (e.g. @someuser#JohnDoe#). I would like to support the ability to paste messages and have the text automatically formatted.

What I have tried: In the onChanged callback in the TextField, I call .formatTags(), but any additional calls to onChange affect the currently formatted tags (It appears .formatTags() is not idempotent).

If there is a known workaround/feature for this, please let me know. If you think this is possible, let me know, and I can potentially open a PR.

Thank you!

[Crazelu]

@mattmcquin this is an interesting issue. There's a workaround that you can use.

onChanged: (value) async {
                    final clipboardData =
                        await Clipboard.getData(Clipboard.kTextPlain);
                    if (clipboardData != null &&
                        value.contains(clipboardData.text ?? '')) {
                      controller.text = value;
                      controller.formatTags();
                    }
                  }

This will make sure that tags are only formatted when pastes happen. But this only works well when the text field does not have any tag before the text containing tags is pasted.

I think that it is possible to fix.
There is an optional tagTextFormatter callback that users can use to override the pattern for representing tags in the controller.formattedText. There's also a default pattern for when tagTextFormatter is not provided.

I think that the solution would involve doing some pattern matching in the listener attached to the FlutterTaggerController .
If a formatted tag pattern is detected, then call formatTags.

I will find some time to explore this over the weekend. You're welcome to take a stab at this too. I'm open to other approaches so if you have a different idea on how to fix this, let me know

[mattmcquin]

@Crazelu I appreciate the workaround, didn't think to look at clipboard data. The only issue I see is that a subsequent paste will again cause previously formatted tags to be removed.

I haven't had a ton of time to look through the src code, but will try to at some point this week. Are you open to a contribution that makes .formatTags() idempotent?

[Crazelu]

I'm open to that contribution!