how to encode to avoid javascript error

I have a piece of javascript code to submit a form with a hidden variable - "err". Before submitting the form, I assign the value of description to "err", the value of description is generated by some other code.

document.forms["debug"].err.value = description; document.forms["debug"].submit();

But because the value of description may contains any text including special characters like quote mark, slash, e.g. "xx", "</xx>", it generate javascript error.

The javascript error l encounter is:

1) When description with value = Attribute "identifier" is in the tag
It shows javascript error: "missing ; before statement"
document.forms["debug"].err.value = "Attribute "identifier" is in the tag";

2)When description = Expect "</identifier>" to terminate
It shows javascript error: unterminated regular expresson literal
document.forms["debug"].err.value = "Expect "</identifier>" to terminate";

How to handle this situation? Is there something like encoding to avoid this problem?

try the escape() method.

Eric

Eric, thanks for your reply.

But it does not work if I use escape() javascript function, same error actually. I believe the escape() is used to convert those special characters for URL, like &, =, etc..

In my case, the problem is how to avoid the situation like below in javascript statement, the quote mark inside and the slash are causing javascript syntax error.

"avoid "quote mark" in a text"
"avoid "</something like this>" in javascript"

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Since the value of "description" is from java code, I guess I need do some conversion over there instead of doing it on client side. Thanks.

Originally posted by Michael L. Zhang:
Since the value of "description" is from java code, I guess I need do some conversion over there instead of doing it on client side. Thanks.

Correct. The escape() function will URL-encode the string. Not what you want.

There is no built-in Javascript string literal encoder on either the client or server side. So your best bet is to build one for your server-side code and pass the string through it prior to sending it to the view, or perhaps create a JSP custom action you can use on the JSP to perform the encoding. I would not try to do this on the client.

Originally posted by Bear Bibeault:


So your best bet is to build one for your server-side code and pass the string through it prior to sending it to the view, or perhaps create a JSP custom action you can use on the JSP to perform the encoding.

Are there any open source custom tag for this?