How to decode HTML entities for XHTML application

Question

How to decode HTML entities for XHTML application?

For example, $("<div/>").html("·").text() will raise an JavaScript error.

Error is:

[Exception... "An invalid or illegal string was specified" code: "12" nsresult: "0x8053000c (SyntaxError)"

EDIT: XHTML means real XHTML application, with application/xhtml+xml Content-type.

That gives a JavaScript error? Can you provide a jsFiddle example that shows the error? I can't produce one with that code. — I Hate Lazy, Nov 09 '12 at 15:36
I'm using jsBin, with an XHTML doctype, and I can't get the error. http://jsbin.com/ivisef/1/edit — I Hate Lazy, Nov 09 '12 at 15:39
I'm not as familiar with XHTML. Does wrapping the code win CDATA tags help, or is this a different issue? http://stackoverflow.com/a/66865/1689607 — I Hate Lazy, Nov 09 '12 at 15:45
no, CDATA will preserve decoding entity. I need decoding HTML entity... — Alex Ivasyuv, Nov 09 '12 at 15:50

Julien Royer · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-09T16:08:00.467

1

You can either use document.createEntityReference or escape the characters unsuitable for your file encoding at JavaScript code's level (\uxxxx); but, as pointed in your comment, document.createEntityReference doesn't work on Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/docs/DOM/document.createEntityReference

Alternatively, you can use a custom library such as php.js's html_entity_decode: http://phpjs.org/functions/html_entity_decode/

edited Nov 09 '12 at 16:08

answered Nov 09 '12 at 15:42

Julien Royer

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document.createEntityReference doesn't work in Fx neither Chrome. Looks like deprecated yet. \x26middot; also doesn't work. – Alex Ivasyuv Nov 09 '12 at 15:49
@AlexIvasyuv: Unicode escape sequences in JS don't work with reference names; you have to get the corresponding code point first. – Julien Royer Nov 09 '12 at 15:55
Using html_entity_decode with http://phpjs.org/functions/get_html_translation_table/ works fine! – Alex Ivasyuv Nov 09 '12 at 16:02

Marat Tanalin · Answer 2 · 2012-11-09T15:45:54.883

0

Try using pure-JavaScript innerHTML property instead of jQuery's html() method:

var elem = document.createElement('div');
elem.innerHTML = '&middot;';

var text = $(elem).text();

alert(text);

If jQuery has issues with XHTML, you can try to avoid it completely. Instead of jQuery.text(), textContent property can be used (for obsolete versions of IE, innerText can be used).

In general, it makes sense to decode entities on server side. For example, in PHP, there is a standard function for this purpose: html_entity_decode().

edited Nov 09 '12 at 15:45

answered Nov 09 '12 at 15:33

Marat Tanalin

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Did you try your example in XHTML application? – Alex Ivasyuv Nov 09 '12 at 15:35
I've tried in HTML page (there is no point to use XHTML [with `application/xhtml+xml` Content-Type] today). – Marat Tanalin Nov 09 '12 at 15:38
BTW, why not to switch to regular HTML? – Marat Tanalin Nov 09 '12 at 15:41

How to decode HTML entities for XHTML application

2 Answers2