HttpUtility HtmlDecode. Why do i need this?

Question

I have an ASP.NET MVC controller that returns a view. In this view i create some html. For example

@Html.ActionLink(HttpUtility.HtmlDecode("&iquest;Olvid&oacute; su contrase&ntilde;a&#63;"), "ForgotYourPassword", "Account", null, new { style = "color: white; text-decoration: none;"})

The thing is, that this app needs to handle some special characters for example the ñ.

The code above works fine, the html renders without problems. But the thing is that i dont understand why should i use:

HttpUtility.HtmlDecode("&iquest;Olvid&oacute; su contrase&ntilde;a&#63;")

This line will simply return "¿Ólvido su contraseña?", but if instead of using HtmlDecode i simply use:

@Html.ActionLink("¿Ólvido su contraseña?", "ForgotYourPassword", "Account", null, new { style = "color: white; text-decoration: none;"})

The browser wont be able to show the HTML properly and it will have character encoding problems.

Why can't I simply use "¿Ólvido su contraseña?" ?. After all HttpUtility.HtmlDecode("¿Olvidó su contraseña?") returns "¿Ólvido su contraseña?"

If i dont do that the webpage instead of showing "¿Ólvido su contraseña?" it will show this "Â¿Ã“lvido su contrseÃ±a?" After using HtmlDecode it renders properly. — Franco Fittipaldi, Jan 17 '17 at 14:41
That just tells the browser how to parse it. You need to make sure that the source file is actually encoded as UTF8. — SLaks, Jan 17 '17 at 14:46

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

1

The encoding of the generated page (probably UTF-8) is not the same as the encoding of your source code.

You need to compare the <meta charset="..."> tag in the generated HTML and the encoding of your source code (here is a simple way to find it out).

If they are different, the simplest solution is to save your source code with the same encoding as the web page.

If the problem persists, try adding this to your Web.config:

<system.web>
    <globalization fileEncoding="utf-8" />
</system.web>

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

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answered Jan 17 '17 at 14:42

Botond Balázs

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Source file is UTF-8, and the charset is also UTF-8 – Franco Fittipaldi Jan 17 '17 at 14:53
@FrancoFittipaldi try adding the line I've added to my answer to your `Web.config` – Botond Balázs Jan 17 '17 at 14:59
@FrancoFittipaldi also, as far as I know, the source code should be "UTF-8 with BOM" – Botond Balázs Jan 17 '17 at 15:00
Thanks adding worked fine!. I still dont understand why it did not work before. Files where UTF-8 already. – Franco Fittipaldi Jan 17 '17 at 15:10
I think IIS can override that and that's why you need the setting in `Web.config`. – Botond Balázs Jan 17 '17 at 17:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '17 at 14:57

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There is no difference if you are using just a static content, but if you need retrieve the text from a db or a file for example, this is gonna be useful to display the chars with the correct encoding.

answered Jan 17 '17 at 14:57

Lucas Micheleto

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HttpUtility HtmlDecode. Why do i need this?

2 Answers2