Control a String Value Display

[Steve Dyke]

I set a session attribute up then use it in expression language to display on my JSP. The string value is like this: "R&D1040 Test Article" When this displays in my JSP field all I see is "R". I am sure it tis the "&" causing it to fail. How can I fix this. I have tried:

session.setAttribute("projectDesc", p2.replaceAll("&","\\&"));

But it still strips the string to only "R"

[Bear Bibeault]

& is the character that introduces an HTML entity. It must be properly encoded to appear on an HTML page.

The easiest way to do this is to use <cut> to display the value.

[Steve Dyke]

I am not using the string value in my HTML. I use javascript and the syntax:

var v1 = "${stringvalue}"

[Bear Bibeault]

When this displays in my JSP field ...

So what does the above mean then?

[Steve Dyke]

I have a JSP with a list of program descriptions which display(even the ones with "&" in them). Usually the program description are plain text with no special characters. However, a couple of them are unique. Example: "R&DTest". Also on the form has a table to hold child details of the selected program. So when the user makes a selection the form posts a request to display the table values. The request sends selected program description as a parameter. I set the parameter as an attribute. Now at this point the user cannot tell from the list what program was selected. So I added an input box that displays the program that was selected previously, the attribute, in the onload event using the syntax "${progdesc}".

[Bear Bibeault]

So how is that:

not using the string value in my HTML

?

If the string appears anywhere on the display, it's being used in the HTML and must be properly encoded.
[ May 22, 2008: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Steve Dyke]

After doing some more testing the string breaks when the request is made here:

 
var v2 = document.getElementById('activeprojects').options(document.getElementById('activeprojects').selectedIndex).text;

alert(v2);
document.getElementById('csp').value = v2;
document.taskForm.action = "/ResourceManagement/AccessScheduleServlet?p2="+v2;
document.taskForm.method="post";
document.taskForm.submit();
 

The alert shows entire string and it is placed in my input box okay. However, if I check the parameter value that is sent to the servlet the string changes from "R&DTest" to "R".

What encoding do I use to keep this from happening? Is this something I do at the HTTPRequest side.

Once again I thank you for all the help.

[Ben Souther]

To encode it on the server side, before sending it to the browser, use
java.net.URLEncoder.

To encode it on the client side, look at Javascripts escape() function.

[Steve Dyke]

Thanks,

javascript.escape() worked.