Question

I have a PHP script that returns a json_encoded response that is like so:

//PHP
$response = array('type' => 'success', 'content' => '&&!%$#!some words');
echo json_encode($response);
return;

Now the JS takes the response and tries to put the content in a textarea:

 $('#some_form').ajaxForm({

    success: function(resp){

        if(resp.type === 'success')
        {

            $('#text_area').val(resp.content);

        }

    },
    dataType: 'json'
});

The content of the script will be displayed as this in the text area:

&&!%$#!some words

Why are the ampersands being messed up but not the other types of punctuation? Is there a way around this? I would like the ampersands to show up as a regular ampersand in the text area.

Answer 1

Just looked through the code for the jquery form plugin. There is a special case in there where file uploads are treated differently (and the part that I’m using as well). Details of how that works can be found here: http://jquery.malsup.com/form/#file-upload

But what happens is that it uses a call to innerHTML to retreive the content. That actually converts things into html character strings.

I augmented it in a way so that it does a URL encode first then URL decode to maintain the integrity of the text.