Newline problem when writing to HTML using JavaScript

Question

I'm using regular textbox as a text input where the users wrties their comments. I then use JQuery and JSON to send data to the server and then insert it into the database.

When I want to display this text I use jQuery to download it prepare HTML and display it in the browser, but there are no new lines.

How can I keep any newlines entered by the user so that they are displayed in the browser?

EDIT:

The problem is that when I do alert $('.detailsCommentContent').val() I can see line breaks in the alert window, but when I then pass it as a GET argument:

insertComment.aspx?id=10&content= " + $('.detailsCommentContent').val() "

then in the url there are no signs of newLine :(

@Tim Post Not sure why it is closed as exact duplicate when the linked question is doing it in c# codebehind where this one is doing it using javascript and a slightly different scenario because it is injecting HTML and needs it preformatted before the injection. — Kelsey
– Kelsey, Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 17:53
@Kelsey I read it as more of a problem centered around HTML itself (and so did a few other users who flagged). As I'm the only actual vote that closed it, I'll go ahead and re-open the question. — user50049
– user50049, Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 18:04

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:47:57Z

2

Just do like this answer: keep formatting entered in asp.net textbox (carriage return, new line, etc)

theStringYouWantToFormat.Replace(char.ConvertFromUtf32(13),"<br/>")

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:47

CommunityBot

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answered Sep 6, 2011 at 15:19

Pierre-Luc Champigny

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Kelsey · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-06 15:21:20Z

2

Before writing out the HTML using javascript to the page, make sure to replace all the newlines with <br /> tags. Here is a simple extension for string that will allow you to do it using javascript (source):

String.prototype.NewlineToBR = function() {
    return this.replace( /\r\n|\r|\n/g, br || '');
}

Usage:

var htmlString = newlineString.NewlineToBR();

Then just insert the new string into you HTML.

answered Sep 6, 2011 at 15:21

Kelsey

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Andy · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-06 15:18:46Z

1

where do you want to display the text? in a textarea or directly on the page?

if on the page you'll have to convert the newlines to <br/> tags when getting the text from the db and printing it to the page.

answered Sep 6, 2011 at 15:18

Andy

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Robert · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-06 15:22:37Z

-2

I beleive this is down to the encoding you are using. Difference between unicode and ascii or something similar. It's been a while since I worked on something like this but I think it boiled down to two options.

match up the encoding on save and on load (we found that we had ascii on one and unicode on another).
replace all new line character with an arbituary value when saving and swap it back when you load it.

answered Sep 6, 2011 at 15:22

Robert

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