Let me preface this post with the fact that I know very little about ASP programming so please go easy on me.

I have a Text/HTML module for an announcment section in a newsletter that we send via a third party.  I am having trouble converting the encoded text which is stored in the HtmlText database.    We have set up a Text/HTML module for the clients to enter their announcement text in - as I understand it the content from the module is converted (encoded) upon insertion into the HtmlText database for security reasons thereby converting the brackets, quotes etc. into different characters.  As a result when I pull the data from db the text displays as the code.  The following test content displays as follows (the actual code instead of html):

This is a test announcement.

This is a test link.

 

which displays literally as:

This is a test announcement.

This is a test link.

 

I found a  function to convert the code back (decode) but it is not working.  Here is the code that I am attempting to use:

                <%<br>                DIM sql2<br>                sql2 =     "SELECT DesktopHtml FROM HtmlText WHERE ModuleID = 'x'"<br><br>                DIM objRS2<br>                Set objRS2 = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")<br>                objRS2.Open sql2, objConn<br>                %>
               
                <%<br>                Dim sText<br>                Set sText= objRS2("DesktopHTML")<br>                %>
               
                <%<br>                Function HTMLDecode(sText)<br>                    Dim I<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "&quot;", Chr(34))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "<"  , Chr(60))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, ">"  , Chr(62))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "&amp;" , Chr(38))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "&nbsp;", Chr(32))<br>                    For I = 1 to 255<br>                        sText = Replace(sText, "&#" & I & ";", Chr(I))<br>                    Next<br>                    HTMLDecode = sText<br>                End Function<br>                %>
               
                <% Response.Write(sText) %>


Any assistance with this issue is greatly appreciated.

Travis

I can't really help with the code for transforming the encoded characters into HTML, but if you wish to look at the characters a quick search in Google under "HTML characters" will bring up quite a few results, this is one of the sites:
http://www.natural-innovations.com/...arset.html

Is it essential that you pull the data directly from the database?  You could just copy and paste the HTML code directly from the module.

there may be code within DotNetNuke that you could reuse to transform the characters, I am guessing you would need to look at the code related to the text HTML module and the text editor.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Lee,

Thanks.  I want to try and pull directly from the database since we are pulling content from multiple sources to create a newsletter.  In this way my clients can manage their own aspect of the newsletter and it will be dynamically generated on my end.

My research has shown that the Text/HTML module inputs the data into the db by encoding (I think through a Stored Procedure - but my knowledge of SQL is less than that of ASP) thereby converting certain characters like <, > and ". 

I can easily pull the data back out but not sure why the replace function I am using is not working.  Hopefully just missing something simple in the code.   Probably could use the appropriate Stored Proc to decode although not sure how to implement that - it has to be something that the Text/HTML module is doing itself in order to display the code correctly but I wouldn't even know where to start to see how that module works.  Maybe someone could point me in the right direction there.

Any help is appreciated. 

Travis

I took a quick look at some of the stored text for a couple of text/html modules. I don't think that the storage is for security purposes, but there are some characters that are replaced:

< <
> >
& &

If you change those, you'll probably get 95% or more of the changes that you need and the text will render correctly as html.

As for your substitutions, the Replace function is: Replace(Expression, WhatToReplace, ReplaceWithWhat)

So, I'd do things like: sText = Replace(sText, "<", "<")

Okay I think I got it.  I was trying to implement a Function I found searching on Google.  Removing the Function Name and end and just going with a plain replace seems to work.  This is the code I am using now:

                // Pulls String from DB and sets to sText //
                <%<br>                Dim sText<br>                Set sText= objRS2("DesktopHTML")<br>                %>
               
                // Replaces the characters //
                  <%<br>                    <b>Function HTMLDecode(sText) // Removed this line //</b><br>                    Dim I<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "&quot;", Chr(34))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "<"  , Chr(60))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, ">"  , Chr(62))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "&amp;" , Chr(38))<br>                    sText = Replace(sText, "&nbsp;", Chr(32))<br>                    For I = 1 to 255<br>                        sText = Replace(sText, "&#" & I & ";", Chr(I))<br>                    Next<br><b>                   End Function // Removed this line //</b><br>                %>
               
                // Writes the converted data to the page //
                <% Response.Write(sText) %>

Thanks to all for the ideas. 

Travis

Oh, right! You defined the function, but you never called it. So much for quickly reading code...

Sorry, just noticed that the post is replacing the values with the html version which makes the posts look funny. Looks like I'm trying to replace a < with a <. Not sure how to post without the system converting.

Travis

Joe,

Thanks. So just to complete the circle - you could leave the Function code in and use something like the following to display the converted text:

<% Response.Write(HTMLDecode(objRS2("DesktopHTML"))) %>

Thanks again for the help.

Travis

Yep! This would be useful if you plan to use the decode function in other places.