Javascript: Encoding Values in XML Strings for AJAX / Web 2.0

 

I have written a very simple javascript function to do the job. The function takes a Javascript string (or any value, integer etc.) as input, converts it into a string and then replaces all occurrences of <, >, &, ", and ' with their html values. Please note that on the server side e.g. in PHP, ASP you have to decode the xml values to process them properly. I have also written the PHP function, which is described here.

function xml_encode(input)
{	
	if(input == undefined)	
	{
		alert("error in xml_encode: input undefined");	
		return;
	}
	input	=	trim(input.toString());
	
	var replace_with	=	'&amp;';
	// The 'g' in the first argument is used to tell the function 'replace' 
	// that all occurences (g = global)
	// of the character in between slashes have to be replaced.
	input 			= 	input.replace(/&/g,	replace_with);
	
	replace_with		=	'&lt;';
	input 			= 	input.replace(/</g,	replace_with);
	
	replace_with		=	'&gt;';
	input 			= 	input.replace(/>/g,	replace_with);
	
	replace_with		=	'&apos;';
	input 			= 	input.replace(/'/g,	replace_with);
		
	replace_with		=	'&quot;';
	input 			= 	input.replace(/"/g,	replace_with);
	
	return input;
}

Using xml_encode() - A simple example (JavaScript Code):

So, now let's say you want to create an XML string manually (in JavaScript) you'll use the function as follows:

	var xml		=	"<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>";
	name_variable	=	trim(document.getElementById('your_name').value);
	xml		+=	"<name>";
	xml		+=	xml_encode(name_variable);
	xml		+=	"</name>";

The trim function used in the example above is defined here.

Please feel free to use the comments form below if you have any questions or need more explanation on anything.

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