What's the right way to decode a string that h

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Unescape HTML entities in Javascript? 10 answers

Say I get some JSON back from a service request that looks like this:

{
    "message": "We're unable to complete your request at this time."
}

I'm not sure why that apostraphe is encoded like that ('); all I know is that I want to decode it.

Here's one approach using jQuery that popped into my head:

function decodeHtml(html) {
    return $('<div>').html(html).text();
}

That seems (very) hacky, though. What's a better way? Is there a "right" way?

Answer 1

jQuery will encode and decode for you.

function htmlDecode(value) {
  return $("<textarea/>").html(value).text();
}

function htmlEncode(value) {
  return $('<textarea/>').text(value).html();
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
   $("#encoded")
  .text(htmlEncode("<img src onerror='alert(0)'>"));
   $("#decoded")
  .text(htmlDecode("&lt;img src onerror='alert(0)'&gt;"));
});
</script>

<span>htmlEncode() result:</span><br/>
<div id="encoded"></div>
<br/>
<span>htmlDecode() result:</span><br/>
<div id="decoded"></div>