I need to be able to check a text variable for HTML tags when our Users copy and

sswilliams over 9 years ago

I need to be able to check a text variable for HTML tags when our Users copy and paste text into a form. I want to be able to 'strip' the HTML tags from the text variable if a User does a copy an paste, else just store the data in the text variable. I have used the following expressions and none of them seem to work:
if(contains(pv!projectDescription,"SPAN"),striphtml(pv!projectDescription),pv!projectDescription)
if(like(pv!projectDescription,"SPAN*"),striphtml(pv!projectDescription),pv!projectDescription)
if(find(pv!projectDescription,"SPAN")>0,striphtml(pv!projectDescription),pv!projectDescription)

Is there a way to check a text variable for HTML tags and strip the tags so that the data will display without the tags in the up coming forms?

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0 Tim
Certified Lead Developer
over 9 years ago

Is there any need to actually test for HTML? Why not just run striphtml() over pv!projectDescription every time?
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0 sswilliams over 9 years ago

Some Users do a copy and paste and the striphtml() is needed. For Users who do not copy and paste but use formatting on the text (bullets, underline, insert a weblink, etc.) the striphtml() function removes the formatting that is needed. So if I could check for html, then the variable that does not have the tags would remain intact.
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0 Mike Schmitt
Certified Lead Developer
over 9 years ago

I think you may just need to manually check for whatever HTML tags you disallow and strip them out manually using normal text functions.
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0 PhilB
A Score Level 1
over 9 years ago

You can use a regex expression for this, though you'll need to install the regex functions plugin. An expression something like /(<script(\\s|\\S)*?<\\/script>)|(<style(\\s|\\S)*?<\\/style>)|()|(<\\/?(\\s|\\S)*?>)/g will do what you want.
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0 PhilB
A Score Level 1
over 9 years ago

Also if you're wondering whether that expression will work, check out http://regexr.com/ - a very useful regex tool.
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0 sswilliams over 9 years ago

I tried that in a script task using the expressions indicated in my initial questions. However the contain(), like(), and find() functions do not seem to recognize that there is any html in the variable. Is there something specific that I can check for? I have tried checking for:

"<", "SPAN", "<SPAN", "<SPAN*"
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