Convert HTML Character Entities back to regular text using javascript

Question

the questions says it all :)

eg. we have >, we need > using only javascript

Update: It seems jquery is t

Answer 1

I know there are libraries out there, but here are a couple of solutions for browsers. These work well when placing html entity data strings into human editable areas where you want the characters to be shown, such as textarea's or input[type=text].

I add this answer as I have to support older versions of IE and I feel that it wraps up a few days worth of research and testing. I hope somebody finds this useful.

First this is for more modern browsers using jQuery, Please note that this should NOT be used if you have to support versions of IE before 10 (7, 8, or 9) as it will strip out the newlines leaving you with just one long line of text.

if (!String.prototype.HTMLDecode) {
    String.prototype.HTMLDecode = function () {
            var str = this.toString(),
            $decoderEl = $('');

        str = $decoderEl.html(str)
            .text()
            .replace(/<br((\/)|( \/))?>/gi, "\r\n");

        $decoderEl.remove();

        return str;
    };
}
</code></pre>

<p>This next one is based on kennebec's work above, with some differences which are mostly for the sake of older IE versions. This does not require jQuery, but does still require a browser.</p>

<pre><code>if (!String.prototype.HTMLDecode) {
    String.prototype.HTMLDecode = function () {
        var str = this.toString(),
            //Create an element for decoding            
            decoderEl = document.createElement('p');

        //Bail if empty, otherwise IE7 will return undefined when 
        //OR-ing the 2 empty strings from innerText and textContent
        if (str.length == 0) {
            return str;
        }

        //convert newlines to <br's> to save them
        str = str.replace(/((\r\n)|(\r)|(\n))/gi, " <br/>");            

        decoderEl.innerHTML = str;
        /*
        We use innerText first as IE strips newlines out with textContent.
        There is said to be a performance hit for this, but sometimes
        correctness of data (keeping newlines) must take precedence.
        */
        str = decoderEl.innerText || decoderEl.textContent;

        //clean up the decoding element
        decoderEl = null;

        //replace back in the newlines
        return str.replace(/<br((\/)|( \/))?>/gi, "\r\n");
    };
}

/* 
Usage: 
    var str = ">";
    return str.HTMLDecode();

returned value: 
    (String) >    
*/
</code></pre>
    </p>
             <div class="appendcontent">
                                                        </div>
            </div>
            <div class="jieda-reply">
              <span class="jieda-zan button_agree" type="zan" data-id='553396'>
                <i class="iconfont icon-zan"></i>
                <em>0</em>
              </span>
                   <span type="reply" class="showpinglun" data-id="553396">
                <i class="iconfont icon-svgmoban53"></i>
               讨论(0)
              </span>
                                                  
              
              <div class="jieda-admin">
                          
             
       
          
              </div>
                                       <div class="noreplaytext bb">
<center><div>   <a href="https://www.e-learn.cn/qa/q-140061.html">  查看其它5个回答
</a>
</div></center>
</div>            </div>
                         <div class="comments-mod "  style="display: none; float:none;padding-top:10px;" id="comment_553396">
                    <div class="areabox clearfix">

<form class="layui-form" action="">
               
            <div class="layui-form-item">
    <label class="layui-form-label" style="padding-left:0px;width:60px;">发布评论:</label>
    <div class="layui-input-block" style="margin-left:90px;">
         <input type="text" placeholder="不少于5个字" AUTOCOMPLETE="off" class="comment-input layui-input" name="content" />
                        <input type='hidden' value='0' name='replyauthor' />
    </div>
    <div class="mar-t10"><span class="fr layui-btn layui-btn-sm addhuidapinglun" data-id="553396">提交评论 </span></div>
  </div>
  
</form>
                    </div>
                    <hr>
                    <ul class="my-comments-list nav">
                        <li class="loading">
                        <img src='https://www.e-learn.cn/qa/static/css/default/loading.gif' align='absmiddle' />
                         加载中...
                        </li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
          </li>
                              			
        </ul>
        
        <div class="layui-form layui-form-pane">
          <form id="huidaform"  name="answerForm"  method="post">
            
            <div class="layui-form-item layui-form-text">
              <a name="comment"></a>
              <div class="layui-input-block">
            
    
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.e-learn.cn/qa/static/js/neweditor/ueditor.config.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.e-learn.cn/qa/static/js/neweditor/ueditor.all.js"></script>
<script type="text/plain" id="editor"  name="content"  style="width:100%;height:200px;"></script>                                 
<script type="text/javascript">
                                 var isueditor=1;
            var editor = UE.getEditor('editor',{
                //这里可以选择自己需要的工具按钮名称,此处仅选择如下五个
                toolbars:[['source','fullscreen',  '|', 'undo', 'redo', '|', 'bold', 'italic', 'underline', 'fontborder', 'strikethrough', 'removeformat', 'formatmatch', 'autotypeset', 'blockquote', 'pasteplain', '|', 'forecolor', 'backcolor', 'insertorderedlist', 'insertunorderedlist', 'selectall', 'cleardoc', '|', 'rowspacingtop', 'rowspacingbottom', 'lineheight', '|', 'customstyle', 'paragraph', 'fontfamily', 'fontsize', '|', 'indent', '|', 'justifyleft', 'justifycenter', 'justifyright', 'justifyjustify', '|', 'link', 'unlink', 'anchor', '|', 'simpleupload', 'insertimage', 'scrawl', 'insertvideo', 'attachment', 'map', 'insertcode', '|', 'horizontal', '|', 'preview', 'searchreplace', 'drafts']],
            
                initialContent:'',
                //关闭字数统计
                wordCount:false,
                zIndex:2,
                //关闭elementPath
                elementPathEnabled:false,
                //默认的编辑区域高度
                initialFrameHeight:250
                //更多其他参数，请参考ueditor.config.js中的配置项
                //更多其他参数，请参考ueditor.config.js中的配置项
            });
                        editor.ready(function() {
            	editor.setDisabled();
            	});
                            $("#editor").find("*").css("max-width","362px");
        </script>              </div>
            </div>
                          
    

        
         <div class="layui-form-item">
                <label for="L_vercode" class="layui-form-label">验证码</label>
                <div class="layui-input-inline">
                  <input type="text"  id="code" name="code"   value="" required lay-verify="required" placeholder="图片验证码" autocomplete="off" class="layui-input">
                </div>
                <div class="layui-form-mid">
                  <span style="color: #c00;"><img class="hand" src="https://www.e-learn.cn/qa/user/code.html" onclick="javascript:updatecode();" id="verifycode"><a class="changecode"  href="javascript:updatecode();"> 看不清?</a></span>
                </div>
              </div>
                                  <div class="layui-form-item">
                    <input type="hidden" value="140061" id="ans_qid" name="qid">
   <input type="hidden" id="tokenkey" name="tokenkey" value=''/>
                <input type="hidden" value="Convert HTML Character Entities back to regular text using javascript" id="ans_title" name="title"> 
             
              <div class="layui-btn    layui-btn-disabled"  id="ajaxsubmitasnwer" >提交回复</div>
            </div>
          </form>
        </div>
      </div>
      <input type="hidden" value="140061" id="adopt_qid"	name="qid" /> 
      <input type="hidden" id="adopt_answer" value="0"	name="aid" />
    </div>
    <div class="layui-col-md4">
          
 <!-- 热门讨论问题 -->
     
 <dl class="fly-panel fly-list-one">
        <dt class="fly-panel-title">热议问题</dt>
            <!-- 本周热门讨论问题显示10条-->