Search code examples
javascriptjquerynode.jsejscarriage-return

EJS/Javascript: Carriage return & line break breaks Javascript

So I am developing a form using EJS and Node.js. I pick up a text field from the database which has the following string for example:

,11-111-1111 ,Nurse ,Mobile Phone , , , , ,ABCD - LAB - User unable to see patient name in pending inquiry in Pat 
Taha St reporting, she can see everything else but patient name in pending inquiry

In the Javascript code, I read this field from the database into a variable as follows:

var srDescription  = '<%= Description %>';

But my Javascript breaks with the following stack in Chrome Developer tools:

VM5484:68 Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGALx.extend.globalEval @ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:4x.fn.extend.domManip 
@ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:5x.fn.extend.append @ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:5(anonymous function) 
@ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:5x.extend.access @ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:4x.fn.extend.html 
@ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:5$.ajax.success 
@ app.js:1863l @ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:4c.fireWith @ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:4k   
@ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:6(anonymous function) @ jquery-2.0.2.min.js:6

Investigation:

I did some testing with the raw string & found out that this breaks only when there is a Carriage return Line feed character (CRLF)

I tried the following with no luck:

'<%= Description %>'.replace(/\r?\n\s*/g,'');

How do I escape these characters so that Javascript does not break?

Solution

  • You can use a plugin like ejs-shrink to clean up the whitespaces, or implement your own solution. In this case however, I think the solution would be sanitizing your data on the server side.