Returning Html To XMLHttpRequest Object

Question

I am making an ajax call to a service that returns html as a string with this code..

var xhReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhReq.open("POST", "MobileClientService.svc/REST/TestHtmlSend", false);
xhReq.send(null);
xhReq.responseType = "text/html";
var serverResponse = xhReq.responseText;
alert(serverResponse); // Shows "15"

The service creates the html correctly..

<div data-bb-type="item" data-bb-img="Images/imagesBBUI/icons/icon11.png" data-bb-title="Title From Server">

</div>

The problem is "serverResponse" in my code is returning this..

<div data-bb-type=\"item\" data-bb-img=\"Images/imagesBBUI/icons/icon11.png\" data-bb-title=\"Title From Server\">
  \u000d\u000a\u000d\u000a
<\/div>

Here is the C# code used to create the html..

  public string TestHtmlSend()
        {
            string moomoo = String.Empty;

            // Initialize StringWriter instance.
            StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();

            // Put HtmlTextWriter in using block because it needs to call Dispose.
            using (HtmlTextWriter writer = new HtmlTextWriter(stringWriter))
            {
                //start collapse div
                writer.AddAttribute("data-bb-type", "item");
                writer.AddAttribute("data-bb-img", "Images/imagesBBUI/icons/icon11.png");
                writer.AddAttribute("data-bb-title", "Title From Server");
                writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Div);
                //writer.Write("Some Whatever Description");
                writer.RenderEndTag();

            }

            moomoo = stringWriter.ToString();

How do I change my code to return the html as it is without all the extra "\"?

@TravisJ Why does everyone always default to jQuery. Maybe hes trying to learn what the javascript is doing in the background or cannot use libraries? — locrizak
– locrizak, Commented Sep 28, 2012 at 20:17
@locrizak - Because it is standardized and using a plain XMLHttpRequest can have issues with certain browsers. — Travis J
– Travis J, Commented Sep 28, 2012 at 20:19
What is the character encoding that is being returned with the Ajax response? Can you give us a sample of the headers coming back with that Ajax response? — daniel0mullins
– daniel0mullins, Commented Sep 28, 2012 at 20:56

Angelo Gonzalez · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-28 20:29:11Z

1

I've run into weird issues like this before and it usually always boils down to the middleware.

Looks like a variable interpolation issue on the server side.

What is your middleware language and/or framework?

Ensure that you are printing to your output stream in a clean manner:

using only a single variable (where you can easily see quote interpolation)
not escaping on your output, unnecessarily

answered Sep 28, 2012 at 20:29

Angelo Gonzalez

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2 Comments

Angelo Gonzalez Over a year ago

btw, the unicode characters in there might be a sign that you are parsing your string through an html entities translation ... maybe an html_entities_decode is the source of your problems?

Nick LaMarca Over a year ago

I updated the question with the C# code used to create the html

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