Develop Reference

UTF-8 decoding help needed

I would like the change the layout of a web application but it is UTF-8 encoded. I have managed to use some online decoders and I know which part to modify but the decoding doesn't seem fully complete to work.
I want to move the div tag marked with * inside the previous one so instead of two lines I can have the data on one line which gives more on screen space.
<li class='ipsDataItem chat_row {{#callme}}ipsDataItem_new{{/callme}}' id='{{id}}'>
<div class='ipsPad_half {{#memberPhoto}}ipsPhotoPanel ipsPhotoPanel_tiny{{/memberPhoto}} ipsClearfix'>
{{#memberPhoto}}
<a href='{{memberUrl}}' class='ipsUserPhoto ipsUserPhoto_tiny' id='ips_uid_{{memberID}}'>
<img src='{{memberPhoto}}' alt=''>
</a>
{{/memberPhoto}}
<div>
<a href='#' data-action='mention' data-member='{{memberName}}'>{{{memberNameFormat}}}</a>
<span class='ipsPos_right'>
<span class='ipsType_small ipsType_light'>{{time}}</span>
{{#canEdit}}<a href='#' data-action='editMSGButton' data-id='{{id}}'><i class='fa fa-pencil-square'></i></a>{{/canEdit}}
{{#canDelete}}<a href='#' data-action='remove' data-id='{{id}}'><i class='fa fa-minus-square'></i></a>{{/canDelete}}
</span>
* <div class='ipsList_inline' id='chatraw_{{id}}' data-id='{{id}}' {{#canEdit}}data-action='editMSG'{{/canEdit}}>{{{message}}}</div>
</div>
</div>
</li>
This is the original encoded xml: https://pastebin.com/papiW75B
and this is what I managed to decode: https://pastebin.com/q24UfAEn. As you can see, the beginning part (line 1) is still a total mess but from line 2 forward it's all good.
What am I missing here? Should I do the decoding in another way?

I wouldn't describe that as being "UTF-8 encoded". It looks to me like obfuscated Javascript. It looks to me as if it's been deliberately obfuscated in order to prevent you doing what you are trying to do -- which I would describe more as reverse engineering rather than decoding. (Indeed, what you are trying to do might well be technically illegal unless you have permission from the copyright owner).
You've already done quite a good job at defeating the intentions of the people who created this application, and I don't think I can help you do any better.

Regex cutting down a specific character

I have this HTML tag <a href="abc> google </a>, how can i put the " after the letter c using regular expression
HTML: <a href="abc> google </a>
Regex: /\=\s*["“'”](.*?)[^“"'”]\s*\>/g
Replace: ="$1">
https://regex101.com/r/1FQods/1
https://jsfiddle.net/liev04/6n038nvm/

How about
str.replace(/href="[^\s>"]+/, function(match) { return match+'"' });

I suggest the following:
str.replace(/=\s*["']([^"']*?)\s*?(?=>)/g,'="\1"');
This should work also in cases where the second " exists already. It also allows for blanks between the = and the beginning of the string.
See here for a demo: https://regex101.com/r/xo52ka/1
Another issue might be cases like:
<a href="abc def > google </a>
My Solution will turn that into
google
But, of course, this solution has its limitations and is by far not watertight. It will only work on the last attribute of each tag (because of the lookahead (?=>) in the regexp).

Passing variable with single quote in javascript

I have an onClick call on a link:
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew Dsouza')"> //this is working good
The problem is the variable inside fomateName would contain single quotes and my fomateName Takes a variable like
var a='Andrew D'souza'. Need to format a variable present with single quote Ex;
<a onClick="fomateName('a')"> which turns to
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew D'souza')"> //this is not working ,because present of single quote
Any Idea how to pass text with proper quotes in a javascript.
with single quote not the name actually

Try:
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew D\'souza')"> <!-- this will work -->
\ use backslashes to escape '
Lets say if you have function like this =>
function fomateName(txt){
alert(txt);
}
and invoking it from anchor =>
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew D\'souza')"> <!-- this will alert "Andrew D'souza" -->

Escape the quote with backslashes.
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew D\'souza')">
//this is not working ,because present of single quote

You can wrap it in double quotes like so:
<a onClick="fomateName("Andrew D'souza")"> //this is not working ,because present of single quote
Never mind, just realized it already has double quotes, yeah use backslash for escape like so:
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew D\'souza')">

Try this. Use backslash - It will escape the quote breaks
<a onClick="fomateName('Andrew D\'souza')">

You can use escape character
<a onclick="formateName('AdrewD\'souza')">

You can escape the quote with a backslash..
fomateName('Andrew D\'souza');
This should work anyway:
var name = "Andrew D'souza";
fomateName(name);

Javascript variables

I'm learning Javascript right now. Can anybody tell me why the second code block traces a empty path for -launch(this)- but using the first code block it gives me the right path?
"<form action='"+launchwebsite+"/subsite/' method='post' target='_blank' onsubmit='launch(this)'>"
and this not:
"<a onclick='launch(this)' title='launch' class='iblack' /></a></div>"
Best
Uli

The this refers to the the element it is attached to. In the first snippet it is the <form>- and in the second the <a>-element. Also the <a> lacks a href-attribute.

I'm not shure but if the code you put is exactly what you are testing you are missing a ;
<a onclick='launch(this)' title='launch' class='iblack' /></a></div> <-- You're Version
<a onclick='launch(this);' title='launch' class='iblack' /></a></div>
Else I never really did an onclick on a html control I usually do href="" to call another page php per exemple and in that page to the treatment I want.
Another point I`ve looked at is to catch this command in javascript you would need you to call and "blank" page as of
<a href="#" onClick='launch(this);' title='launch' class='iblack' /></a></div>
This last code acutally worked for me! Keep me in touch, wanna see if this works out for you!!
Patrick

Regex in Javascript to remove links

I have a string in JavaScript and it includes an a tag with an href. I want to remove all links and the text. I know how to just remove the link and leave the inner text but I want to remove the link completely.
For example:
var s = "check this out <a href='http://www.google.com'>Click me</a>. cool, huh?";
I would like to use a regex so I'm left with:
s = "check this out. cool, huh?";

This will strip out everything between <a and /a>:
mystr = "check this out <a href='http://www.google.com'>Click me</a>. cool, huh?";
alert(mystr.replace(/<a\b[^>]*>(.*?)<\/a>/i,""));
It's not really foolproof, but maybe it'll do the trick for your purpose...

Just to clarify, in order to strip link tags and leave everything between them untouched, it is a two step process - remove the opening tag, then remove the closing tag.
txt.replace(/<a\b[^>]*>/i,"").replace(/<\/a>/i, "");
Working sample:
<script>
function stripLink(txt) {
return txt.replace(/<a\b[^>]*>/i,"").replace(/<\/a>/i, "");
}
</script>
<p id="strip">
<a href="#">
<em>Here's the text!</em>
</a>
</p>
<p>
<input value="Strip" type="button" onclick="alert(stripLink(document.getElementById('strip').innerHTML))">
</p>

Regexes are fundamentally bad at parsing HTML (see Can you provide some examples of why it is hard to parse XML and HTML with a regex? for why). What you need is an HTML parser. See Can you provide an example of parsing HTML with your favorite parser? for examples using a variety of parsers.

If you only want to remove <a> elements, the following should work well:
s.replace(/<a [^>]+>[^<]*<\/a>/, '');
This should work for the example you gave, but it won't work for nested tags, for example it wouldn't work with this HTML:
<em>Google</em>

Just commented about John Resig's HTML parser. Maybe it helps on your problem.

Examples above do not remove all occurrences. Here is my solution:
str.replace(/<a\b[^>]*>/gm, '').replace(/<\/a>/gm, '')