How do I convert escape characters in Javascript to a .txt file?

Question

I have an HTML file that is using Javascript to do file I/O operations on a .txt file, via an ActiveXObject ( only works in Internet Explorer, on Windows OS).

There is a text input box on the HTML page, and a button. The button calls a function onclick to write the text entered to the end of the .txt file. There is also a textarea on the HTML page, in which the modified contents of the .txt file are copied and pasted into. All of this is working so far...

So, I want to insert tabs and new-lines into the .txt file, from my HTML page with Javascript. I am using this line to copy the .txt file contents into the textarea, initialized in a variable:

 var newText = oldText + "\\n" + document.getElementById("userInput").value;

Of course, the escape character \\n works on the HTML page, and not in the .txt file...

So how do I encode new lines, and tabs as well, into a parsable format for the .txt file? I have tried using the escape() method on ANSI values found here , and on ASCII values found here , but with no luck.

Here is my code so far:

 <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>New Web Project</title> </head> <body> <p> Enter some text here: &nbsp; <input type = "text" id = "userInput" /> </p> <input type = "button" value = "submit" onclick = "main();" /> <br /> <hr /> <br /><br /><br /> <textarea id = "textHere" rows = 25 cols = 150></textarea> <script type = "text/javascript"> // executes all code from this function to prevent global variables function main() { var filePath = getThisFilePath(); var fileText = readFile(filePath); writeFile(filePath, fileText); } // end of function main function getThisFilePath() { var path = document.location.pathname; // getting rid of the first forward-slash, and ending at the last forward-slash to get rid of file-name var correctPath = path.substr(1, path.lastIndexOf("/") ); var fixedPath = correctPath.replace(/%20/gi, " "); // replacing all space entities return fixedPath; } // end of function getThisFilePath function readFile(folder) { var fso = ""; var ots = ""; var oldText = ""; try { fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"); // in the same folder as this HTML file, in "read" mode (1) ots = fso.OpenTextFile(folder + "writeToText.txt", 1, true); oldText = ots.ReadAll(); ots = null; fso = null; } catch(e) { alert("There is an error in this code!\\n\\tError: " + e.message); exit(); // end the program if there is an error } return oldText; } // end of function readFile function writeFile(folder, oldText) { var fso = ""; var ots = ""; var newText = oldText + "\\n" + document.getElementById("userInput").value; try { fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"); // in the same folder as this HTML file, in "write" mode (2) ots = fso.OpenTextFile(folder + "writeToText.txt", 2, true); ots.Write(newText); ots.Close(); ots = null; fso = null; } catch(e) { alert("There is an error in this code!\\n\\tError: " + e.message); exit(); // end the program if there is an error } setText(newText); // with the function below } // end of function writeFile // called from the function writeFile function setText(textFile) { document.getElementById("textHere").value = textFile; } // end of function setText </script> <!-- end of javascript --> </body> </html>

Answer 1

Windows expects "\\r\\n" as linebreaks. I'm quite sure you would find them in your textarea's value as well (after hitting enter). They will get automatically inserted when you set a value with "\\n" , and most libraries (like jQuery) do replace them with "normal" linebreaks when reading the value.

However, I would expect a file read/write with only "\\n" to work, and when you load the file's text into your textarea they should show up. MS Notepad might have problems showing them.

How do I convert escape characters in Javascript to a .txt file?

Question

1 answers

solution1
2 ACCPTED 2012-07-27 19:53:42

How do I convert escape characters in Javascript to a .txt file?

Question

1 answers

solution1 2 ACCPTED 2012-07-27 19:53:42

solution1
2 ACCPTED 2012-07-27 19:53:42