I have a form with a textfield, where I use JavaScript to limit the textfields maximum length. Within my JavaScript I use the expression
document.form_name.text_fi
to determin the number of characters.
When I submit the form I double check in my CF code to make sure the submitted value is indeed within the desired limit (can't trust visitors to have JavaScript enabled). I use Len(Form.text_fieldname) to check its length.
What I find is that JavaScript counts each new line as one character, and ColdFusion's Len counts each new line as two characters.
My reason for the checks in the first place is because of fixed field length in MSSQL table.
Which of the two formats should I be trusting for storing new lines into MSSQL and what is the easiest way to reconcile the length reported by JavaScript and ColdFusion?
Thanks in advance,
Marcin
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I am totally aware of the classic Unix vs. DOS newline difference, where DOS uses carriage return + line feed. What boggles my mind is why would ColdFusion, written for the web, do things any different than JavaScript does.
I can only think that it might be the effect of ColdFusion now being written in Java, and thus the Len() function somehow maps to some standard Java function. I am looking to understand the nature of this, as I want to make sure tht this is not related somehow to how data gets encoded in form submissions and further gets processed by ColdFusion. This understanding is crucial to prevent similar problems in the future - I despise hacks that work around lack of understanding.
Ok, through experimentation I managed to establish that MSSQL counts newlines as a single character, which makes the problem simpler. I should than be able to use something like suggested by Tacobell777. However, for the reason mentioned above I am reluctant to use this fix without further understanding of the problem.
Marcin
Hey mrichmon,
Looks like this time we meet at one of my questions.
I have already done a test per your suggestion... posted result in above message within the same minute ;) as your post. Looks like ColdFusion has things wrong, which in some ways I am surprised, thus I am trying to understand why the count it provides is different from JavaScript AND MSSQL.
Marcin
mrichmon, To answer your question, I am using 'document.form_name.text_f
OK, time to pull out the big guns..... Ethereal up and running...
I have confirmed that the form submission sent by the browser contains carriage-returns and line-feeds, hence ColdFusions is simply reporting the exact content of the posted data.
So, now the question is whether there is a way to instruct the browser to post the data differently, or perhaps to 'normalize' things at ColdFusion end, or if Tacobel777's suggested replace( yourString, chr(11) & chr(13), chr(11)) is simply the way to go.
Marcin
Oops.... my bad. My appologies to everyone for not closing this issue for so long.
What I found long term is that the way new lines get encoded in form submission was broser dependent, with IE of course using the CR + LF approach, while Firefox following the unix way. However, that would also varry if I pasted text in the text box that was copied from source containing either one of the two new line encoding method.
ColdFusion would handle things literally, counting whatever it received in a form submission.
MSSQL really does not care what you store in a field. Whichever way the newline is encoded, even when it is mixed throughout the text, that is exactly what it will store, and count each character as a byte (thus CR+LF is two characters). I chose to encode everything only with carriage return.
So, in my page code I used following JavaScript to derive textbox content in bytes:
l = message_body.value.replace
Than in processing page used following ColdFusion:
<cfset form.message_body = Replace( form.message_body, chr(13)&chr(10), chr(10), "All" )>
<cfif len(form.message_body) gt 3500>
(...)
Thanks to all for your help. I am increasing points to 450 to split evently.
Cheers,
Marcin
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by: angelIIIPosted on 2005-07-12 at 00:13:31ID: 14419028
a newline should be a newline. However, some environments prefer to read "carriage-return+newline" instad, which makes it 2 characters (read 2 bytes). Speaking ascii codes: #11 and #13 ...
I assume that JS actually uses only the real pure newline, while CF uses both... however there might be some implicit conversion between the 2 parts of the processing...
you should take the max length of both to ensure the value fits into the table.