HTML Special Entity Codes in Actionscript3/Flex

Question

I have a Flex/Actionscript 3 application that displays RSS feeds in a Text element. It strips out any HTML formatting present, but it's not handling HTML special entity codes properly -- it's rendering &mdash as the literal string instead of replacing it with an em-dash, etc. Is there any systematic way I can make it handle those codes properly, or am I going to need to manually replace those strings regex style?

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Edit: Some aspects of Flex behavior that are relevant: both text and htmlText handle a limited subset of the characters properly with no further tweaking -- &lt, &gt, &nbsp, etc. (In fact, text actually handles them a little better than htmlText, as the latter treats < as a literal less-than character.) But there's a much larger set of characters (&deg, &mdash, and many others) that aren't handled properly -- at least, not by default.

Answer 1

You can try using the htmlText property to set your text, rather than the text property.

This should convert any html entities to there correct symbols.

Answer 2

Here is one way:

static private var entityMap:Object = { '&nbsp;':'&#160;', '&iexcl;':'&#161;',       '&cent;':'&#162;', '&pound;':'&#163;', '&curren;':'&#164;', '&yen;':'&#165;', '&brvbar;':'&#166;', '&sect;':'&#167;', '&uml;':'&#168;', '&copy;':'&#169;', '&ordf;':'&#170;', '&laquo;':'&#171;', '&not;':'&#172;', '&shy;':'&#173;', '&reg;':'&#174;', '&macr;':'&#175;', '&deg;':'&#176;', '&plusmn;':'&#177;', '&sup2;':'&#178;', '&sup3;':'&#179;', '&acute;':'&#180;', '&micro;':'&#181;', '&para;':'&#182;', '&middot;':'&#183;', '&cedil;':'&#184;', '&sup1;':'&#185;', '&ordm;':'&#186;', '&raquo;':'&#187;', '&frac14;':'&#188;', '&frac12;':'&#189;', '&frac34;':'&#190;', '&iquest;':'&#191;', '&Agrave;':'&#192;', '&Aacute;':'&#193;', '&Acirc;':'&#194;', '&Atilde;':'&#195;', '&Auml;':'&#196;', '&Aring;':'&#197;', '&AElig;':'&#198;', '&Ccedil;':'&#199;', '&Egrave;':'&#200;', '&Eacute;':'&#201;', '&Ecirc;':'&#202;', '&Euml;':'&#203;', '&Igrave;':'&#204;', '&Iacute;':'&#205;', '&Icirc;':'&#206;', '&Iuml;':'&#207;', '&ETH;':'&#208;', '&Ntilde;':'&#209;', '&Ograve;':'&#210;', '&Oacute;':'&#211;', '&Ocirc;':'&#212;', '&Otilde;':'&#213;', '&Ouml;':'&#214;', '&times;':'&#215;', '&Oslash;':'&#216;', '&Ugrave;':'&#217;', '&Uacute;':'&#218;', '&Ucirc;':'&#219;', '&Uuml;':'&#220;', '&Yacute;':'&#221;', '&THORN;':'&#222;', '&szlig;':'&#223;', '&agrave;':'&#224;', '&aacute;':'&#225;', '&acirc;':'&#226;', '&atilde;':'&#227;', '&auml;':'&#228;', '&aring;':'&#229;', '&aelig;':'&#230;', '&ccedil;':'&#231;', '&egrave;':'&#232;', '&eacute;':'&#233;', '&ecirc;':'&#234;', '&euml;':'&#235;', '&igrave;':'&#236;', '&iacute;':'&#237;', '&icirc;':'&#238;', '&iuml;':'&#239;', '&eth;':'&#240;', '&ntilde;':'&#241;', '&ograve;':'&#242;', '&oacute;':'&#243;', '&ocirc;':'&#244;', '&otilde;':'&#245;', '&ouml;':'&#246;', '&divide;':'&#247;', '&oslash;':'&#248;', '&ugrave;':'&#249;', '&uacute;':'&#250;', '&ucirc;':'&#251;', '&uuml;':'&#252;', '&yacute;':'&#253;', '&thorn;':'&#254;', '&yuml;':'&#255;', '&fnof;':'&#402;', '&Alpha;':'&#913;', '&Beta;':'&#914;', '&Gamma;':'&#915;', '&Delta;':'&#916;', '&Epsilon;':'&#917;', '&Zeta;':'&#918;', '&Eta;':'&#919;', '&Theta;':'&#920;', '&Iota;':'&#921;', '&Kappa;':'&#922;', '&Lambda;':'&#923;', '&Mu;':'&#924;', '&Nu;':'&#925;', '&Xi;':'&#926;', '&Omicron;':'&#927;', '&Pi;':'&#928;', '&Rho;':'&#929;', '&Sigma;':'&#931;', '&Tau;':'&#932;', '&Upsilon;':'&#933;', '&Phi;':'&#934;', '&Chi;':'&#935;', '&Psi;':'&#936;', '&Omega;':'&#937;', '&alpha;':'&#945;', '&beta;':'&#946;', '&gamma;':'&#947;', '&delta;':'&#948;', '&epsilon;':'&#949;', '&zeta;':'&#950;', '&eta;':'&#951;', '&theta;':'&#952;', '&iota;':'&#953;', '&kappa;':'&#954;', '&lambda;':'&#955;', '&mu;':'&#956;', '&nu;':'&#957;', '&xi;':'&#958;', '&omicron;':'&#959;', '&pi;':'&#960;', '&rho;':'&#961;', '&sigmaf;':'&#962;', '&sigma;':'&#963;', '&tau;':'&#964;', '&upsilon;':'&#965;', '&phi;':'&#966;', '&chi;':'&#967;', '&psi;':'&#968;', '&omega;':'&#969;', '&thetasym;':'&#977;', '&upsih;':'&#978;', '&piv;':'&#982;', '&bull;':'&#8226;', '&hellip;':'&#8230;', '&prime;':'&#8242;', '&Prime;':'&#8243;', '&oline;':'&#8254;', '&frasl;':'&#8260;', '&weierp;':'&#8472;', '&image;':'&#8465;', '&real;':'&#8476;', '&trade;':'&#8482;', '&alefsym;':'&#8501;', '&larr;':'&#8592;', '&uarr;':'&#8593;', '&rarr;':'&#8594;', '&darr;':'&#8595;', '&harr;':'&#8596;', '&crarr;':'&#8629;', '&lArr;':'&#8656;', '&uArr;':'&#8657;', '&rArr;':'&#8658;', '&dArr;':'&#8659;', '&hArr;':'&#8660;', '&forall;':'&#8704;', '&part;':'&#8706;', '&exist;':'&#8707;', '&empty;':'&#8709;', '&nabla;':'&#8711;', '&isin;':'&#8712;', '&notin;':'&#8713;', '&ni;':'&#8715;', '&prod;':'&#8719;', '&sum;':'&#8721;', '&minus;':'&#8722;', '&lowast;':'&#8727;', '&radic;':'&#8730;', '&prop;':'&#8733;', '&infin;':'&#8734;', '&ang;':'&#8736;', '&and;':'&#8743;', '&or;':'&#8744;', '&cap;':'&#8745;', '&cup;':'&#8746;', '&int;':'&#8747;', '&there4;':'&#8756;', '&sim;':'&#8764;', '&cong;':'&#8773;', '&asymp;':'&#8776;', '&ne;':'&#8800;', '&equiv;':'&#8801;', '&le;':'&#8804;', '&ge;':'&#8805;', '&sub;':'&#8834;', '&sup;':'&#8835;', '&nsub;':'&#8836;', '&sube;':'&#8838;', '&supe;':'&#8839;', '&oplus;':'&#8853;', '&otimes;':'&#8855;', '&perp;':'&#8869;', '&sdot;':'&#8901;', '&lceil;':'&#8968;', '&rceil;':'&#8969;', '&lfloor;':'&#8970;', '&rfloor;':'&#8971;', '&lang;':'&#9001;', '&rang;':'&#9002;', '&loz;':'&#9674;', '&spades;':'&#9824;', '&clubs;':'&#9827;', '&hearts;':'&#9829;', '&diams;':'&#9830;', '"':'&#34;', '&':'&#38;', '<':'&#60;', '>':'&#62;', '&OElig;':'&#338;', '&oelig;':'&#339;', '&Scaron;':'&#352;', '&scaron;':'&#353;', '&Yuml;':'&#376;', '&circ;':'&#710;', '&tilde;':'&#732;', '&ensp;':'&#8194;', '&emsp;':'&#8195;', '&thinsp;':'&#8201;', '&zwnj;':'&#8204;', '&zwj;':'&#8205;', '&lrm;':'&#8206;', '&rlm;':'&#8207;', '&ndash;':'&#8211;', '&mdash;':'&#8212;', '&lsquo;':'&#8216;', '&rsquo;':'&#8217;', '&sbquo;':'&#8218;', '&ldquo;':'&#8220;', '&rdquo;':'&#8221;', '&bdquo;':'&#8222;', '&dagger;':'&#8224;', '&Dagger;':'&#8225;', '&permil;':'&#8240;', '&lsaquo;':'&#8249;', '&rsaquo;':'&#8250;', '&euro;':'&#8364;' };

static public function convertEntities(str:String):String 
{
    var re:RegExp = /&\w*;/g
    var entitiesFound:Array = str.match(re);
    var entitiesConverted:Object = {};    

    var len:int = entitiesFound.length;
    var oldEntity:String;
    var newEntity:String;
    for (var i:int = 0; i < len; i++)
    {
        oldEntity = entitiesFound[i];
        newEntity = entityMap[oldEntity];

        if (newEntity && !entitiesConverted[oldEntity])
        {
            str = str.split(oldEntity).join(newEntity);
            entitiesConverted[oldEntity] = true;
        }
    }

    return str;
}

Credit where credit is due: this code was optimised by an acquaintance of mine (Tim Hawkins) which was modified from the original Flash HTML Entities Suck.