Forum OpenACS Development: Re: ad_quotehtml speed improvement

Hm, using string map does sound like a good idea, but you know, I just looked at the source code in AOLserver 3.3+ad13. ns_quotehtml is ultimiately implemented by Ns_QuoteHtml, and it definitely does quote double quotes. I suspect the ad_quotehtml docs above are very old - they probably date back to AOLserver 2.3.x, at which time presumably they were accurate.

In fact, Ns_QuoteHtml translates these 5 different characters to their equivalent HTML entitites:

<  >  &  \  "

each become, respectively:

<  >  &  '  "

Note that ns_quotehtml is translating literal backslashes, while ad_quotehtml is not. Why or why not?

So while you're at it, it would also useful to compare the string map vs. ns_quotehtml performance. If they're similar I think string map should be preferred, as it's much more general and powerful, and avoids and unnecessary dependency on the Ns_QuoteHtml C code for anyone trying to use OpenACS Tcl procs outside of AOLserver.

The discussion made me wonder why quotes need to be quoted...

The problem is, as far as I can see, the only reason why you would want to quote quotes, in within html-tags and especially links. But, at least within links, that is not correct at all... Why?

First example:

<A href='page?a=@a@&b=@b@'>


As you see, I'm using single quotes. This is perfectly legal, and often usefull because single quotes do not have any special meaning in Tcl. For example:

<%="
This is a text where some values like this one $var1 will be inserted automatically [funca]
<A href='page?a=${var2}&b=[funcb]'>blablbalbablablabl</A>
"%>


Because of this property, I've learned myself to write html using single quotes and so I can code adp like above in all my vanilla AOLserver code.

So, do we want to quote ' too? It would solve the problem.

Second example:

<%
# For simplicity of example, would normally be done in .tcl file
set name "Daniël Mantione"
%>
<A href='page?name=@name@'>blablablablablabla</A>

Whoops! Afaik, an URL should in all situation consist of standard US-Ascii. It is no solution to quote, ë won't work in a URL.

What should be done instead? This is, of course, ns_urlencode. This is true in any situation where a variable is being expanded within a tag attribute that specifies a URL. (I.e. A href, IMG src, LINK href etc...)

Unless there is another reason to quote ", the entire reason why it should be quoted is bogus...