New to Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX? Download free 30-day trial

Escape HTML Tags in the Text of the Items When They Are Created on the Client-side

Sometimes is needed to add html tags in the text of the RadListBox items. By default when this is done from the mark-up, when data binding or from the server-side these html tags are not rendered by the browse. They are presented as a plain text along with the other characters of the RadListBox’s item.

<telerik:radlistbox id="RadListBox1" runat="server" skin="Office2010Blue">
        <Items>
            <telerik:RadListBoxItem Text="<b>Item1</b>" />
            <telerik:RadListBoxItem Text="<i>Item2</i>" />
        </Items>
</telerik:radlistbox>
<script type="text/javascript">
    function pageLoad() {
        var newItem = new Telerik.Web.UI.RadListBoxItem();
        newItem.set_text("<b><i>Item3</i></b>");
        var listbox = $find("<%= RadListBox1.ClientID %>")
        listbox.get_items().add(newItem);
    }
</script>

LisBox Without Encoding

This functionality is not presented when adding items on the client-side. When this is done the browser renders the html tags. In order to deal with this limitation one should escape the text containing these tags using the implementation suggested below:

<telerik:radlistbox id="RadListBox1" runat="server" skin="Office2010Blue">
        <Items>
            <telerik:RadListBoxItem Text="<b>Item1</b>" />
            <telerik:RadListBoxItem Text="<i>Item2</i>" />
        </Items>
</telerik:radlistbox>
<script type="text/javascript">
    function pageLoad() {
        var newItem = new Telerik.Web.UI.RadListBoxItem();
        newItem.set_text(encode("<b><i>Item3</i></b>"));
        var listbox = $find("<%= RadListBox1.ClientID %>")
        listbox.get_items().add(newItem);
    }

    function encode(value) {
        return Replace(value, {
            '&': '&amp;',
            '<': '&lt;',
            '>': '&gt;'
        });
    }

    function Replace(value, substitutes) {
        for (var substitute in substitutes)
            value = value.replace(new RegExp(substitute, 'g'), substitutes[substitute]);

        return value;
    }
</script>

ListBox With Encoding

If the newly added items will be persisted upon post-back, additional action should be performed. The approach is shown bellow:

<telerik:radlistbox id="RadListBox1" runat="server" skin="Office2010Blue">
        <Items>
            <telerik:RadListBoxItem Text="<b>Item1</b>" />
            <telerik:RadListBoxItem Text="<i>Item2</i>" />
        </Items>
</telerik:radlistbox>
function pageLoad() {
    var newItem = new Telerik.Web.UI.RadListBoxItem();
    newItem.set_text(encode("<b><i>Item3</i></b>"));
    newItem.get_attributes().setAttribute("Encoded", "encoded");
    var listbox = $find("<%= RadListBox1.ClientID %>")
    listbox.trackChanges();
    listbox.get_items().add(newItem);
    listbox.commitChanges();
}

function encode(value) {
    return Replace(value, {
        '&': '&amp;',
        '<': '&lt;',
        '>': '&gt;'
    });
}

function Replace(value, substitutes) {
    for (var substitute in substitutes)
        value = value.replace(new RegExp(substitute, 'g'), substitutes[substitute]);

    return value;
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    foreach (RadListBoxItem item in RadListBox1.Items)
    {
        if (item.Attributes["Encoded"] == "encoded")
        {
            item.Text = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(item.Text);
        }
    }
}   
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    For Each item As RadListBoxItem In RadListBox1.Items
        If item.Attributes("Encoded") = "encoded" Then
            item.Text = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(item.Text)
        End If
    Next
End Sub

See Also

In this article