Control charcters in form input field

[Paul Jørstad]

Hello!

In a form I have an input field. It's supposed to get input form a
scanning device. Thus, the input might contain special characters (like
the Group Separator in a EAN barcode). Now, I want to manipulate a
little with the input in a javascript, but I'm not able to find the
Group Separator:

input = document.main.i nput.value;
var a = input.split("") ;
var i;
for(i=0;i<a.len gth;i++) {
if(/\x1D/.test(a[i])) {
alert("GS");
}
}

This is a snip that parses the input, character by character, and gives
me an alert if the Group Separator (Hex: 1D) is found. But it never
matches, even if I know that the input string contains in. I have a
similar script written in Perl, an that script finds the Group Separtor.

What can I do to find the %"#¤ Group Separator??

Thnx in advice!
- Paul Jørstad

[Greg]

Re: Control charcters in form input field

Paul Jørstad <paulj@onlineRE MOVE.no> wrote in message news:<TcZ9b.306 91$Hb.469464@ne ws4.e.nsc.no>.. .[color=blue]
> Hello!
>
> In a form I have an input field. It's supposed to get input form a
> scanning device. Thus, the input might contain special characters (like
> the Group Separator in a EAN barcode). Now, I want to manipulate a
> little with the input in a javascript, but I'm not able to find the
> Group Separator:
>
> input = document.main.i nput.value;
> var a = input.split("") ;
> var i;
> for(i=0;i<a.len gth;i++) {
> if(/\x1D/.test(a[i])) {
> alert("GS");
> }
> }
>
> This is a snip that parses the input, character by character, and gives
> me an alert if the Group Separator (Hex: 1D) is found. But it never
> matches, even if I know that the input string contains in. I have a
> similar script written in Perl, an that script finds the Group Separtor.
>
> What can I do to find the %"#¤ Group Separator??
>
> Thnx in advice!
> - Paul Jørstad[/color]

I can't help you, but the following displays matches for both x and y
in my quick test in IE6 and Netscape 7:

<script type='text/javascript'>
function f(){
var x = txt1.value;
var y = '\x1D';
var s = '';
if(/\x1D/.test(x)) {
s += "x matches";
}else{
s += "x does not match";
}
s += '\n';
if(/\x1D/.test(y)) {
s += "y matches";
}else{
s += "y does not match";
}
alert(s);
}
window.onload = function(){
window.form1 = window.form1 || document.getEle mentById('form1 ');
window.txt1 = window.txt1 || form1.elements['txt1'];
txt1.value = '\x1D';
}
</script>
<form id='form1' name='form1' action='a.htm' method='post'>
<input type='text' name='txt1' id='txt1' value='' />
</form>
<br>
<a href='b.htm' name='a1' id='a1' onclick='f(); return false;'>f()</a>

Not an expert. FWIW.

[Dr John Stockton]

Re: Control charcters in form input field

JRS: In article <TcZ9b.30691$Hb .469464@news4.e .nsc.no>, seen in
news:comp.lang. javascript, Paul Jørstad <paulj@onlineRE MOVE.no> posted
at Wed, 17 Sep 2003 15:20:50 :-
[color=blue]
>In a form I have an input field. It's supposed to get input form a
>scanning device. Thus, the input might contain special characters (like
>the Group Separator in a EAN barcode). Now, I want to manipulate a
>little with the input in a javascript, but I'm not able to find the
>Group Separator:
>
> input = document.main.i nput.value;
> var a = input.split("") ;
> var i;
> for(i=0;i<a.len gth;i++) {
> if(/\x1D/.test(a[i])) {
> alert("GS");
> }
> }
>
>This is a snip that parses the input, character by character, and gives
>me an alert if the Group Separator (Hex: 1D) is found. But it never
>matches, even if I know that the input string contains in. I have a
>similar script written in Perl, an that script finds the Group Separtor.[/color]

Substituting the first line, it works for me in MSIE4. Can you be
certain that the GS is really present? Compare the lengths of var input
and of var a with the expected character count.

It also works using the RegExp to test var input directly, without
split.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. ?@merlyn.demon. co.uk Turnpike v4.00 IE 4 ©
<URL:http://jibbering.com/faq/> Jim Ley's FAQ for news:comp.lang. javascript
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demo n.co.uk/js-index.htm> JS maths, dates, sources.
<URL:http://www.merlyn.demo n.co.uk/> TP/BP/Delphi/JS/&c., FAQ topics, links.

[Paul Jørstad]

Re: Control charcters in form input field


Dr John Stockton wrote:
[color=blue]
> Can you be certain that the GS is really present?[/color]

In fact I'm not sure.. If I parses the input from the scanner in a
perl-script reading from stdin, I got this:

$ perl input.pl

S > 83
? > 29
2 > 50

First character is "S", which is ASCII value 83. As, you see, the second
character is the GS having ASCII value=29. The exact same input is put
into the form element, but then the GS is gone for some reason. If I do
a split(""), and alerts every character, the GS never pops up. So it
seems that the browser is the problem, ripping of special characters,
ie. the input field can't receive control characters.

- paul

[asdf asdf]

Re: Control charcters in form input field

Hi,

You might try hooking into one of the browser's onkeyxyz events (up|down|press) .

If you have an "onpaste" event available to you, that's another possibility.

I'm just taking wild guesses at how the barcode info is getting into your web page.

good luck!