Category: Workshop

How to Decode HTML Entities Using jQuery?

Learn how to decode HTML entities in jQuery using smart and efficient methods. Includes working examples and cross-browser techniques.

When working with dynamic HTML content, you might encounter special characters represented as HTML entities (e.g., &lt; for <, &gt; for >). These are essential for rendering text safely in browsers, but sometimes you may need to convert them back to their original characters — a process known as decoding.

In this article, we’ll explore how to decode HTML entities using jQuery in a simple and effective way.

Why Decode HTML Entities?

Most of the browsers convert certain characters into HTML entities to avoid rendering issues or XSS attacks. For example:

  • < becomes &lt;
  • > becomes &gt;
  • & becomes &amp;
  • " becomes &quot;

If you’re extracting or manipulating HTML content through JavaScript or AJAX, you may receive entity-encoded strings. To properly display or process them, you’ll need to decode these entities to a readable format.

jQuery Method to Decode HTML Entities

jQuery itself doesn’t provide a direct function to decode HTML entities, but you can use the browser’s native HTML parsing capability by leveraging a temporary DOM element like textarea.

Example Code:

function decodeHtmlEntities(encodedStr) {
    return $('<textarea/>').html(encodedStr).text();
}

// Usage
var encoded = '&lt;p&gt;Hello World!&lt;/p&gt;';
var decoded = decodeHtmlEntities(encoded);

console.log(decoded); // Output: <p>Hello World!</p>

Explanation:

  • $('<textarea/>') creates a temporary <textarea> element.
  • .html(encodedStr) sets the HTML content with entities.
  • .text() extracts the decoded plain text.

This approach is safe and works across all modern browsers.

Alternative Vanilla JavaScript Method

If you prefer using plain JavaScript without jQuery, here’s an equivalent solution:

function decodeHtmlEntities(encodedStr) {
    var txt = document.createElement('textarea');
    txt.innerHTML = encodedStr;
    return txt.value;
}

// Usage
var decoded = decodeHtmlEntities('&amp;copy; 2025');
console.log(decoded); // Output: © 2025

This is same example in Vanilla Javascript.

Use Case Examples

Below are some examples to demostrate the usage of decodeHtmlEntities function.

Example 1: Decoding API Response

If your API is giving response in HTML entities, you can use this function to decode it.

$.get('/get-description', function(data) {
    var decoded = decodeHtmlEntities(data.description);
    $('#description').text(decoded);
});

Example 2: Decoding User Input Stored with Entities

Sometimes, we store user input data in the database with HTML encoded string. We can use this function to decode HTML entities.

var userInput = '&lt;script&gt;alert(&quot;Hi&quot;)&lt;/script&gt;';
$('#output').text(decodeHtmlEntities(userInput));

Conclusion

Decoding HTML entities is essential when you’re dealing with encoded data from the server or other sources. Using jQuery’s ability to manipulate DOM elements, you can easily decode entities without additional libraries.

This simple technique ensures that your content is displayed correctly, improving both functionality and user experience.

SPF Records for Outgoing Email: What They Are & Why They Matter

Learn what an SPF record is, why it’s essential for email deliverability, and how to configure it properly for sending outgoing emails from your domain.

When users mark messages as spam from a domain, mailbox providers can accurately identify that domain as a potential source of spam – if it has a valid SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records. SPF helps distinguish legitimate senders from spoofed ones. Conversely, if spoofed emails are flagged, SPF enables providers to maintain the domain’s reputation and ensure legitimate mail flows smoothly. Clearly, using SPF helps enhance the accuracy of spam filtering and protect email reputation.

Understand Why SPF Records Often Fails with PHP’s mail()

PHP developers frequently rely on the mail() function for sending emails. However, this approach skips SMTP authentication, making outgoing emails prone to being caught by SPF checks. What’s more, SPF only evaluates the envelope sender (the “Return-Path” header), not the “From” address users actually see. You can read about this at http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/Envelope_from_scope.

In many cases, the envelope sender defaults to the server or localhost, even when the “From” header appears to come from your domain. SPF checks then focus on the envelope sender—if it lacks a proper SPF records, the email may result in a soft fail. Gmail, for instance, might label this as a “best guess record,” which can be incorrect and hurt deliverability.

How to Fix SPF Records Soft-Fail Issues

Here are two effective solutions:

Switch to an SMTP-based mailer

Use libraries like PHPMailer to send emails via SMTP. This allows setting the envelope sender to match the “From” address, enabling proper SPF alignment.

Use sendmail parameters with PHP’s mail()

If refactoring the code is too extensive, you can still adjust the envelope sender using PHP’s mail() function with the -f or -F options in the additional parameters, for example:

mail("user@example.com",  "test subject",  "test message",  $headers,  "-F 'Example  Envelope-sender' -f returnpath@example.com");

This ensures the envelope sender matches your domain – making SPF checks pass correctly.

Conclusion

In essence, SPF plays a vital role in email deliverability and domain reputation. But to leverage it effectively, you must ensure emails send with the correct envelope sender. For PHP developers, the most reliable approach is using SMTP-based mailing; alternatively, configuring the envelope address via sendmail parameters can help bridge the gap without major code changes.