javascript variable that contains </script>

Question

I need a little assistance. I have to create a javascript string that contains more javascript that is then written to a div tag in the parent window. The code is as follows:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
var jstr2 = '';
jstr2 += '<script language="javascript">\n';
jstr2 += 'function doPagingProducts(str) {\n';
jstr2 += 'document.frmPagingProducts.PG.value = str\;\n';
jstr2 += 'document.frmPagingProducts.submit()\;\n';
jstr2 += 'return false\;\n';
jstr2 += '}\n';
jstr2 += '</script>\n';
jstr2 += '\n';
</script>

However the closing script tag in the created string actually close the javascript and I get errors such as:

Error: unterminated string literal
Line: 135, Column: 9 ( The </script> line before the end of the string.)
Source Code:
jstr2 += '

Is there any way I can prevent this issue..?

Many thanks for all your help.

Best Regards, Paul

---

edit I finally solved this problem by extracting the final </script> from the javascript string. I added a end tag where the script shows. Its messy, but it works. Many thanks for all your comments.

Answer 1

The SCRIPT tag is content agnostic, so the parser just keeps running through the content until it finds a /SCRIPT sequence. When it does, it passes the content it's found to the JS environment for evaluation. That gives you your unterminated literal error because the sent content ends where your /SCRIPT begins. (There is no terminating quote mark to be found for the JS parser).

Escaping the slash with backslash

jstr2 += "<\/script>";

or some other work-around hack breaks the trigger point in the sequence here and solves this problem (but still leaves you with some very dubious code).

Answer 2

Write it as:

jstr2 += '<\/script>\n';

Answer 3

You have to split the string:

jstr2 += '<' + '/script>\n';

It's also better to comment out everything inside the script:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--//
    // your code here
//-->
</script>

Or in HTML:

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
    // your code here
//]]>
</script>

Or in XHTML:

• same as HTML but #PCDATA instead of CDATA.