Strange apostrophe issue in web form > SQL Server - sql

We look after a site for a client on which they have a page with a HTML form text area that gets written to a SQL Server ntext field.
One of their customers was updatng their profile using this form and mentioned that when they entered the word "don't" into the form and then viewed their profile the word had changed to:
d’t
I've done some searches for this on Google, and surprisingly there's over 2 million pages on sites where this seems to of happened - but I can't see any information about it.
Interestingly, If I write into the form I don't get the same issue and was wondering if it was a result of a 'strange' apostrophe from some pasted text into the form?
Anyone else came across this?

Sounds like the HTML page where the form is located doesn't have a meta charset tag defined, leaving the option of which character set to use up to the browser's preferences/defaults.

Related

Hyperlink in SQL

If you save a text in SQL, is is possible to include a hyperlink in that same text?
When I save <a href='http://duckduckgo.com'>duck</a> in my SQL database, it gets displayed as plain text and not as a hyperlink when selected and displayed on my website.
Is it even possible to include hyperlinks like this and if not, what is a better solution?
edit; im using node.js and react
Whatever DBMS you are using most likely does not implement a "Hyperlink" data type. You will need to save the hyperlink as text and then get your application to display the hyperlink.
It sounds like you are storing HTML, so you could simply open that HTML in a web browser to see the link. You will need to have an application to pull the HTML from your database and display it to the user.
Depending on your DBMS, there are multiple libraries available to connect to a database. Try googling your DBMS and a programming language to find a library that suits your needs.
For example, npgsql is a library to connect to postgres using .NET.

MVC4 having trouble formatting text from database

I am having trouble with showing my formatted SQL text.I have a form and Textarea where I put down comments. I wrote the following comment below that you see on the picture. I had a simple numbered list with no HTML I simply went from 1-5 pressed enter and it saved in the database just how I wrote it.
once I show that text on my page it looks like this
As you can see the text is mangled and it is not showing how I saved it in the database. How can I correct this? I have tried
#Model.comment and #Html.Raw(HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(Model.comment))
but it's not working any help would be great
Use HtmlEncode. This will make the correct encoding.

Issue with font size of links in textbox of report

For some reason my subscription to a report gets emailed using the subscription service, the font sizes are increased only on text that has an underlying link for example:
However, when I run the report normally (just navigate to it using the browser), all is fine:
What am I doing wrong??
Me too. There is no fix
I just get mine either via pdf, excel or html not mhtml.
But html has it's own issues and is not recomended.

Dynamic Data in an RDLC Report Footer across Multiple Pages

I created an RDLC report (based on a stored procedure) that contains lists. I need to display data from one of those lists in the report footer across every page. However this data only shows in a list on the first page, so that is the only page on which it shows in the footer also. I’ve researched this but haven’t found much information. Does anyone have a solution for this?
Something you can try, don't know for sure if it will work. Create a formula that returns the data you want to display, then put the formula field on a text area in the footer.
I ended up placing a textbox in the second page area, setting the text color to white and sending it to the back. If I hid the textbox (or table - I tried that too), the footer object could not reference it. So, setting the text color to white and placing it behind another object worked. It seems like this is a kludgy way to do a simple report operation but is apparently necessary.

SQL Reporting Services: Why does my report shrink when it's emailed?

I created a simple report and uploaded it to my report server. It looks correct on the report server, but when I set up an email subscription, the report is much narrower than it is supposed to be.
Here is what the report looks like in the designer. It looks similar when I view it on the report server: [http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4893/designqj3.png]
Here is what the email looks like: [http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/9297/emailmy8.png]
Does anyone know why this is happening?
This issue is fixed in SQL Server 2005 SP3 (it is part of cumulitive update package build 3161)
Problem issue described below.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935399
Basically Full Outlook 2007 Client Uses MS Word HTML Rendering Engine (Which Makes Web Archive Report Looked Jacked Up).
NOTE: Web Outlook 2007 Client Uses IE HTML Rendering Engine (Which makes Web Archive Report Look Okay).
We have installed the patch on DB housing Reporting Services and it does fix the issue. Emails look all nice and fancy now.
I notice that the screenshots show Outlook 2007. Perhaps you're not aware that Microsoft somewhat hobbled the HTML capabilities of Outlook in 2007, and now it uses the Word HTML engine, and not the more advanced Internet Explorer one? Might this explain the lacklustre appearance?
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/01/10/microsoft-breaks-html-email-rendering-in-outlook/
I got around this problem by doing the
following:
Add a Page Header to the report
Add a line to the page header. Set the width of the line to the
desired page width.
Set the line colour to white (eg to hide the line)
Hope this helps someone else,
Following on from girlC0d3r's solution, images aren't always guaranteed to be shown in an email.
A better solution to widening the report to prevent the content from wrapping is to have a long unbroken string of characters with no whitespace.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
By giving the text the same color as the background of the email (e.g. white) they'll widen the report and be invisible to the user.
I don't see anything but my first guess is that the fonts are vastly different. The designer has one font and the email is a flat, no-frills kind of thing with a simple font. Without concrete examples, this is just a guess.
I don't think it's a font thing, because the text is being wrapped a lot, and it looks about the same size.
The images show in my preview, but not in the final post. So, here are links to them.
Report in the designer: [http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4893/designqj3.png]
Email result: [http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/9297/emailmy8.png]
What report output format did you specify for the scheduled job? It seems to me you used HTML, which will autoscale depending on the output browser (HTML adapts).
If having the same layout is important then use PDF as the output format. Then, if the user wants to print the report you know exactly what it will look like and that it will fit nicely on the page.
Can you try a different format? pdf or xls maybe. In my experience web archive looks goofy. Don't know why.
Yeah, I'm using HTML. I would prefer to stick with that, because the users can just read it in their mail clients. PDF or XLS would require them to open an attachment.
I know that the HTML resizes itself to fit the browser, and that's a good thing. The problem I would like to fix is the wasted space - in the email client, the HTML shrinks too much.
I got around this problem by doing the following:
Add a Page Header to the report
Add a line to the page header. Set the width of the line to the desired page width.
Set the line colour to white (eg to hide the line)
Hope this helps someone else,
girlC0d3r is along the right lines (no pun intended), but the line will likely be shrunk along with the rest of the HTML in the email. A workaround I used yesterday was to create an image 1px high by 600px wide (or whatever), the same color as the background, and bring it into the report as an embedded image. Place it above or below the body of your report. This should force the intended width in the final email. I used this technique successfully in a report yesterday.
I just ran into this issue myself, exactly as portrayed in the OP's screenshots. The reports were beautifully rendered in nearly every format except for Web Archive. My trouble was the use of a rectangle containing each matrix that did not span the width of the report. Upon stretching it out through the remaining white space, the condensing behavior ceased. Hope that helps someone who doesn't have quick access to an SP upgrade!
Where it is not an issue of running on old software that needs a patch...
The reason is the columns are different sizes is because the MHTML Device Information Settings, 'OutlookCompat' is set to true
When creating an email subscription with MHTML format and open the report in Outlook, A forum post by Microsoft employee Fanny Liu says
change the OutlookCompat configuration setting for the MHTML Rendering extension in rsreportserver.config. Set the value to: False.
As I was researching it appeared that this would impact more than just column size. In my instance it was not that big of deal so I decided to leave well enough alone. It is correct in PDF and web, the email I send includes a link back to the report, if the client wants a pretty report they are going to want it in PDF, the email format is not expected to be printable.
Encountered the same issue and this worked for me.
Go to --> Properties --> Report
Set InteractiveSize Width to 4.9in
Set Margins to 0 for Left, Right, Top, and Bottom
Set pageSize to Width to 4.9in