Email encode tag Javascript issues

Question

I use {encode="{webmaster_email}" title="Send E-Mail"} to hide my email address from harvester bots.

When I use this code within my template all is fine. This code is also part of the footer. The footer is an early parsed variable from the Republic Variables module.

My problem is: {encode} delivers a fully functional mailto tag, but also prints the string between the <script> tags.

I looked at the HTML source after rendering, extraced the two {encode} parts and compared them.

This is the code, that I get, when I put {encode} into the template. It renders as a mailto, as expected.

    <span data-eeEncEmail_FJbRPLRqeP='1'>.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email 
address)</span><script type="text/javascript">/*<![CDATA[*/var out = '',el = 
document.getElementsByTagName('span'),l = ['>','a','/','<',' 110',' 101',' 100',' 110',' 
101',' 115',' 32',' 108',' 105',' 97',' 77',' 45',' 69','>','\"',' 101',' 100',' 46',' 
97',' 105',' 100',' 101',' 109',' 116',' 117',' 107',' 105',' 100',' 110',' 97',' 98',' 
64',' 101',' 107',' 99',' 101',' 110',' 114',' 97',' 119',' 
97',':','o','t','l','i','a','m','\"','=','f','e','r','h','a ','<'],i = l.length,j = 
el.length;while (--i >= 0){out += unescape(l[i].replace(/^\s\s*/, '&#'));}while (--j >= 
0){/**/if (el[j].getAttribute('data-eeEncEmail_FJbRPLRqeP')){el[j].innerHTML = out;}}/*]]>*
</script>

This is the code, that I get from the {encode}, that is part of the footer variable. This gives me a fully functional mailto plus all the stuff between the <script>tags gets rendered as text and appears as such on the page.

        <span data-eeEncEmail_OOxdsWxRWB='1'>.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)</span><script type="text/javascript">**/*<![CDATA[*/var out = '',el =
    document.getElementsByTagName('span'),l = ['>','a','/','<',' 110',' 101',' 100','
110',' 101',' 115',' 32',' 108',' 105',' 97',' 77',' 45',' 69','>','\"',' 101',' 100',' 
46',' 97',' 105',' 100',' 101',' 109',' 116',' 117',' 107',' 105',' 100',' 110',' 97',' 
98',' 64',' 101',' 107',' 99',' 101',' 110',' 114',' 97',' 119','
97',':','o','t','l','i','a','m','\"','=','f','e','r','h','a ','<'],i = l.length,j = 
el.length;while (--i >= 0){out += unescape(l[i].replace(/^\s\s*/, '&#'));}while (--j >= 
0){/**/if (el[j].getAttribute('data-eeEncEmail_OOxdsWxRWB')){el[j].innerHTML = out;}}/*]]>*
/**</script>

I saved both to a local HTML file and letthe browser render it. I got 2 mailto-links, as expected. So, the code works.

Why does EE add the CDATA stuff, when I put {encode} in the footer?

EDIT: It seems to be a CSS issue. The "E-Mail me"-Link is part of an inline list in the footer. The respective CSS is

ul.inline-list > li > * { display: block; }

When I delete this line, the Javascript disappears. Just changeing to display:inline or any other display type doesn´t help. display:none makes the entire entry (the mailto plus the superflous JS) disappear.

Answer 1

The <!CDATA block is only required if you need your document to be parsable as XML, for example if you're using an `XHTML~ doctype. For a full explanation of why this was necessary in the past see this stackoverflow qn.

If you're using a modern, HTML5 doctype then using <!CDATA isn't necessarily, but I'm guessing EllisLab include it in the {encode} output for backwards compatibility with sites that are using the older XHTML doctype.

I suspect the reason that the encode isn't working properly in the footer is probably still a parse order issue - if you use a snippet does it works as expected?

Scratch that: if that is the source copied direct from the outputted page it looks like in your global variable the <script> tag is getting stripped from the output, hence the content getting output as text to the page.

What version of EE are you using? Is this GV inside of a conditional? I seem to remember that there was a bug (fixed in 2.5.3) that could cause script tags to be stripped from evaluated variables.

Might still be worth trying a snippet instead of a GV just to see if that works too...

Answer 2

I know this is old, but I ran into this issue and fixed it by setting "Automatically turn URLs and email addresses into links?" to "No" in the appropriate Channel's preferences page (Admin -> Channel Administration -> Channels -> Edit Preferences).

Answer 3

Try turning off the protect javascript config variable: $config['protect_javascript'] = 'n';. You can set this in /system/expressionengine/config/config.php file. This has solved similar problems for me in the past.