I'm trying to figure out exactly what is doing this, whether it is SharePoint 2013, or perhaps the browser.

If I create a custom list and I have a field "Single Line of Text" and enter something in the line that contains a URL reference, such as "The URL to Facebook is http://www.facebook.com", when I read the data back from that SharePoint list (using the client objects for example), the field contains:

The URL to Facebook is <a href="http://www.facebook.com">http://www.facebook.com</a>

I want to get back exactly what I typed! Is it SharePoint that is changing it to an anchor tag in the text or is it something else? How can I get it to store exactly what I typed?

Hi,

According to your description, I also tested in my environment.

I created a new Single Line of Text column named html and type http://www.bing.com. Then I retrieved values of html column using Client Object Model via VS. And the result is http://www.bing.com.

The code is:

static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext("SiteURL");
            Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.List spList = clientContext.Web.Lists.GetByTitle("ListName");
            clientContext.Load(spList);
            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
            if (spList != null && spList.ItemCount > 0)
            {
                Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery camlQuery = new CamlQuery();
                camlQuery.ViewXml =
                  @"<View>
             <ViewFields><FieldRef Name='Title' /><FieldRef Name='html' /></ViewFields> 
      </View>";  
                ListItemCollection listItems = spList.GetItems(camlQuery);
                clientContext.Load(listItems);
                clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
                foreach (ListItem item in listItems)
                {
                    clientContext.Load(item);
                    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();
                    Console.WriteLine((string)item["ColumnName"]);
                }
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }

Did you copy the URL reference and paste it in SharePoint list? It may contain <a> tag in original data. Please try to type URL manually.

And please refer to the code I provided, then test whether the <a> tag occurs.

Best Regards,

Dean Wang

A few clarifications:

1) I created a custom list and added a field called "URL" as a Single Line of Text.

2) I added a new item to the list and I manually typed http://www.facebook.com into the URL field.

3) When the list view displays, the URL column now shows http://www.facebook.com as a clickable hyperlink.

4) When I said Client Object Model, I was not clear/incorrect. I am actually using JavaScript and JSLink to access the data using a template override.

My code is like:

myOverride.Template.Item = myView.itemHtml;
..
..
myView.itemHtml = function(ctx) {
   var returnHtml = ctx.CurrentItem.URL;
   alert(returnHtml);  // testing
   return returnHtml;
}

When I refer to this code in the JSLink of the list view web part, the "alert" function displays the value of the URL field as <a href="http://www.facebook.com">http://www.facebook.com</a>, not what I typed - at some point, it gets converted to an anchor tag.

Hi,

Since the code you provided is fragmented, I tested in my environment using my code and the result is without <a> tag. Please refer to the code below:

<script type="text/javascript">  

var siteUrl = 'SiteURL';

 $(document).ready(function () {

SP.SOD.executeFunc('sp.js', null, function () {

    retrieveListItems();

});

});

 function retrieveListItems() {

    var clientContext = new SP.ClientContext(siteUrl);

    var oList = clientContext.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle('ListName');        

    var camlQuery = new SP.CamlQuery();

    camlQuery.set_viewXml('<View><Query><Where><Geq><FieldRef Name=\'ID\'/>' + 

        '<Value Type=\'Number\'>1</Value></Geq></Where></Query><RowLimit>10</RowLimit></View>');

    this.collListItem = oList.getItems(camlQuery);        

    clientContext.load(collListItem,'Include(ColumnName)');

    clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, this.onQuerySucceeded), Function.createDelegate(this, this.onQueryFailed));               

}


function onQuerySucceeded(sender, args) {

    var listItemInfo = '';

    var listItemEnumerator = collListItem.getEnumerator();

    while (listItemEnumerator.moveNext()) {

        var oListItem = listItemEnumerator.get_current();

        listItemInfo = oListItem.get_item('ColumnName');

    }

    alert(listItemInfo.toString());

}


function onQueryFailed(sender, args) {

    alert('Request failed. ' + args.get_message() + '\n' + args.get_stackTrace());

}

</script>

The result:

And how to retrieve list items using JavaScript for your reference:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/hh185007(v=office.14).aspx

Best Regards,

Dean Wang

Thanks, but as I said in my reply, I am using JSLink in a list view web part to do this.

Create a file named links.js in the site's Site Assets library with this code in it:

var myViews = myViews || {};

myViews.itemHtml = function (ctx) {
 	alert(ctx.CurrentItem.URL);

	return ctx.CurrentItem.URL;
};

(function () {

  var myOverrides = {};
  myOverrides.Templates = {};

  myOverrides.Templates.Header = "<div id='LinksView'>";
  myOverrides.Templates.Item = myViews.itemHtml;
  myOverrides.Templates.Footer = "</div>";
  
  myOverrides.ListTemplateType = 100;
  myOverrides.BaseViewID = 1;
  
  SPClientTemplates.TemplateManager.RegisterTemplateOverrides(myOverrides);
})();

Add your custom list's list view web part to the site's page and edit the web part's properties and open the Miscellaneous section and type "~site/SiteAssets/links.js" in that field and save the web part properties and the page.

Then refresh the page.

You should get a message box with "The URL to Facebook is <a href="http://www.facebook.com">http://www.facebook.com</a>". Which is not what is in the field.

Hi,

Yes, if you retrieve list items using JSLink, the results will return <a> tag.

I suggest you retrieve text of hyperlinks using JSLink regular expression.

Here is a demo for your reference:

http://www.mkyong.com/regular-expressions/how-to-extract-html-links-with-regular-expression/

Best Regards,

Dean Wang

Yes, regex is one way to do it. I worked around it by using a Links list instead of a custom list.

The plain URL is in ctx.CurrentItem.URL and the link description is in ctx.CurrentItem["URL.desc"].

(Also in my sample code, the ListTemplateType has to change to 103.)

• Proposed as answer by Dean_WangMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 5 hours 41 minutes ago

Hi,

Thanks for you shared your workaround. And it would be helpful to those who have similar requirement.

Best Regards,

Dean Wang