Server.HTMLEncode Garbles Extended Characters

• Microsoft Internet Information Server version 4.0
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

SYMPTOMS

ASP script using Server.HTMLEncode produces garbled extended characters in single-byte character set (SBCS) code pages other than code page 1252 (U.S. ANSI).

This affects Eastern European languages, such as Czechoslovakian, Russian, and Hungarian.

CAUSE

This problem may occur due to both of the following causes:

• HTMLEncode incorrectly writes numeric character entities using SBCS codepoint values instead of the Unicode values. In HTML, &#xxx; entities represent Unicode values, not SBCS codepoints. When HTMLEncode determines that a numeric entity must be written, it must simply write the raw Unicode value in decimal, not the local code page equivalent.
  
  -and-



• HTMLEncode uses the wrong logic in determining when to write out a numeric character entity versus simply inserting the raw character. It appears to do the opposite of what is expected; it writes the incorrect character entities for characters that can be represented in Session.Codepage, and writes the nearest precomposed equivalent for other characters.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Internet Information Server version 4.0. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.

Additional query words: sp hot fix qfe character set code point uni-code code-page
code-point scrambled scrambles html encode incorrect wrong erroneous

Keywords : NT4SP4Fix kbfix4.00.sp4
Version : WINNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug