jQuery Regex for International Characters

[karentutor1]

Hi

I am trying to validate a textarea text field for international characters (i.e. Japanese, Chinese, Urdu, French, English etc etc).

I am doing a validation script in jQuery file for a HTML field.

var regEx = / insert something in here /;

var tx = $('textarea');
for (var x = 0;  x < tx.length; x++){
{
    if (  !regEx.test(  tx.eq(x).val()  ) )
   {
      console.log('regex failed');
   } else console.log('regex ok');
}

Getting that regEx is proving to be a little tricky as some regEx appear to be language specific? Any suggestions on a jQuery RegEx for the above code?
thx!
Karen

[Paul_Wilkins]

You don’t have to use regex if it’s not suitable. What are your requirements for what’s allowed in the textarea?

[karentutor1]

Hi Paul

It’s a description area where customers describe a service they want.

I want to allow all international languages but no “harmful” characters (pardon as I am not entirely sure what those are) I am thinking no < > but otherwise any guidance as to alternative to regex or pointers as to what to strip out (maybe Html entities in php) or a good way to sanitize the data would be helpful for jQuery.

Thanks!
Karen

[m_hutley]

< > ( ) = & should take care of most malicious code, tbh.

[karentutor1]

Ok looking at a site wholistically

(I am using a LEMP stack)

Is ALL malicious code on jQuery reasonable or do we get it at php with regex?

Sorry, I am not sure what to do with the description “most malicious code”.

Thanks!

[Mittineague]

Personally I wouldn’t worry all that much about using JavaScript to sanitize user input in the browser client-side. Validate to help catch honest mistakes, yes, but a malicious user can easily “unsanitize” the input.

[karentutor1]

Cool! Yes that makes sense