How to escape text coming from PHP in JavaScript?

Question

I am using jPlayer to display some videos and I create the playlist on the fly in a php foreach statement:

var playlistacting = 
            [
        <?php foreach($this->result as $val){?>
                {
                    title:  '<?php echo $val->getTitle();?>',
                    artist: '<?php echo $val->getDes();?>',
                    poster: "<?php echo $val->getVideoId();?>.jpg",
                    thumb:  "<?php echo $val->getVideoId();?>.jpg",
                    flv:    "<?php echo $val->getVideoId();?>.flv",
                },
        <?php }?>
];

and $val->getDes() example would be I have a one-hour (approximately) solo musical revue called "Manhattan With A Twist". The entire...

the error I get is

unterminated string literal
[Break On This Error]   

artist: 'I have a one-hour (approximately)solo musical revue called "Manhattan W...

jquery.js (line 2, col 32)

and is poining to the ' at the beginning of the string.

I can do this: title: "<?php echo htmlspecialchars($val->getTitle());?>",

and I will get the same error but with " instead of '.

I'm not sure what is happening here. Is it complaining about that ' not being escaped or what?

Any ideas?

Answer 1

simply use json_encode:

var playlistacting = <?php echo json_encode($this->result);?>;