asp:Button text attribute causing validation error

Question

Long time reader, first time asker. Anywho the problem I am having is that i have a few buttons that is causing issue with the page validator. I have been asked not to change their text attribute if i can avoid to and not to turn off the ValidateRequest attribute.

the error i am getting is " The entered value "<<" is potentially dangerous and not acceptable.

an example button is.

<asp:Button id="testFirstButton" width="25" Font-Size="8pt" runat="server" Text="<<" CausesValidation="false"></asp:Button>

this is one of my test buttons i did to make sure it was the button and not code behind or anything else. sure enough this one didn't past.

Answer 1

Instead of

Text="<<"

Try using

Text="<<"

This will display the same text for the button and should avoid validation errors

Answer 2

Try put <httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" /> in your Web.config file and add your page ValidateRequest="false".

Note: It works but may cause some security issues.