[.NET][Templating] Expand function doesn't handle strings with escape characters

Platform

What platform is your issue or question related to? (Delete other platforms).

• .NET (Templating nuget)

Author or host

Author / Host

If you’re an author, who are you sending cards to? 1.2.9

What version are you using? Ex: NuGet 1.0.2, or latest main, etc… Templating nuget release candidate

Explain your issue. If you just have a question, please post on StackOverflow instead:

• When expanding a templated json with a concrete type, any strings within that type that contain escape characters \ or " will break the json parser.

Example:

Given this template

{
    "type": "AdaptiveCard",
    "$schema": "http://adaptivecards.io/schemas/adaptive-card.json",
    "version": "1.2",
    "body": [
        {
            "type": "TextBlock",
            "text": "${title}"
        }
    ]
} 

And expanding with a concrete type with Property

[JsonProperty("title")]
Title => return "Hello \ world";

Will result in a parsing error when the card is expanded and result in no card being displayed.

We’re currently working around this issue by manually escaping all strings we use, but it would be great if the templating system could handle strings that contain escape characters.

[nimercer]

Hi @arvindkannan - the workaround I used was to write my own custom Adaptive Expression and replace the escape string characters

                AdaptiveExpressions.Expression.Functions.Add("stringFormat", (args) =>
                {
                    string returnVal = args[0] ?? string.Empty;
                    returnVal = returnVal.Replace(@"\", @"\\").Replace(@"""", @"\""");
                    return returnVal;
                });

then use that inside my template like this:

               "text": "${stringFormat(stringToReplace)}"

[RebeccaAnne]

Please reactivate if you’re still seeing this issue in the latest templating package.