Text Replace Activity for apostrophes - Issues

Mary Wagner

October 13, 2026 16:28 Edited

Hello,

We have some really basic workflows in our public application.  It was recently discovered that when searching for a subdivision, condo, or parcel owner name with an apostrophe in it, the app returns an error.  Truthfully I am not sure how long this has been an issue…

In our autocomplete activity, there is a text replace with the old value ‘ and a new value ’' (two single quotes, not a double quote) 
I've tested a few different set ups with the old and new and it still fails every time. I assume we do not have it set up correctly, but documentation is incredibly limited so, hopefully someone here has an idea! 

Here is a link to our public application: https://apps.geocortex.com/webviewer/?app=00d9853f922845a5841e0123918a449a 
 and I can share our JSON file workflow if needed.
Search items to try: for subdivision “Pierce's” 

Condo:  Biwer's Woods Condo…

Owner: O'Gorman , O'Brian etc.

Thanks!

Mary

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  Berend Veldkamp

  October 16, 2026 12:32

  When I try the search, it seems to be working, and single quotes are replaced correctly? 

  If you fixed it in the meantime, could you please let us know here?

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  Mary Wagner

  October 20, 2026 13:28

  Hello, 

   

  It's still not working correctly:

  The autocomplete returns options, user selects and when the selection has an apostrophe, an error box is returned with a (0) for results. 
   

  

  

   

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  Berend Veldkamp

  October 20, 2026 13:46 Edited

  Oh I get it, there's an error after the user clicks on submit.

   

  Looking at your workflow, I think it's an easy fix. In the ‘query10’ activity, update the Where to look like this:

  =`Name='${ $form10.state.autoComplete10.value.replaceAll("'", "''") }'`

   

  The Text Replace activity can also be used instead, just look at how it's done in the Suggestion subworkflow that's already there. But in simple replacements like this, I tend to just use the JavaScript version (documentation). 

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  Mary Wagner

  October 20, 2026 15:46

  Thanks!  I am going to give this a try.   I was expecting that the “Text Replace" part of the workflow would have handled this..

   

  Mary

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  Berend Veldkamp

  October 22, 2026 10:08 Edited

  The Text Replace activity inside the Suggestions subworkflow only handles the query where the suggestions list is populated, i.e. when a user types a single quote.

  After the form submit, there is another query ('query10') where single quotes must also be doubled.

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  Mary Wagner

  October 22, 2026 13:20 Edited

  Thanks, that makes sense! 

  All of our searches are working now.  Thanks again for the help.

   

  Mary

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