Entering multi-line text

Anon

Hi,

What is an efficient way to input multi-line (formatted) data to a mysql database? I am building a knowledge base, and am having difficulty figuring out how to input multiple lines, bold, etc. from a web based GUI.

Are there pre-cooked packages that do these things?

Thanks,
Karsten

Anon

What's wrong with using a TEXTAREA tag and storing that info? You have to do some filtering to make sure the proper characters are escaped or formatted correctly. (htmlspecialchars(), strip/addslashes(), etc)

Anon

Thanks for the incredibly quick reply. I didn't know about htmlspecialchars().

Enjoy!
Karsten

Anon

For outputting plain text in a Db field i use this function

function text_format($string)
{
// check for carrage returns
$cr_pass = eregi_replace("\r", "<br>", $string);

	// check for http creater hyperlink
	$url_pass = ereg_replace("http://(([A-Za-z0-9.\-])*)([a-zA-Z0-9])", "<a href=\"\\0\">\\0</a>",$cr_pass);

	// check for @ create mailto:
	$mail_pass = ereg_replace("(([A-Za-z0-9.\-])*)\@(([A-Za-z0-9.\-])*)", "<a href=\"mailto:\\0\">\\0</a>",$url_pass);

	// print the modified string
	echo $mail_pass;
}

then call it with text_format($your_db_text);
echo $outout_text;
you might want to add htmlspecialchars() into that too to avoid rogue HTML from breaking your page

hope this helps you!

ash

Anon

oooops, ignore this line: echo $outout_text;

its late and im pooped!!

Anon

u can use nl2br(string) to convert ASCII new-line marks into <br>\'s