textarea truncates string value

serichens

I have a form with a textarea tag. Text is entered in the textarea, then displayed for confirmation. If the user wants to edit the data, it uses a post to send the data back to the form entry.

The data comes thru to the display fine. When sent back to the form entry, the textarea tag truncates anything in the string after the first space.

I've tried various combinations of nl2br, htmlentities, and ereg_replace, with no luck.

How can I display the whole string in the textarea box for editing?
I've removed a lot of code to try and simplify & show only the pertinent parts.

// at the confirmation display

$status = '
You have entered the following:<br>
Description: ' .$desc. ' <br>
<p>
If you need to change something click
<form action = ' . ($PHP_SELF) . ' method=post>
<input type=\'hidden\' name=\'desc\' value='.$desc.'></form> ';

echo $status;

// at the re-entry for edit section

$status = '
<FORM ACTION= ' . ($PHP_SELF) . ' METHOD=POST>
Product Name<br>
<p>Description<br>
<textarea name=\'desc\' cols=\'40\' rows=\'3\' wrap=\'soft\'>'.$desc.'</textarea></form>';

echo $status;

jamie_kerwick

This may or maynot work, but try re-writing as,

.....?>
You have entered the following:<br> 
Description: <?=$desc?><br> 
<p> 
If you need to change something click 
<form action = "<?=$PHP_SELF?>" method="POST"> 
<input type="hidden" name="desc" value="<?=$desc"></form>
<?....

// at the re-entry for edit section 

...?>
<FORM ACTION= "<?=$PHP_SELF?>" METHOD="POST"> 
Product Name<br> 
<p>Description<br> 
<textarea name="desc" cols="40" rows="3" wrap="soft"><?=$desc?></textarea></form>
<?....

One question i have, does the hidden input value truncate as well, or is that fine ??

Jamie

serichens

yes, the hidden value is truncated. If I try:

$status = '
<FORM ACTION= ' . ($PHP_SELF) . ' METHOD=POST>
Product Name<br>
<p>Description<br> '.$desc.'
<textarea name=\'desc\' cols=\'40\' rows=\'3\' wrap=\'soft\'>'.$desc.'</textarea></form>';

echo $status;

It shows only the first word of $desc.

I'd rather not flip in and out of php. My program flow does all the manipulations and passes $string to a display routine. If I flip into & out of php earlier I'll have to re-write the program flow. The section ... <?=$desc?> flips back into php and forces it to evaluate $desc, right?

I thought I saw in the old forum (which I can't display) that the html truncates <textarea> somehow to keep the value from growing. (Otherwise it would add all those spaces each time it displayed.)

Thanks

rinjani

It sounds crazy but it worked for me in a similar situation. Leave a space or two between the end of the <textarea> tag and the $desc variable that you are echoing. So that the text string doesn't start right next to the tag.

HTH

veron

Your problem is a simple HTML error on this line:
<input type=\'hidden\' name=\'desc\' value='.$desc.'></form> ';

replace that line with:
<input type=\'hidden\' name=\'desc\' value=\''.$desc.'\'></form> ';

since you did not have the value of the hidden field in quotes, it only recognized the first word as being the contents of the 'value' attribute.

serichens

THANKS!!

That was it. I forgot to quote the value. looking at too many \' for too long.