how to make large textarea with PHP in it?

ShawnD

for a form i've only done in the form of

<input type="text" name="whatever" value="<?php echo $HTTP_POST_VARS['value']?>">

but for this form i'm making, i need one text box to be like 30 rows and 30 columns or so. the only way i know how to do that is

<textarea rows="30" cols="30">stuff</textarea>

now, on the form i tried to replace that input type line with the textarea line so it would ook like this

<textarea rows="30" cols="30"><?php echo $HTTP_POST_VARS['value'] ?></textarea>

but that didn't work

any ideas of how i managed to screw this one up?

pnoeric

hmmm - your code looks ok to me; maybe you need a semi-colon after the "]" but that would at least generate an error msg. if you're just getting your text area and no default text inside, then your echo isn't working; you can simpify the code (and therefore ease debugging) by temporarily removing the <textarea> tags until you know the echo is functional...

hope that helps

best,
Eric

ShawnD

it's as if having textarea makes it unable to send the info. under the name and subject, i use the input type line and after i have submitted information, the info i put stays in the boxes but the info in the message box (the one using the textarea line) does not echo the values i entered.

the program is a fancy emailer so i don't have to go through hotmail, i test it on my own email and after changing to that textarea way, it does not have the message that i typed in 🙁

pnoeric

ok, well, you're doing two things with that textarea snippet: trying to have a <textarea> form element, and trying to pre-populate it with default text from a PHP variable.

I'm not entirely clear which of those two things isn't working, so try taking them one a time: change your page so the PHP echo statement is separate from the <textarea>. this will cause your default text to just show up someplace on the page... if it doesn't you know that variable is empty or the echo isn't working. and it will also load your <textarea> blank.

does that make sense?

this is the secret to debugging ANY and ALL code, by the way, and if there is only one gift I can offer to everyone who ever reads this ;-) it is just: simplify! when something isn't working, just keep breaking it down into smaller pieces until you find the one broken link in the chain.

best
eric

pnoeric

oh, and, uh, you are NAMING your textarea, aren't you? hee hee. your code should probably read:

<textarea rows="30" cols="30" name="mytext">stuff</textarea>

ShawnD

OMG, YOU FIXED IT!

thanks, sorry about how stupid i am but i don't own any HTML books 🙁
you guys are just the greatest, the problem was that name thing

<textarea rows="30" cols="30" name="message"><?php echo $HTTP_POST_VARS['message']; ?></textarea>

is the final product

pnoeric

lol. happy to help. in the meantime, bookmark this!

http://werbach.com/barebones/barebones.html

:-)