HTML variables are automatically translated

Debbie-Leigh

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can suggest a solution to this poser?

I've developed a PHP/MySql update application that allows text to be stored on the database. The text can contain HTML tags and should be able to handle HTML variables e.g. < , > etc.

The storing of the text with these codes happens perfectly OK as they can be seen in the database using phpMyAdmin. However, the problem comes when the text is retrieved for displaying on a page. Php's mysqlfetch function seems to automatically translate these codes into the equivalent HTML tags e.g. < becomes < and > becomes >.

Does anyone know of a way to stop this happening, please?

Debbie-Leigh

barand

I think you'll find it the browser that is doing when you display the results of the fetch.

You could

echo htmlentities($html_field)

which will change your '>' to '& a m p ; gt;' so it displays in the browser as it it is in the db.

Debbie-Leigh

Hi Barand,

I thought so too, but I tracked it right back to mysql_fetch_array and even looked at the field using the ZDE. Even then, immediately after the fetch call, the field showed the variables had already been translated.

After reading your message, I thought it may be that the ZDE uses the browser for it's display, so I tried your little trick, but it still displays the translated variables.

So I would have to say that the problem still lies somewhere around mysql_fetch_array.

Could there be a configuration option that I haven't found yet that may control this behaviour?

Thanks.

Debbie-Leigh

helz

html_entity_decode($html_field)

take a look on php.net/html

Debbie-Leigh

After loads of tweaking and testing, I've found a solution. I narrowed it down to the way the data is stored on the database on the edit page.

If I need to have HTML code displayed as code rather than being interpreted, I need to store the < and > tags as < and >. I was doing this, but whenever I re-saved the text, the tags were being saved as < and >. So I now use htmlspecialchars on the text when saving it in the edit function.

That's all I found I needed to do, as I discovered through lots of trial and error that retrieving and displaying the data needs no special handling, just the storing of it.

Hope that helps.

Debbie-Leigh