HELP using html tags in form fields

[peppino]

i have a form on my site to allow users to post a little bit of news. i would like to be able to allow them to use some simple html tags in their submissions. just simple tags like BOLD and ITALIC and UNDERLINE. kind of like this message board does.

i guess i need some function or something that can read the data from my database and display the text in the correct way using the tags the user put in when the submitted the form.

whats the best way to do this.
help is MUCH appreciated!

[bigrollerdave]

Are you looking to use bbcode for this so it would look like [ b ]bold [ /b ] or are you looking to use html colde like this < b >bold < /b >

[peppino]

either one, but i think i need some stuff on my server in order to use bbcode right? i want it to be secure to so those are the only tags allowed

[bigrollerdave]

Originally posted by peppino
either one, but i think i need some stuff on my server in order to use bbcode right? i want it to be secure to so those are the only tags allowed

no you dont need anything on your server except php

					$preg = array(
							// Font and text manipulation ( [color] [size] [font] [align] )
							'/\[color=(.*?)(?::\w+)?\](.*?)\[\/color(?::\w+)?\]/si'     => "<font color=\"\\1\">\\2</font>",
							'/\[color=(.*?)(?::\w+)?\](.*)$/si'   => "<font color=\"\\1\">\\2</font>",
							'/\[b(?::\w+)?\](.*?)\[\/b(?::\w+)?\]/si'                 => "<b>\\1</b>",
							'/\[b\](.*)$/si'     => "<b>\\1</b>",
							'/\[i(?::\w+)?\](.*?)\[\/i(?::\w+)?\]/si'                 => "<i>\\1</i>",
							'/\[i\](.*)$/si'     => "<i>\\1</i>",
							'/\[u(?::\w+)?\](.*?)\[\/u(?::\w+)?\]/si'                 => "<u>\\1</u>",
							'/\[u\](.*)$/si'     => "<u>\\1</u>",
							'/<ol(.*?)>(?:.*?)<li(.*?)>/si'         => "<ol\\1><li\\2>",
							'/<ul(.*?)>(?:.*?)<li(.*?)>/si'         => "<ul\\1><li\\2>",
						);
$text = preg_replace(array_keys($preg), array_values($preg), $text);

[bigrollerdave]

its some messy code but it works it changes the [ b ] to < b > and [ color=red ] to < font color="red" > and [ i ] to < i > and [ u] to < u > very basic bbconverter

[peppino]

awesome thanks! so do i do the conversion and then insert the converted data into the DB? and do i need anything for when i display the text or will is just show up perfect when i say echo
"$convertedtext"

[Komodo]

$newspost="Whatever the heck their post is";
$array = array(<b>, </b>, <i>, <i/>, <u>, <u/>);
$newspost2 striptags($newspost, $array)

'I think.... I might be easily wrong

[bigrollerdave]

Originally posted by peppino
awesome thanks! so do i do the conversion and then insert the converted data into the DB? and do i need anything for when i display the text or will is just show up perfect when i say echo
"$convertedtext"

you dont have to do anything to the db when the text is printed out to the browser. here is an example

$sqltop = "SELECT sometext from text where userid = '$userid'";
$rs = mysql_fetch_array($sqltop);

^if that was your database qurey
the last line of that bbcode would look like this

$rs= preg_replace(array_keys($preg), array_values($preg), $rs);

[bigrollerdave]

Originally posted by Komodo

$newspost="Whatever the heck their post is";
$array = array(<b>, </b>, <i>, <i/>, <u>, <u/>);
$newspost2 striptags($newspost, $array)

'I think.... I might be easily wrong [/B]

Wont that strip the tags? then the it wont show up

[Komodo]

It'll strip all HTML tags, EXCEPT those ones.

[bigrollerdave]

Originally posted by Komodo
It'll strip all HTML tags, EXCEPT those ones.

ok thats a lot easier i was just using the bbcode i sue for my forums =)

[Komodo]

I'd say test it to see if it works first, I'm not exactly in a perfect state of mind on mondays.