handeling the "&" sign...

[b-ed]

Hi,

I have recently set up some client side admin pages to store data in a MySQL database, controled by PHP, and needing to be read by flash.

The problem is that the user needs to be able to put in '&' signs but when the data is proccessed for use by flash its causing flash to cut off the text to soon. I know its because everytime flash sees an '&' it thinks there is a new variable coming. I just need to know how to modify the "&" sign so flash can read them... any thoughts??

thanks

www.b-ed.com

[b-ed]

Hi,

I have recently set up some client side admin pages to store data in a MySQL database, controled by PHP, and needing to be read by flash.

The problem is that the user needs to be able to put in '&' signs but when the data is proccessed for use by flash its causing flash to cut off the text to soon. I know its because everytime flash sees an '&' it thinks there is a new variable coming. I just need to know how to modify the "&" sign so flash can read them... any thoughts??

thanks

www.b-ed.com

[phpsharma]

I thought..
convert to ascii code from php and encode it in flash..

Try it..

[b-ed]

and how might I do that??

[iwanpattyn]

Convert your & charactor just before saving with preg_replace.

[madwormer2]

If you're just gonna replace it, you might as well use [man]str_replace[/man]

[sneakyimp]

it's not clear if your user input is entered in flash (in which case your question is an actionscript question) or whether your user input is entered in php. a little more info (and maybe some code) would be quite helpful.

[madwormer2]

You can start by only posting the question once.

[b-ed]

Sorry for the confusion...

The user imputs their text into PHP pages. Im guessing the text extracted from the database table will need to be converted to allow flash to read it even if "&s" are present. There will most likely be "&s" in the "entry" field of the table but if there is a way to check all fields and change/replace that would be cool too.

Here is a sample of the code I'm working with (any help or direction will be great):

<?php
mysql_connect ("****", "****", "****");

mysql_select_db ("****");
$qResult = mysql_query ("SELECT * FROM **** ORDER BY id DESC");

$nRows = mysql_num_rows($qResult);
$rString ="&n=".$nRows;


for ($i=0; $i< $nRows; $i++){
	$row = mysql_fetch_array($qResult);
	$rString .="&id".$i."=".$row['id']."&"."&date".$i."=".$row['date']."&"."&entry".$i."=".$row['entry']."&";
}
echo $rString."&";

?>

[sneakyimp]

if you want to take some complex text which might contain ampersands (&) and new line chars, or spaces, whatever, use urlencode()
http://www.php.net/urlencode

or possibly rawurlencode()

[bradgrafelman]

Try Google'ing something like: flash url encode

Here's a coding example I found on this, no clue if it's correct:

var encoded_str = escape(decoded_str);

[PABobo]

str_replace('&', '&', $input);

[iwanpattyn]

madwormer2 wrote:

If you're just gonna replace it, you might as well use [man]str_replace[/man]

NOT if the text contains HTML, or am i wrong? 🙂

[sneakyimp]

keep in mind that replacing '&' with '&amp' means you still have an ampersand in your string and PHP will interpret that as the beginning of a new var name.

urlencode() is totally different. urlencoded strings have a lot of % signs in them. use urlencode on any elements of $row that might have ampersands in them.

[Weedpacket]

madwormer2 wrote:

You can start by only posting the question once.

Merged the duplicate threads. I guess some people just jump in without checking to see how deep the water is first.

[madwormer2]

The ampersand is translated into %26 when it is encoded into the URL, meaning that it will no longer clash.

A simple urlencode() should suffice.

Also, looking at your code, it seems you have two lots of & by each variable.