Advice? form to data to mysql, then display to html

[wscreate]

I want to build a blog type system that will capture input form a form, and also will parse a POP mail box using imap_open().

Data Coming In Via...
1. Web page form
2. Parse body of email using imap_open()

I will then store the data in a mysql database table and display it as....

1. HTML Output to a web page
2. Email Textual Output (Non-html)

I have played around with the various formatting methods, but I believe I am in need of advice on how some of you would do this. I am thinking that it is very important that I should format the data coming in before it gets stored to the database.....

Then, I should properly format the data for display depending no whether it will go to HTML via a web page or go out a textual output in an email body which will be sent out via email.

Specific questions.
Note: At this time, I have PHP 5.2.1 and I believe magic_quotes is currently on.

1. What PHP functions should I consider to format the data coming in before it is inserted into a database?

2. What PHP functions should I consider to format the code for display in a web page.

3. What PHP functinos should I consider to format the code for display as a textual output in an email body.

Thanks for any advice you can offer. I want to get this right so I am not struggling with the formatting. It can be such a pain. :queasy:

[laserlight]

1. What PHP functions should I consider to format the data coming in before it is inserted into a database?

You could use the PDO extension or the MySQLi extension and so use prepared statements. If you have to use the old MySQL extension, then it would be the usual mysql_real_escape_string() for strings and a cast to int for integers. Since you have magic quotes on, you should stripslashes() your incoming variables first.

2. What PHP functions should I consider to format the code for display in a web page.

htmlspecialchars() or htmlentities() if you do not want HTML tags in the text to be treated as more than just data.

3. What PHP functinos should I consider to format the code for display as a textual output in an email body.

If you are sending a HTML email, then it would be like a webpage. If not, then nothing special is needed.

[wscreate]

laserlight wrote:

You could use the PDO extension or the MySQLi extension and so use prepared statements.......

Thank you laserlight. I will investigate your suggestions.