PHP, MySQL and Forms

aGig

Greetings,

My level of PHP skills is about a 1 or 2 out of 10... So please understand if I call items by the wrong name.

I have a form with about 10 fields that are stored in a MySQL DB.

8 of them are just simple normal text fields. 2 of them I want to be a place for the person to put say ad code from google adsense. So I understand it needs to be a "textarea" rather then text.

I am using the following code:

<tr> <td><p>Header Ad: </p></td> <td> <textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="headerad" wrap="physical" value="<? echo $headerad; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Footer Ad: </p></td> <td> <textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="footerad" wrap="physical" value="<? echo $footerad; ?>"> </td></tr>

I've tried it a few different ways, but no matter what I try inside the textarea block it displays the HTML inside the actual PHP file. Please see:

http://www.upntag.com/pictures/96ae5a8b9ec179d85eca7923dc7773cb.jpg

It also does not display the rest of the form then. If I remove the two fields the rest of the form works 100%. What am I doing wrong with these textarea fields?

Thank you for your help.

Mark

djjjozsi

hy,

if you store html codes in database,if you need to visible it in a textarea, you need to use htmlspecialchars,
for example:

echo htmlspecialchars($footerad);

aGig

Greetings,

Thank you for the fast reply. I don't think that is the problem. Current data in the table is just a number like "1". The problem is it seems to escape the form and display actual code inside the PHP file.

If I use this code it works fine... Example:

<tr> <td><p>Britepic ID: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" size="6" name="britepic" maxlength="6" value="<? echo $britepic; ?>"> </td></tr>

. This code only is one line and would not work because the adsense code is more then one line. I guess how can I take the above code that works for me and make it so it would allow multiple lines?

Thank you.

Mark

Weedpacket

aGig wrote:
This code only is one line and would not work because the adsense code is more then one line.

You mean you want it in a textarea?

<textarea name="whatever"><?php echo htmlspecialchars($something)?></textarea>

Part of your reply needs explaining:

Current data in the table is just a number like "1".

I thought you were talking about adsense code that is more than one line?

(Incidentally, it's strongly recommended to use <?php instead of <? to start a PHP block. The latter construct doesn't play nice with XML and can be turned off, while the former is guaranteed to be supported.

aGig

What I mean is...

The current value in the DB to display is only "1" I do want it once working to be adsense code. The textarea no matter how I try it always fails and does what I would call "escape" the code and then displays the content of the actual PHP page. I could see if there were actual "html" code inside the DB but there is not at this time. See the image I have included on the 1st post.

When I go to just a single line text field like:

<tr> <td><p>Britepic ID: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" size="6" name="britepic" maxlength="6" value="<? echo $britepic; ?>"> </td></tr>

it works correctly and displays my "1" currently in the DB. I would like to make the single text field into a text area.

Thank you for the heads up on <?php I'll be sure to move to that 🙂.

Mark

Weedpacket

You mean you don't want to display the HTML source (assuming that it's HTML source that is (will be) stored in the database? Er, what should it show? I merely pointed out that the content of a <textarea> element isn't its value= attribute.

aGig wrote:
The current value in the DB to display is only "1" I do want it once working to be adsense code.

How about storing what it should be storing, and then there won't be any risk of getting the wrong output because of any bugs in whatever it is that is currently generating what you are displaying (because it's certainly not just displaying "1").

djjjozsi

if you want to show this

<tr> <td><p>Britepic ID: </p></td> <td><input type="text" size="6" name="britepic" maxlength="6" value="<? echo $britepic; ?>"></td></tr>

in textarea:

<form name="form1" method="post" action="">
<?php
$textfield='<tr> <td><p>Britepic ID: </p></td> <td><input type="text" size="6" name="britepic" maxlength="6" value="'.$britepic.'"></td></tr>';
?>
  <textarea name="textarea"><?php echo htmlspecialchars($textfield); ?></textarea>
</form>

the image I have included on the 1st post.

This is html code inside a textarea, as a matter a fact its a textarea inside a textarea. Its not included between <textarea> tags simply, becouse if you do that the inserted html codes (maybe) make visible elements in your code or break your page. For that reason you might use this htmlspecialchars.

And give us better examples from "1" please...

Hello,
jjozsi.

aGig

Okay I am sorry I think this is becoming harder then it really is...

So I'll try to list a few things out.

I have this form:

<tr> <td><p>Admin User: </P></td> <td> <input type="text" size="30" name="adminuser" maxlength="20" value="<? echo $adminuser; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Admin Password: </P></td> <td> <input type="text" size="30" name="password" maxlength="20" value="<? echo $password; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>License Key: </P></td> <td> <input type="text" size="30" name="licnesekey" maxlength="20" value="<? echo $licensekey; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>URL of script: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" size="30" name="website" maxlength="250" value="<? echo $website; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Site Name: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" name="title" size="30" maxlength="250" value="<? echo $webtitle; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Meta Description: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" name="description" size="30" maxlength="250" value="<? echo $description; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Meta Keywords: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" size="30" name="keywords" maxlength="250" value="<? echo $keywords; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Header Ad: </p></td> <td> <textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="headerad" wrap="physical" value="<? echo $headerad; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Footer Ad: </p></td> <td> <textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="footerad" wrap="physical" value="<? echo $footerad; ?>"> </td></tr>
<tr> <td><p>Britepic ID: </p></td> <td> <input type="text" size="6" name="britepic" maxlength="6" value="<? echo $britepic; ?>"> </td></tr>

The headerad and footerad parts of the form I'd like to be text areas since I'll be having people put in adsense, or other types of ad code.

The issue is the form stops working when using the above method. What happens is it shows all the fields up to headerad. Inside the headerad textarea box it escapes the form and displays the actual form data from inside the page. Please see: http://www.upntag.com/pictures/96ae5a8b9ec179d85eca7923dc7773cb.jpg. Note: See how the form code is displayed in the image, this is not from the DB, but from the actual content of the form.

Inside the DB field for headerad is a value of 1. All I am trying to do is get it display that value correctly in a textarea. But because the form escapes and quits working on the headerad section it does not display the value from the DB nor does it display the rest of the fields.

Thank you for your help and putting up with me 🙂.

Mark
I hope this helps some.

djjjozsi

then learn the right usage of the textarea:

this is a textarea:

  <textarea name="textarea" cols="30" rows="6" wrap="PHYSICAL"><?php echo htmlspecialchars($content) ;?></textarea>

Weedpacket

As well as what djjjozsi and I have pointed out about the use of textareas...

aGig wrote:
Note: See how the form code is displayed in the image, this is not from the DB, but from the actual content of the form.

That's because you're not escaping the content of the variable. If $headerad is not being escaped (note the mentions of [man]htmlspecialchars[/man] in this thread, which is intended to do exactly this) then if it contained, say

<div class="adsense">Something here</div>

then when it gets inserted into the HTML your script is generating the result will be

<textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="headerad" wrap="physical" value="<div class="adsense">Something here</div>">

and you can see from the syntax highlighting that the browser will become hopelessly lost about where anything is supposed to begin or end any more.

aGig

Thanks guys!

The form works now, but my next question is...

When I display the value inside the DB, I use the following:

<?php echo $headerad;?>

However it just displays the adsense code on the page rather then allowing it to run as javascript. Anything I need to do to change this?

Thank you again!

Mark

walterquez

aGig;10897264 wrote:
However it just displays the adsense code on the page rather then allowing it to run as javascript. Anything I need to do to change this?

wrap it with a <script> tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
<?php echo $headerad;?>
</script>

aGig

Is there anything wrong with doing it like this:

<?php echo htmlspecialchars_decode($footerad) ?>

walterquez

If you do that then the JavaScript will fail. JavaScript needs the actual characters rather than its html entities.

aGig

It works the above way... Adsense has the javascript calls with it.

Thank you for your time.

Mark

walterquez

I am sorry, if the text contains html entity codes, then yes, do what you posted, otherwise, you don't need it.