[SOLVED] Returns In TextArea Field

[twilitegxa]

Ia there a way to set a  textarea field to allow for returns or other HTMLformatting, such as the paragraph tag?

[smerny]

can you clarify? how does it not allow those things?

[twilitegxa]

I'm sorry. I mean, I have the textarea as a field in a form that will be sent to a table in a database. Do I need to set some setting in the input tag to allow for these formatting types, or is that something I need to set in my field in my table?

[smerny]

Still not exactly sure what your problem is. You want someone to be able to enter information in there and then output it so that the HTML code and everything looks exactly like it did when you entered the information?

 

If so, when you take information from the database, use nl2br() on it first to maintain the breaks and use htmlspecialchars() to make it so that html code is displayed rather than executed

[twilitegxa]

I am using the nl2br() on it, but I don't think it is maintaining the line breaks. Does it maintain them if they just press enter? That is what I want. This is what i have:

 

$biography = nl2br($posts_info['biography']);

[smerny]

if the break exists in the database (which it should unless you did something to remove them), then they should also exist when using nl2br(), did htmlspecialchars() do the other thing you were looking for?

[haku]

To allow HTML formatting, you don't do anything. When you output the content to the screen, the html tags in the text will automatically be rendered as HTML (as long as the mimetype of the document is text/html, which it should be for any html documents).

 

nl2br() will take any linebreaks (enter keys) and render them as html break tags. If it's not working, then you have a mistake somewhere. Show us your code.

[twilitegxa]

Here is the page that is displaying the profile:

 

<?php

session_start();

//Access Tracking Snippet

//set up static variables
$page_title = "showprofile.php";
$user_agent = getenv("HTTP_USER_AGENT");
$date_accessed = date("Y-m-d");

//connect to server and select database
$conn = mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "")
or die(mysql_error());
$db = mysql_select_db("smrpg", $conn) or die(mysql_error());

//create and issue query
$sql = "insert into access_tracker values
('', '$page_title', '$user_agent', '$date_accessed')";
mysql_query($sql,$conn);
?>

<?php
//check for required info from the query string
if (!$_GET['id']) {
header("Location: listcharacters.php");
exit;
}

//connect to server and select database
$conn = mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "")
or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("smrpg", $conn) or die(mysql_error());

//verify the topic exists
$verify_topic = "select identity from scouts where
id = $_GET[id]";
$verify_topic_res = mysql_query($verify_topic, $conn)
or die(mysql_error());

if (mysql_num_rows($verify_topic_res) < 1) {
//this character does not exist
$display_block = "<p><em>You have selected an invalid character.
Please <a href=\"listcharacters.php\">try again</a></em></p>";
} else {
//gather rest of profile
$get_posts = "select *, date_format(create_time, '%b %e %Y at %r') as fmt_scout_create_time from scouts where id = $_GET[id]";

$get_posts_res = mysql_query($get_posts, $conn) or die(mysql_error());

//create the display string
$display_block = "
<table cellpadding=3 cellspacing=1 border=1>";

while ($posts_info = mysql_fetch_array($get_posts_res)) {
	$post_id = $posts_info['id'];
	$identity = nl2br(stripslashes($posts_info['identity']));
	$character_create_time = $posts_info['fmt_scout_create_time'];
	$username = $posts_info['username'];
	$biography = nl2br(stripslashes($posts_info['biography']));
	$name = $posts_info['name'];
	$element_of_influence = $posts_info['element_of_influence'];
	$age = $posts_info['age'];
	$birth_month = $posts_info['birth_month'];
	$birth_date = $posts_info['birth_date'];
	$birth_year = $posts_info['birth_year'];
	$height_feet = $posts_info['height_feet'];
	$height_inches = $posts_info['height_inches'];
	$blood_type = $posts_info['blood_type'];
	$hobbies = $posts_info['hobbies'];
	$favorite_color = $posts_info['favorite_color'];
	$favorite_gemstone = $posts_info['favorite_gemstone'];
	$favorite_food = $posts_info['favorite_food'];
	$least_favorite_food = $posts_info['least_favorite_food'];
	$favorite_school_subject = $posts_info['favorite_school_subject'];
	$least_favorite_school_subject = $posts_info['least_favorite_school_subject'];
	$strengths = $posts_info['strengths'];
	$weaknesses = $posts_info['weaknesses'];
	$goal = $posts_info['goal'];
	$mission = $posts_info['mission'];
	$biography = $posts_info['biography'];

	//add to display
	$display_block .= "
	<tr>
	<td width=24% valign=top><strong>Character Name:</strong></td>
	<td width=55% valign=top>$name</td>
	<td align=center valign=top rowspan=18><img src=\"image.gif\" height=\"500\" width=\"200\"></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Element Of Influence:</strong></td>
	<td>$element_of_influence</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Age:</strong></td>
	<td>$age</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Date Of Birth:</strong></td>
	<td>$birth_month-$birth_date-$birth_year</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Height:</strong></td>
	<td>$height_feet feet $height_inches inches</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Blood Type:</strong></td>
	<td>$blood_type</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Hobbies:</strong></td>
	<td>$hobbies</td>
	</tr><tr>
	<td><strong>Favorite Color:</strong></td>
	<td>$favorite_color</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Favorite Gemstone:</strong></td>
	<td>$favorite_gemstone</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Favorite Food:</strong></td>
	<td>$favorite_food</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Least Favorite Food:</strong></td>
	<td>$least_favorite_food</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Favorite School Subject:</strong></td>
	<td>$favorite_school_subject</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Least Favorite School Subject:</strong></td>
	<td>$least_favorite_school_subject</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Strengths:</strong></td>
	<td>$strengths</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Weaknesses:</strong></td>
	<td>$weaknesses</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Goal:</strong></td>
	<td>$goal</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td><strong>Mission:</strong></td>
	<td>$mission</td>
	</tr>
	<td><strong>Character Biography:</strong></td>
	<td>$biography</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td> </td>
	<td> </td>
	<td valign=left>Created By: $username<br>
	Created On: [$character_create_time]</td>
	</tr>";
	}

	//close up the table
	$display_block .= "</table>";
}
?>
<html>
<head>
<title><?php print $identity; ?>'s Profile</title>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">
/*<![CDATA[*/
@import url(global.css); 
/*]]>*/
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!-- HEADER -->
<h1 class="logo">Sailor Moon RPG</h1>
<!-- /HEADER -->
<?php include("topnav.php"); ?>
<div id="main">
<?php include("includes/log.php"); ?>
<?php include("mainnav.php"); ?>
<h1 align="center"><?php print $identity; ?></h1>
<?php print $display_block; ?>
</div>
<?php include("bottomnav.php"); ?><!-- FOOTER -->
<!-- FOOTER -->
<div id="footer_wrapper">
<div id="footer">
<p>Sailor Moon and all characters
are<br /> 
trademarks of Naoko Takeuchi.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2009 Liz Kula. All rights reserved.<br />
A product of <a href="#" target="_blank">Web Designs By Liz</a> systems.</p>
<div id="foot-nav">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://webdesignsbyliz.com/digital/index.php" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-xhtml10-blue" alt="Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional" height="31" width="88" /></a></li>
<li><a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http://webdesignsbyliz.com/digital/global.css" target="_blank"><img class="c2" src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss-blue" alt="Valid CSS!" /></a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- /FOOTER -->
</body>
</html>

[twilitegxa]

Is there a specific MySQL type that allows for returns?

[twilitegxa]

I don't know why it wasn't working but I got it working now, thanks!