display blocks of text

[Ameslee]

Hope someone can help me?  Im displaying different amounts of blocks of text, basically it's feedback.  How do i display it so that it doesn't push my layout out of whack?  How would you <br> when displaying from the database?  sorry if this is confusing!  Its confusing me!

thanks

[redbullmarky]

how do you mean pushing your layout out of whack?
if youre on about lines being too long and not breaking, you'll need to do a few things to chop the lines up a bit.
the way i display data from a database depends on what type of data it is. if it is data in a TEXT or BLOB field, then i generally use [url=http://www.php.net/nl2br]nl2br[/url] to maintain the line breaks as i intended. if its a case of lines being too long, then either insert a space every nth character to break the line up, or insert a HTML <wbr /> tag which some browsers support.

[Ameslee]

i see!  Is there an easier way as once i have finished it will be handed over to someone else with less experience that i have?  yes it is a text block!  And yeah the line is too long, and its not wrapping.

[redbullmarky]

it depends. normally, the only sort of text too wide for a site is a URL. otherwise, you need to widen your site :)

non-wrapping is a result of a lack of spaces. so make some. if its a URL, i've occasionally used this:
[code]
<?php
$text = str_replace('?', '?<wbr>', $text);
$text = str_replace('&', '&<wbr>', $text);
?>
[/code]
which inserts a "soft" line break after your &'s and ?'s. meaning - the line will appear continuous, UNLESS it needs to be broken. carefull with this one though, as browser support is a bit rubbish.

[Ameslee]

no it isnt a link!!!! Its coming from a text box!

[redbullmarky]

are we talking someone typing lines purposely too long here?

there are two other methods. either use CSS overflow:hidden, or PHP's [url=http://www.php.net/wordwrap]wordwrap()[/url] function.

[code]
<?php
$text = "iamaridiculouslylongbitoftextthathasnospacesandisdesignedtobuggerupahtmllayout";

$text = wordwrap($text, 40, "\n");
?>
[/code]
the above will split the sentence every 40 characters with a line break.

[Ameslee]

sorry i have to explain myself a bit more clearer.  Ok i have maintenance pages, that someone such as the administrator, necessarily not me, and possibly someone that doesnt know any html/php/css/etc will access, enter data.  Then they press update! and there you go, it displays on the site.

[redbullmarky]

sure - but if your layout is breaking as a result of lines that are too long, then the lines they're are entering are too long, which either means:
1) their spacebar is knackered
2) the code above needs to be used to chop the line up into smaller pieces that wont bust your layout.

otherwise, there maybe a problem with quotes being displayed, etc. you might want to use [url=http://www.php.net/htmlspecialchars]htmlspecialchars[/url] which will convert quotes, arrows < and >, etc, into 'special' entities (&quot; , &lt and &gt respectively in this example).

[code]
<?php
echo nl2br(htmlspecialchars($text));
?>
[/code]

[Ameslee]

[code]<?php
$text = "iamaridiculouslylongbitoftextthathasnospacesandisdesignedtobuggerupahtmllayout";

$text = wordwrap($text, 40, "\n");
?>
[/code]

Ok to use the above code.  Where do i put it within the code?

Here is my code at the moment:
[code]<?php
$hostname = ;
$username = ;
$password = ;

$conn = mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password) or die(mysql_error());
$connection = mysql_select_db(" ", $conn);


$query = "SELECT * FROM feedback";
$mysql_result=mysql_query($query,$conn);
$row=mysql_fetch_row($mysql_result);

$i=1;
while(($row!="") && ($i<=4))
{
echo("<table width=80%>");
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width=40%><b>Feedback Received By:</b></td><td>$row[1]</td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td width=40%><b>Feedback:</b></td><td>$row[3]</td></tr>";
echo "</table><hr>";
$row=mysql_fetch_row($mysql_result);
$i++;
}


?>[/code]

[redbullmarky]

anywhere you like, as long as it's AFTER you retrieve it from the DB and before you display it.

[code]<?php
$hostname = ;
$username = ;
$password = ;

$conn = mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password) or die(mysql_error());
$connection = mysql_select_db(" ", $conn);


$query = "SELECT * FROM feedback";
$mysql_result=mysql_query($query,$conn);
$row=mysql_fetch_row($mysql_result);

$i=1;
while(($row!="") && ($i<=4))
{
// ***** HERE WILL DO *****
$row[3] = wordwrap($row[3], 40);

echo("<table width=80%>");
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width=40%><b>Feedback Received By:</b></td><td>$row[1]</td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td width=40%><b>Feedback:</b></td><td>$row[3]</td></tr>";
echo "</table><hr>";
$row=mysql_fetch_row($mysql_result);
$i++;
}


?>[/code]

[Ameslee]

[quote author=redbullmarky link=topic=117239.msg478190#msg478190 date=1165196856]
anywhere you like, as long as it's AFTER you retrieve it from the DB and before you display it.

[code]<?php
$hostname = ;
$username = ;
$password = ;

$conn = mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password) or die(mysql_error());
$connection = mysql_select_db(" ", $conn);


$query = "SELECT * FROM feedback";
$mysql_result=mysql_query($query,$conn);
$row=mysql_fetch_row($mysql_result);

$i=1;
while(($row!="") && ($i<=4))
{
// ***** HERE WILL DO *****
$row[3] = wordwrap($row[3], 40);

echo("<table width=80%>");
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td width=40%><b>Feedback Received By:</b></td><td>$row[1]</td></tr>";
echo "<tr><td width=40%><b>Feedback:</b></td><td>$row[3]</td></tr>";
echo "</table><hr>";
$row=mysql_fetch_row($mysql_result);
$i++;
}


?>[/code]


[/quote]

This didnt do anything!

[redbullmarky]

can you post a screenshot or something of your output?

[b]edit:[/b] oops sorry. you need to specify that you want it cut:

[code]
$row[3] = wordwrap($row[3], 40, '<br />', true);
[/code]

[Ameslee]

here is a screenshot!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v619/linkinchick4eva/screenshot.jpg

[redbullmarky]

^ i posted an edit before. should sort you out.

[Ameslee]

thank you  ;D it worked!

[Ameslee]

one more problem on that same page, if u look at the screenshot at the bottom banner, with the links on it.  It goes right across the page and its meant to be in line with box. Why?

[Ameslee]

anyone?