How to keep textarea from converting special chars

[PeterMartin]

Not sure if this is HTML or PHP related.

Code: Select all

$content = "&foobar";
<textarea rows="25" cols="70" name="content"><?php echo $content; ?></textarea>


textarea then displays &foobar

I'm using this to edit code files and this is not what I want. How can I get it to NOT make the conversion?

Thanks.

[egami]

so you want the textfield to display the "&foobar" and not "&foobar" ?

I believe it would be in the htmlentities? or htmlspecialchars?

[PeterMartin]

Thanks. Yes, I want it to display & as that is what is in the file from which it gets its input.

I'm just learning PHP and simply cannot figure this out. Here's the relevant code:

Code: Select all

if (isset($_POST['content'])) {
   $content = stripslashes($_POST['content']);   
   $fh = fopen($fspec,"w") or die ("Error opening file in write mode");
           fputs($fh,$content);
           fclose($fh) or die ("Error closing file");
   echo "Saved";
}
?>

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"].'?q='.base64_encode($fspec); ?>" method="post">
   <div><textarea rows="25" cols="75" name="content"><?php htmlspecialchars(readfile($fspec)); ?></textarea></div>
   <div><input type="submit" value="Save" /></div>
</form>


Basically, I just want to display in textarea EXACTLY what is in the file, and save it EXACTLY as entered there...with no conversions taking place anywhere.

I think I've tried all combinations of htmlspecialchars in both reading and writing the file, and it keeps making conversions somewhere. If I use it during the file write, it converts the < and > which I do not want.

Grrrrr...I must be missing something obvious.

Basically, I just want to display in textarea EXACTLY what is in the file, and save it EXACTLY as entered there...with no conversions taking place anywhere.

[vgould]

this will work for you:
<?php echo htmlentities("&amp;foobar"); ?>

[PeterMartin]

this will work for you:
<?php echo htmlentities("&amp;foobar"); ?>

Thank you very much. That was it!