HTML tags saved to database as HTML entities

Question

I am using this code to update values in a database:

function text_save( $page_name, $page_title, $page_text ) { $servername = "127.0.0.1"; $username = "abcd"; $password = "password"; $dbname = "thedatabase"; // Create connection $conn = new mysqli( $servername, $username, $password, $dbname ); // Check connection if ( $conn->connect_error ) { die( "Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error ); } $page_content = $page_text; $sql = "UPDATE text SET page_title=?, page_text=? WHERE text_name=?"; // prepare and bind $stmt = $conn->prepare( $sql ); // check whether the prepare() succeeded if ( $stmt === false ) { trigger_error( $this->mysqli->error, E_USER_ERROR ); } $stmt->bind_param( 'sss', $page_title, $page_content, $page_name ); $stmt->execute(); print '<p>Text saved</p>'; $stmt->close(); $conn->close(); }

The variable $page_text is set from a tinymce text area on a form submission and is HTML content.

If I var_dump the value of $page_text, it comes out as: string(23) "test"

When the $page_content data is saved to the database, it is saved as:

&lt;p&gt;test&lt;/p&gt;

However, if I manually set the value of $page_content to test,

e.g. $page_content = "test"; instead of $page_content = $page_text;

it is saved to the database as:

<p>test</p>

I need the HTML to be saved to the database without being converted to HTML entities i.e. as test not test?

This is what I have tried so far:

Setting the page to utf8 - <meta charset="utf-8" />,

setting the form to utf8 - accept-charset="UTF-8",

setting the connection to utf8 - mysqli_set_charset($conn,"utf8");

setting the tinymce init with - entity_encoding : "raw"

What am I doing wrong here, and why does the HTML string save correctly when I manually set the variable rather than using the form variable value (which seems to be identical)?

Thanks very much!

Try <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> — Micaela
– Micaela, Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 3:13
Thanks Micaela, I have just tried adding the full meta tag as suggested but no luck unfortunately. I already had <!DOCTYPE html> on the page. — junkrig
– junkrig, Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 3:17

Scott G. · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-15 03:44:49Z

2

You might be looking for the html_entity_decode function,

http://php.net/manual/en/function.html-entity-decode.php

$page_content = html_entity_decode($page_text);

Be careful about injections and such.

answered Sep 15, 2015 at 3:44

Scott G.

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1 Comment

junkrig Over a year ago

Yes, it was the tinymce editor, thanks @wilo087! Even though the var_dump showed string(23) "test", the HTML had been converted to entities, I should have picked up on the string(23) which relates to the extra entity characters. html_entity_decode fixed it up for me, thanks very much!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:14:13Z

I think the problem is in the editor.

can you try to print the value of $page_content before insert into database and show us?

too, see this post. HTML Tags stripped using tinyMCE

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