UPDATE: What i am doing is takign the html string, performing the php function, addslashes($html); and then inserting that into the database. This works however when I tried to print to the screen it shows up as white space. I'm assuming its throwing an error however idk where its coming from. Any help would be appreciated.
What kind of server does your friend have? Advise versions of php and Apache as well.
Apache 2.x does not show errors along with the code.
To view the errors you have, check the apache error log or change the config file to show php errors. - I am not 100% sure whether you have to change the httpd.conf or the php.ini - I have to check.
If you have errors in your mysql syntax, then you should use the mysql_error() function of php. It goes something like this
e.g.
$query = mysql_query("your_query", link);
if (!$query){die mysql_error();}
For the echo function, it is really awkward, still you can always try the print() function, that is basically the same.
Good luck.
p.s. use <?php ?> as of versions abve 4.x