Member Avatar for Brosa

I am trying to retrieve a value from mysql and put it into an Area box with php and I have been having some trouble's I wouldn't know how to go about this I would really appriciate some help. So far I have just made the textarea and retrieve and echo the query I want to be able to put the text from the query into the text area and be able to edit the text and then re submit it to the database. I can do the rest I just need to know how to get the query into the Textarea. Any help?

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 130 Views
  • 19 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Brosa

Dani AI

Generated

As pointed out, the visible value simply comes from your query result being placed inside the textarea. For a reliable, safe edit-and-resubmit flow there are a few important things to add after that one-liner: escape output for HTML, preserve/newline handling, use modern DB APIs, validate input on submit, and protect against CSRF and SQL injection.

Escape the text before inserting into HTML so characters like <, > and & don’t break the page or create XSS risks. Use htmlspecialchars with ENT_QUOTES and the correct charset (UTF-8) when echoing into form fields (see htmlspecialchars). Do not run nl2br before placing text in a textarea — the textarea displays raw newlines, so convert only if you need an HTML view elsewhere.

Normalize newlines from the DB if users come from different platforms:

$body = str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $body_from_db);

On submit, use prepared statements (PDO or mysqli) to update the database and avoid the deprecated mysql_* API. A compact PDO example:

$stmt = $pdo->prepare('UPDATE items SET content = ? WHERE id = ?');
$stmt->execute([$postedContent, $id]);

See PDO prepared statements for details: PDO prepared statements.

Also validate length and content server-side, store long text in TEXT/MEDIUMTEXT as needed, set your DB connection charset to utf8mb4, and include CSRF protection on the edit form. These steps turn the quick fix that offered into a secure, maintainable solution for and future readers.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for Member #120589 
<textarea><?php echo $output;?></textarea>

Put the relevant db output into the $output variable - do all this above the DTD and then simply echo it out inside the textarea. Simple.

Member Avatar for Brosa

Thanks sometimes all you need is a little direction figured it out.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.