php html tags converted to string

Question

I am trying to process a HTML file with php as a DOM document. Processing is okay, but when I save the html document with $html->saveHTMLFile("file_out.html"); all link tags are converted from:

Click here: <a title="editable" href="http://somewhere.net">somewhere.net</a>

to

Click here: &lt;a title="editable" href="http://somewhere.net"&gt; somewhere.net &lt;/a&gt;

I process the links as php scripts, maybe this makes a difference? I cannot convert the < back to < with htmlentitites_decode() or such. Is there any other conversion or encoding I can use?

The php script looks like the following:

<?php
$text = $_POST["textareaX"];
$id = $_GET["id"];
$ref = $_GET["ref"];
$html = new DOMDocument(); 
$html->preserveWhiteSpace = true;
$html->formatOutput       = false;
$html->substituteEntities = false;
$html->loadHTMLFile($ref.".html"); 
$elem = $html->getElementById($id); 
$elem->nodeValue = $innerHTML;

if ($text == "")
  { $text = "--- No details. ---"; }
$newtext = "";
$words = explode(" ",$text);
foreach ($words as $word) {
  if (strpos($word, "http://") !== false) {
    $newtext .= "<a alt=\"editable\" href=\"".$word."\">".$word."</a>"; 
    }
  else {$newtext .= $word." ";}
}

$text = $newtext;

function setInnerHTML($DOM, $element, $innerHTML) {
  $node = $DOM->createTextNode($innerHTML);
  $children = $element->childNodes;
  foreach ($children as $child) {
    $element->removeChild($child);
  }
  $element->appendChild($node);
}

setInnerHTML($html, $elem, $text);
$html->saveHTMLFile($ref.".html");
header('Location: '."tracking.php?ref=$ref&user=unLock");
?>

We get the reference to a file from "id" and "ref" and the input data from array "textareaX". Next I open the file, identify the html element by id and replace its content (a link) with the input data from the textarea. I provide only the href in the textarea and the script builds the hyperlink from that. Next I plug this back into the original file and overwrite the input file.

When I write the new file though, the link <a href= ...> </a> is converted to <a href=...> </a>, which is a problem.

The same code wiorks for me. I have used $html = new DOMDocument(); $html->loadHTMLFile("file_in.html"); $html->preserveWhiteSpace = true; $html->formatOutput = true; $html->saveHTMLFile("file_out.html"); — Jagadeesh
– Jagadeesh, Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 11:11
Hi @Jack! Maybe I did not provide enough information. I edited my question and now include the whole script. The problem persists. — Peter Nemeth .malomsok.
– Peter Nemeth .malomsok., Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 15:44

Jim · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-11 16:29:39Z

1

Here is part of your code with the issue identified:

<?php

function setInnerHTML($DOM, $element, $innerHTML) {
  /*********************************
      Well, there's your problem:
  **********************************/
  $node = $DOM->createTextNode($innerHTML);
  $children = $element->childNodes;
  foreach ($children as $child) {
    $element->removeChild($child);
  }
  $element->appendChild($node);
}

?>

What you are doing is passing your new anchor (a) tag as a string then creating a text node out of it (text is just that - text, not HTML). The createTextNode function automatically encodes any HTML tags so that they will be visible as text when viewed by a browser (this is so you can present HTML as visible code on your page if you choose to).

What you need to do is create the element as HTML (not a text node) then append it:

<?php

function setInnerHTML($DOM, $element, $innerHTML) {

  $f = $DOM->createDocumentFragment();
  $f->appendXML($innerHTML);
  $element->appendChild($f);

}

?>

answered Jul 11, 2016 at 16:29

Jim

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1 Comment

Jim Over a year ago

No problem, glad I could help

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