Display database HTML value via DOMDocument PHP - php

Question

The database has the value: This is a test.<br><h1>this is also a test.</h1>This is a test.<br>this is a test.<br>
Using mysql the value is given by: $DBval['test'].
the row settings are:
Type = LONGTEXT
Collation = UTF8_general_ci
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$test = $doc->createElement("div");
$doc->appendChild($test);
$test_value = $doc->createElement("p", $DBval['test']);
$test->appendChild($test_value);
echo $doc->saveXML();
result:
"This is a test.<br><h1>this is also a test.</h1>This is a test.<br>this is a test.<br>"
The result is written in plain text and weirdly enough in double quotes.
I just want the result to be written in HTML like this:
This is a test.this is also a test.This is a
test.this is a test.

Answer 1

There a few reason why ths will not work (at least as expected)
If you have 'malformed' html you will need to use saveHTML() instead of saveXML().
Since your string is already containting some html tag you will need to do an loadHTML(); insert it
You can echo ONLY the element by passing the DOMElement to the saveHTML($text_value) so you don't echo all the document.
Take into account that domDocuemnt will emcapsulate any 'free-floating' text into a <p> tag. In this case of text only node you shall use ->createTextNode() Instead.
Now, here is the tricky part: You can do:
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->loadHTML($DBval['test']);
echo $doc->saveHTML();
But if you want to actually 'import' html into another DOMElement you do need to IMPORT it. Here a function i used (addapted for your case and commented for explaination)
//For a valid html5 DOCTYPE declaration
//$doc = new DOMDocument();
$dom = new DOMImplementation;
$doc = $dom->createDocument(null, 'html', $dom->createDocumentType('html'));
//To keep thing tidy
$doc->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
$doc->formatOutput = true;
$doc->encoding = 'utf8';
//Creates your test div
$test = $doc->createElement("div");
$doc->appendChild($test);
/** HERE STARTS THE MAGIC */
$tempDoc= new DOMDocument; //Create a temp Doc to import the new html
libxml_use_internal_errors(true); //This prevent some garbage warning.
//Prevent encoding garbage on import, change accordingly to your setup
$htmlToImport = mb_convert_encoding($DBval['test'], 'HTML-ENTITIES', 'utf8');
//Load your Html into the temp document
//As commented, we'll encapsulate the html in a span to prevent DOM to automaticly add the 'p' tag
$tempDoc->loadHTML('<span>'.$htmlToImport.'</span>');
//$tempDoc->loadHTML($htmlToImport); //#REMOVED: was adding 'p' tag
//Restore Garbage Warning report
libxml_clear_errors();
libxml_use_internal_errors(false);
//Get the htl to import now sotred in the body of the temp document
$bodyToImport = $tempDoc->getElementsByTagName('body')->item(0);
//Import all those new childs to your div
foreach($bodyToImport->childNodes as $node){
$test->appendChild($doc->importNode($node->cloneNode(true),true));
}
/** All this to replace these 2 lines :(
$test_value = $doc->createElement("p", $DBval['test']);
$test->appendChild($test_value);
*/
//echo $doc->saveXML();
echo $doc->saveHTML(); //echo all the document
//echo $doc->saveHTML($test); //echo only the test 'div'
I've used the term 'garbage' beacuse it is mainely error you can ignore, but while you dev, you might wat to take a look at those error.
I know this looks overkill but it's the only way i managed to work with any HTML, charset and make it work in a clean way.
Really hope this helps. DOM can be tricky but it has the abiity to keep thing structured if used properly.