Problem with '&' charachter.

[zamuel]

Hey.

I have a problem with "&" character. When I try to send a mail from web application and I include '&' to the post the whole message shows empty when send it through. So what can I do to prevent this?

Thanks in advance!

[nathj]

Hey.

I have a problem with "&" character. When I try to send a mail from web application and I include '&' to the post the whole message shows empty when send it through. So what can I do to prevent this?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

Can you supply the code that is doing this? If you are using HTML email you could try replacing the & with & which is the code for that character.

If you could post the code it may help people help you more easily.

Cheers
nathj

[zamuel]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes I will post the code. It basically checks the users registered 'location' and according to that choose e-mail address to be send the post.

[code=PHP]

$city = $_GET['city'];

$user = new user();
$address = $user->SQL->query("selec t email FROM tblRegios WHERE plaats='".$city ."'");

if (sizeof($result = $user->SQL->result())) {
foreach($result as $key => $val)
{
if(isset($val['email']))
$email = $val['email'];
}
}

$to = $email;
$subject = 'Mail';

$headers = 'From';
$vars = XML_unserialize ($_POST['xml']);

mail($to, $subject, $vars['root']['opmerking'], $headers);
[/code]

So, what I want to do is replace '&' with something before sending and then decode it to be '&' again when it is being read.

[nathj]

Thanks for posting the code. Where exactly is the & character that's causing the problems?

What purpose is the & serving? Is it simply part of the message? If so could it simply be changed to 'and' using str_replace?

Cheers
nathj

[zamuel]

Yes, simply part of the message. I would like the message keep the same form when received, so & should not be 'and'.

[nathj]

Yes, simply part of the message. I would like the message keep the same form when received, so & should not be 'and'.

Hi,

In that case try replacing & with & in the message and with HTML email this should then be translated as & when the email client reads it.

I'm not sure why the presence of the & character causes the problem you've got. I would be interested in finding that out.

Cheers
nathj

[Markus]

Hi,

In that case try replacing & with & in the message and with HTML email this should then be translated as & when the email client reads it.

I'm not sure why the presence of the & character causes the problem you've got. I would be interested in finding that out.

Cheers
nathj

To do so have a look at str_replace and functions like str_replace.

[zamuel]

Yes, I got the point with that replace function. But for now it seems that it does not work. I does not even work when I try to replace '&' with 'and' as for test. And the fact remains that message text is deleted when '&' mark is posted. This is a very strange problem.

[nathj]

Hi,

Could you maybe post the message text? There maybe something in there that is causing the issue.

Cheers
nathj

[zamuel]

Well, the message text can be what ever user chooses to type in, but the text area itself is assigned through line

[code=php]
$page->assign("textOp merking",$form->textarea("opme rking","",40,15 ));
[/code]

and the text are itself is defined in different file like:

[code=php]
function textarea($name, $value="",$cols =40,$rows=4,$js = false,$class = false) {
$id = $name;
$array = array("name","t ype","cols","ro ws","class","id ");
foreach($array as $a) $return .= ($$a!==false) ? " $a=\"".$$a."\"" : "";
return $this->display($name, "textarea","<te xtarea ".$return." $js>".((isset($ this->values[$name])) ? $this->values[$name] : $value)."</textarea>");
}
[/code]

[pbmods]

Heya, Zamuel.

What's an example of a message that is causing a problem? What happens when you try to run a str_replace() on it?

[zamuel]

Well, as an example any of these strings will cause problems:

This is test & example mail.
This mail includes '&' sign.
!@#$%^&*()_+

With other words, when '&' is present it causes the error. I tried to replace the '&' with some example text and it does not work although for example replacing 't' with 'R' works perfectly and the message gets through with the replacement.

[nathj]

Well, as an example any of these strings will cause problems:

This is test & example mail.
This mail includes '&' sign.
!@#$%^&*()_+

With other words, when '&' is present it causes the error. I tried to replace the '&' with some example text and it does not work although for example replacing 't' with 'R' works perfectly and the message gets through with the replacement.

I have run a simple test using the string you supplied and the str_replace function.

Code:
[PHP]
$lcVar = "This is test & example mail.
This mail includes '&' sign.
!@#$%^&*()_+" ;
echo $lcVar . '<br /><br />' ;
$lcVar2 = str_replace('&' , '_and_', $lcVar) ;
echo $lcVar2 . '<br /><br />' ;
[/PHP]
Output:

This is test & example mail. This mail includes '&' sign. !@#$%^&*()_+

This is test _and_ example mail. This mail includes '_and_' sign. !@#$%^_and_*()_+

The str_replace there works fine.

Cheers
nathj

[zamuel]

XML_unserialize () is basically taking the XML string and making it to be object, which in this case can be used as $vars['root']['opmerking'] for posting the value of 'opmerking' as the text field for e-mail message.

[pbmods]

You can echo the value, and the '&' character is properly escaped, but when you send the email, there is no message body; is that correct?