Heres a snippet of my code

PHP Code:

$form = $ecm2;
                        
        $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[title\](.*?)\[\/title\]/is', '</p><h1>$1</h1><p>', $ecm2);
                        
        $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[b\](.*?)\[\/b\]/is', '<strong>$1</strong>', $ecm2);
                        
        $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[i\](.*?)\[\/i\]/is', '<em>$1</em>', $ecm2);
                        
        $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[u\](.*?)\[\/u\]/is', '<u>$1</u>', $ecm2);
                        
        $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[img\](.*?)\[\/img\]/is', '<img src="$1" alt="Image" />', $ecm2);
                        
         $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[url=(.*?)\](.*?)\[\/url\]/i', '<a href="$1">$2</a>', $ecm2);
                        
         $ecm2 = htmlentities($ecm2); 


Kind of like BB Code if you want to think of it that way, but for some reason it won't replace the bb code with the HTML. It'll just display the BB Code as it is entered..

Eg:
Someone enters [ b ]stuff[ /b ]
it should replace it into <strong>stuff</strong>
but instead displays it as [ b ]stuff[ /b ]

Spaces in [ b ] are to avoid making this part of my post bold..lol

Can anyone see any problems with the code...Or something that might be causing this, and no..before you ask no php errors being displayed back.

Try using the preg_replace with the count variable, and see how many things it actually changes.

Ex:

PHP Code:

preg_replace ('/\[url=(.*?)\](.*?)\[\/url\]/i', '<a href="$1">$2</a>', $ecm2, -1, $count);
echo $count;
//-1 is for no limit on number of replacements 


</span></span>

It says 0..So obviously something is wrong

what I'm doing is making $form = $ecm, then replacing bb codes in $ecm. Then echoing $form.

Is that the problem??

Also, nl2br is NOT working also..

Here's a larger Snippet..

PHP Code:

$title = $_POST['pgtitle'];
    $heading = $_POST['heading'];
    $content = $_POST['content'];
    $content = nl2br($content);
                        
    $form = $ecm2;
                        
    $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[title\](.*?)\[\/title\]/is', '</p><h1>$1</h1><p>', $ecm2);
                        
    $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[b\](.*?)\[\/b\]/is', '<strong>$1</strong>', $ecm2);
                        
    $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[i\](.*?)\[\/i\]/is', '<em>$1</em>', $ecm2);
                        
    $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[u\](.*?)\[\/u\]/is', '<u>$1</u>', $ecm2);
                        
    $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[img\](.*?)\[\/img\]/is', '<img src="$1" alt="Image" />', $ecm2);
                        
    $ecm2 = preg_replace ('/\[url=(.*?)\](.*?)\[\/url\]/i', '<a href="$1">$2</a>', $ecm2);
                        
    $ecm2 = htmlentities($ecm2);
                        
    echo '<form action="download.php" method="post"><textarea name="textarea" cols="80" rows="20">'.$form.'
                         </textarea><input type="hidden" name="filename" value="'.$title.'">
                         <br><input type="submit" value="Download"></form>'; 


If you're setting $form = $ecm2 at the beginning of your code, any changes you make to $ecm2 later won't be applied to $form. It's = $ecm2 for the value of $ecm2 at that particular line.

So if I move $form = $ecm2 BELOW all the preg_replace()s it should work right?

Will try this later....

Okay, so the preg_replace is working now

But the nl2br now isn't ...am I doing that part right (see above code)

I'm not quite sure what it does. I'm assuming it converts new lines to breaks, but you'd actually have to post the function for me to tell you for sure. Also, I don't see that you do anything with $content after running it through nl2br(), though maybe you didn't post that part. If you're comfortable posting more and then explaining a little more about what you're doing, it might help.

Its a template script, fill in a few boxes here and there and it feeds out a page written in html for the user to download.

Each client obviously has a different template, so i use if statements to determine which user it is.

$content is what the main box is that the user fills in, its a textarea.

$form = $ecm2
$ecm2 is contained in an external php page which has been included. Inside this file is something like

PHP Code:

<?php

$ecm2 = '<html>
stuff
goes
here

removed
'.$content.'

other box variables here
more here 
etc
etc
etc';

?>

So thats where $content is used..inside $ecm2

nl2br = new line to break (<br>)
Converts new lines into html line breaks

Anything wrong with it?

There isn't anything that I can tell, but maybe you could post the innards of the nl2br() function as well. Also, I can't tell from what you posted where you are including your file that contains $ecm2...that might make a difference depending on where you have it. As a side note, you might want to wrap up your BBcode replacement into an external function in case you want to reuse it later.

including the file before the code starts..

innards of nl2br() ???

PHP Code:

$content = nl2br($content); 


Originally Posted by Gilligan

innards of nl2br() ???

Sorry, I wasn't familiar with that function. I thought it was one that you created yourself, but now I found it on the PHP website.