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PHP Enhancing a Simple PHP Application Integrating Validation Errors Escaping Output

Carsten Dollerup
Carsten Dollerup
9,278 Points
Posted by Carsten Dollerup
Carsten Dollerup
9,278 Points

Why not just do htmlspecialchars($user_input) in the SERVER_METHOD brackets?

Why not just do htmlspecialchars($user_input) in the SERVER_METHOD brackets?

As in: if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") { $message = htmlspecialchars(trim($_POST["message"])); }

I looked this up because I am deathly afraid of malicious code, and the thing is, that it'll seriously mess up a message with html signs. Most of you can probably figure this out by yourselves, whereas I had to look it up :-)

Example: A typed message with html characters like this in the message field: "I "really" don't like how your so called <green> shirt looks when I opened the box it came in! I am returning the order #1234232 immediately!"

Would "return" with the error message like this: "I "really" don't like how your so called <green> shirt looks when I opened the box it came in! I am returning the order #1234232 immediately!" And it would look like this in the e-mail generated as well unless you "roll it back" with another function before sending the mail.

I hope this is of use for someone.