Question

I am currently using jQuery to check if the textarea has HTML in it: (and I will continue to use this)

   if ($('textarea#newMessage').val().match(/<(\w+)((?:\s+\w+(?:\s*=\s*(?:(?:"[^"]*")|(?:'[^']*')|[^>\s]+))?)*)\s*(\/?)>/)) {
      $('textarea#newMessage').focus();
      $('#error').html('Error: HTML is not aloud. Please remove all of the HTML in your message to continue.')
      .click(function() { $('#newMessage').focus(); })
      .stop(true,true)
      .fadeIn(800)
      .delay(1500)
      .fadeOut(200);
      return false;
   }

But, how can I use PHP to do this same thing? If someone disables JavaScript, they can easily submit the form with HTML in it. Is there a way for PHP to do this also?

Answer 1

This will catch tags and no text.

$textareaname = (isset($_POST['textareaname']))
                ? $_POST['textareaname']
                : '';

if ($textareaname !== strip_tags($_POST['textareaname']))
{
    // contains tags
}

elseif (trim($textareaname ) === '')
{
    // textarea is empty
}

else
{
    // OK! do something
}

Notes:

1. If the form is sent without anything in the textarea,
   $_POST['textareaname'] won’t exist and PHP will throw an error when
   you try to use it.
2. If someone sends nothing but spaces trim() will catch it.