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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T20:12:45+00:00

I am trying to capture the contents of my php page using output buffering:

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I am trying to capture the contents of my php page using output buffering:

<?php

function connect() {
  $dbh = mysql_connect ("localhost", "user", "password") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error());
  mysql_select_db("PDS", $dbh); 
  return $dbh;
}

session_start();

if(isset($_SESSION['username'])){
  if(isset($_POST['entryId'])){
    //do something
    $dbh = connect();
    $ide = $_POST['entryId'];
    $usertab = $_POST['usertable'];
    $answertable = $usertab . "Answers";
    $entrytable = $usertab . "Entries";
    $query = mysql_query("SELECT e.date, q.questionNumber, q.question, q.sectionId, a.answer FROM $answertable a, Questions q, $entrytable e WHERE a.entryId = '$ide' AND a.questionId = q.questionId AND e.entryId = '$ide' ORDER BY q.questionNumber ASC;") or die("Error: " . mysql_error());

    if($query){
      //set variables      
      $sectionOne = array();      
      while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($query)){
    $date = $row['date'];
    $sectionOne[] = $row;   
      }
    }else{
      //error - sql failed
    }
  } 
?>

<?php
  ob_start();
?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
   <head>
   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
   <script src = "jQuery.js"></script>
   <script>
   $(document).ready(function(){
       $("#export").click(function(e){
       //post to html2pdfconverter.php
       $("#link").val("<?php echo(ob_get_contents()); ?>"); //THIS DOESN'T WORK
       $("#nm").val("Entry Report.pdf");       
       $("form#sendanswers").submit();
       }); 
   });
  </script>
  <title>Personal Diary System - Entry Report - <?php echo($date); ?></title>
  </head>
  <body>
  <h1>Entry Report - <?php echo($date); ?></h1>    
  <div id = "buttons">
  <form id = "sendanswers" name = "sendanswers" action="html2pdfconverter.php" method="post">
  <input type = "hidden" name = "link" id = "link" value = "">
  <input type = "hidden" name = "nm" id = "nm" value = "">
  <input type = "button" name = "export" id = "export" value = "Export As PDF"/>
  </form>                        
  </div>                         
  <h3>Biological Information</h3>
  <?php
     echo('<p>');                         
      $i = 0;                         
      foreach($sectionOne as &$value){
    if($i == 1 || $i == 3){
      $image = "assets/urine".$i.".png";
      echo("<br/>");
      echo($value['question']." <br/> "."<img src = \"$image\"/>");
      echo("<br/>");
    }else{
      echo($value['question'].' : '.$value['answer']);
    }
    echo("<br/>");
    $i++;
      }
     echo('</p>');      
  ?>
  </body>
</html>
<?php   
}
$contents = ob_get_contents(); //THIS WORKS    
ob_end();
?>

I assign the contents of ob to $contents using ob_get_contents(); This works, and echoing $contents duplicates the html page.

However, in my jQuery, I am trying to assign this to a hidden text field (‘link’) using:

$("#link").val("<?php echo($contents); ?>");

This doesn’t work however..And I have a feeling its because I am accessing $contents too eraly but not too sure…any ideas?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
       $("#link").val("<?php echo(ob_get_contents()); ?>"); //THIS DOESN'T WORK

    at the point you do that ob_get_contents call, you’ve only output about 10 lines of javascript and html. PHP will NOT reach back in time and magically fill in the rest of the document where you do this ob_get_contents().

    You’re basically ripping the page out of the laser printer the moment the page starts emerging, while the printer is still printing the bottom half of the page.

    I fail to see why you want to embed the contents of your page into an input field. If you want to somehow cache the page’s content in an input field, you can just use JS to grab the .innerHTML of $('body').

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