Php – Why is the PHP in articles being interpreted literally as a string instead of as PHP

joomlajoomla-articlejoomla1.5PHP

I am trying to find a way to write pure PHP in my articles with Joomla (currently using 1.5). The closest I got so far was to use a plugin called Sourcerer (see link)

The issue is that the PHP code is actually being rendered as HTML. When I write the below code via the Sourcerer editor:

<?php echo "Hello world"; ?>

This is what is being written to the article:

<span>&lt;</span>?php echo "Hello world"; ?<span>&gt;</span>

I am afraid that at some point this is going to break my PHP if I come up with more complex code. Also this makes the code hardly readable. Finally the issue with Sourcerer is that you can only insert new code, you can't edit what you previously added.

Does anybody know a way to write pure PHP into articles?

I would like to insist on the fact that it has to be within articles. I already found a way to do it in modules or components, for instance with Jumi.

Best Answer

I have used Sourcerer a couple of times and it does allow one to insert PHP snippets into articles without issues. If your php is being rendered as html, it sounds like the php isn't getting parsed as php - first thing is to make sure that the sourcerer plugin is indeed enabled so it can allow your php scripts to get parsed. (check plugin enabled status here: extensions->plugin manager->sourcerer).

Also, use the sourcerer ("Insert Code") button at the bottom of your WYSIWYG editor when adding your PHP scripts - it keeps the formatting/syntax highlighting and ensures that it is escaped properly with the {source} {/source} tags.

Related Solutions

Php – Reference — What does this symbol mean in PHP

Incrementing / Decrementing Operators

++ increment operator

-- decrement operator

Example    Name              Effect
---------------------------------------------------------------------
++$a       Pre-increment     Increments $a by one, then returns $a.
$a++       Post-increment    Returns $a, then increments $a by one.
--$a       Pre-decrement     Decrements $a by one, then returns $a.
$a--       Post-decrement    Returns $a, then decrements $a by one.

These can go before or after the variable.

If put before the variable, the increment/decrement operation is done to the variable first then the result is returned. If put after the variable, the variable is first returned, then the increment/decrement operation is done.

For example:

$apples = 10;
for ($i = 0; $i < 10; ++$i) {
    echo 'I have ' . $apples-- . " apples. I just ate one.\n";
}

Live example

In the case above ++$i is used, since it is faster. $i++ would have the same results.

Pre-increment is a little bit faster because it really increments the variable and after that 'returns' the result. Post-increment creates a special variable, copies there the value of the first variable and only after the first variable is used, replaces its value with second's.

However, you must use $apples--, since first, you want to display the current number of apples, and then you want to subtract one from it.

You can also increment letters in PHP:

$i = "a";
while ($i < "c") {
    echo $i++;
}

Once z is reached aa is next, and so on.

Note that character variables can be incremented but not decremented and even so only plain ASCII characters (a-z and A-Z) are supported.

Stack Overflow Posts:

Understanding Incrementing

PHP random string generator

To answer this question specifically, two problems:

$randstring is not in scope when you echo it.
The characters are not getting concatenated together in the loop.

Here's a code snippet with the corrections:

function generateRandomString($length = 10) {
    $characters = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
    $charactersLength = strlen($characters);
    $randomString = '';
    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $randomString .= $characters[rand(0, $charactersLength - 1)];
    }
    return $randomString;
}

Output the random string with the call below:

// Echo the random string.
// Optionally, you can give it a desired string length.
echo generateRandomString();

Please note that this generates predictable random strings. If you want to create secure tokens, see this answer.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Php – Reference — What does this symbol mean in PHP

PHP random string generator

Related Topic