vb.org Archive - Fix for problem posting HTML entities as plain text

HTML Entities Fix 1.0

What does this hack do?

The short explanation: It makes it so & entities aren't escaped when posting.

The long explanation: As you may know, HTML uses entities in the form of &(something); to represent certain characters. For example, & will show up as & in the browser. vBulletin escapes any of these that you post so they show up as plain text. However, to be compatible with languages other than English, any entities in the form of &#(number); can't be escaped. That means things like ' (that represents a '), can't be posted as plain text without inserting empty bbcode in the middle of it. That's an ugly workaround, so I came up with this hack. Now, if you want to post ', just post &#039; and it will show up properly in the browser.

Why would I want to use this?

Well, if your forum involves discussing HTML or programming, or perhaps making modifications for popular forum software, this will let your users post instructions with entities in a way that makes much more sense than the current way. (hint, hint)

EDIT: I guess we're not allowed to attach HTML files, so if you don't want to deal with the zipped file, here are the instructions:

In includes/functions.php find

PHP Code:


		
			
    $text = preg_replace('/&(?!#[0-9]+;)/si', '&amp;', $text); // translates all non-unicode entities

Replace that with

PHP Code:


		
			
    //##################### Start HTML Entities Hack ###############################

    $text = preg_replace('/&(?!#[0-9]+;|amp;)/si', '&amp;', $text); // translates all non-unicode (and non-ampersand) entities

    //##################### End HTML Entities Hack ###############################

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (2)bbcode_php_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (1)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
Messages:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information

Page Generation 0.00955 seconds
Memory Usage 1,715KB
Queries Executed 10 (?)

More Information

Template Usage:

(1)ad_footer_end
(1)ad_footer_start
(1)ad_header_end
(1)ad_header_logo
(1)ad_navbar_below
(2)bbcode_php_printable
(1)footer
(1)gobutton
(1)header
(1)headinclude
(6)option
(1)post_thanks_navbar_search
(1)printthread
(1)printthreadbit
(1)spacer_close
(1)spacer_open

Phrase Groups Available:

global
postbit
showthread

Included Files:

./printthread.php
./global.php
./includes/init.php
./includes/class_core.php
./includes/config.php
./includes/functions.php
./includes/class_hook.php
./includes/modsystem_functions.php
./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php
./includes/class_bbcode.php
./includes/functions_bigthree.php

Hooks Called:

init_startup
init_startup_session_setup_start
init_startup_session_setup_complete
cache_permissions
fetch_threadinfo_query
fetch_threadinfo
fetch_foruminfo
style_fetch
cache_templates
global_start
parse_templates
global_setup_complete
printthread_start
bbcode_fetch_tags
bbcode_create
bbcode_parse_start
bbcode_parse_complete_precache
bbcode_parse_complete
printthread_post
printthread_complete

Messages:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.00955 seconds Memory Usage 1,715KB Queries Executed 10 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (2)bbcode_php_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (1)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
Messages: