Wanting to add html characters to Database Update Action Step

Wappler General
#1

I am probably doing this wrongly.

I want to create notes per DB record, so these notes are stored in a single field. Date and time is added to the beginning of each submission. This is a mock-up of what I want to end up with…

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This is the MySQL DB Update…

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And the update binding

{{$_POST.prev_notes + NOW.formatDate('dd/MM/yyyy') + ' at ' + (NOW.formatDate('h:mma')) + ' : ' + $_POST.notes}}

This is what I want to achieve, I have done this manually in phpMyAdmin…

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I thought I could do something like and add some HTML directly

{{$_POST.prev_notes + '<br><i>' + NOW.formatDate('dd/MM/yyyy') + ' at ' + (NOW.formatDate('h:mma')) + ' :</i> ' + $_POST.notes}}

but it won’t work.

Can someone throw some light?

I know I could probably use Summernote but I wanted to avoid that and try something more basic.

#2

So which part is not working exactly?
“It doesn’t work” is never a good explanation an it’s never helpful for us, which means you won’t get a solution fast …

#3

I apologise for failing to describe the issue properly.

When I add the HTML tag '<br>' for the first time in the Update Server Action, saving it and going to the page in Chrome, adding a note and submitting it, I get the desired result as you can see in this screenshot from phpMyAdmin, includes the '<br>'

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And it displays correctly in the browser

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I go back into the Update Server Action and the HTML tags have disappeared

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I know I didn’t describe the disappearing bit earlier, mainly because I didn’t realise that is what had happened.

#4

Can you see the tags in the server action JSON after saving?
It could be that when re-opening, it’s just not showing the HTML tags, but its there in code?

#5

Good thinking Sid, you are right, fresh screenshots from this morning

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Teodor, is this something you can look at?
Cheers

#6

So it’s only the UI where you are not seeing your html tags? Are they properly inserted in the database and are they then properly working on the page?

#7

Yes Teodor

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And as a side note, I am seeing strange entries in the Action Steps Global $_POST, these seem to be being added automatically when I have been playing with different options.

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#8
#9

From what I understand, since Wappler is Chromium based, HTML stuff sometimes gets interpreted literally in the UI.

For eg: Save some HTML in set value action step, and you can see it being ‘rendered’ in the properties panel.
Although that does not hamper the functioning.

A workaround for sanity, just in case this cannot be fixed / until its fixed:
Create variable (set value) for <br/><i>, and use that in your db query UI like {{htmlBR}}.
You will still not see actual value in the set value, but you will know by name what it contains. :sweat_smile:

Note on the side note: Have experienced this quite commonly since the beginning I think. Maybe this requires a separate bug post.

#10

I suppose my original post was looking for this sort of suggestion. I did have thoughts along these lines but wasn’t sure so thanks.

#11

I decided to set 3 variables:
'htmlBR' for '<br />'
'html_i' for '<i>'
'html_i2' for '</i>'

In the screenshot below, setting the 3rd variable, the value is correct but you can see that none of the html tags show in the steps

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When you click away and then select the variable again, the html tag has disappeared

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but if I click on the pencil you can see that the html tag shows in the content box

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#12

This also another bug. The value in value field does not get converted to “expression” then-and-there. It does only after you come-back to that step.

With variables, it would be a bit more maintainable now, I hope.