FCKeditor is leaving behind a lot of open tags - how to remove them

Question

So I am using FCKeditor and the problem I am having is that when the user writes the document sometimes info is copied from Word, other times it is written directly in the editor and other times it could be done both ways. What this leaves me with in the DB is a lot of tags that are open and never closed. This is throwing my layout off dramatically and I am trying to find a solution.

I changed the config file to paste as plain text, which I assumed would stop Word formatting from transferring over, and it is still doing it.

So now I am trying to figure out a way to search for the opening tags and delete them before the info is sent to the DB is possible. Or is there some FCKeditor function/config option I am missing to aid me?

Any suggestions on how I should proceed?

Thanks
Levi

Answer 1

Just as a security precaution that will address both security-related problems (like <script> tags being inserted by users, for instance -- which you probably don't want) and presentation-related problems (such as not-closed tags), you could use a tool like HTMLPurifier on your server, on what you are receiving from the browser.

Of course, this will not solve the first problem, the fact that users can input whatever they want in FCKEditor ; but it will ensure your HTML is both valid and secure.

Actually, even if FCKEditor wasn't getting you not-valid HTML, you still could use HTMLPurifier, just for security.

The idea is that you provide a list of :

• allowed tags
• allowed attributes to those tags

And, in return, HTMLPurifier gives you clean and valid HTML.

Answer 2

Edit: Sounds like you're running into a bug in the editor. You might try a different one, and/or use a server-side script that goes through and strips unmatched div tags.

Html allows most tags to be left open. If it's leaving tags open that should be left closed, you could white or blacklist to search through and strip those out serverside. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck with understanding that HTML is not XML, FCKeditor generates HTML, and HTML won't validate as XML. If it's throwing your printed output off, try wrapping the FCKeditor output in a div.

Otherwise, please include concrete examples of input and output that is messing up your page layout.