Formatting Text Entered into a Text Area

[jeby]

I have a web application on a site I am working on that the staff can enter
their bio into and it posts it with their contact information.

The form is just a text box and a couple of hidden fields for userid and such.
If the user were to create paragraphs in the text area and save it to the
database the line breaks are not saved with it.

When the viewDetails.cfm page pulls the data from the database and inserts it
into the html of the page it creates a continuous block of text.

Is it possible to replace the line breaks in the text area with the
appropriate <br /> So that when the viewDetails.cfm page shows the data it can
render the page breaks?

I am having trouble deciding if i am explaining this clearly so if there are
any questions, please ask.

Thank you all!

Josh

[jmoshier]

If the information is added into the database with carriage returns you can use this function:

#Replace(fieldname,"#chr(10)#","<br>","all")#

[OldCFer]

You can also try:
<cfoutput>
<PRE> #TextField#</PRE>
</cfoutput>

[Stressed_Simon]

The carriage returns are actually saved in the database, it is just that HTML
considers all carriage returns and spaces to count as one space. So as jmoshier
rightly points out you can either use replace to add the break tags and insert
it into your database, or you can add the break tags when you output the each
profile. I would stump for the first of the two if I were you.

[dempster]

You can use this function in your output:
ParagraphFormat(fieldname)

It will add a <P> tag to paragraph breaks in your text (CR/LF and then a blank
line and another CR/LF). You could tell users on the form to leave a blank line
between paragraphs.

The Replace option would also work if you want an HTML line break at all CR/LF
breaks in the text.

-Paul

[OldCFer]

I suggest you don't store the break tags in the database unless you're
absolutely sure
the data will never be used for anything but HTML display. If it needs to be
edited in a
text area or, accessed by another application, then all of those annoying
break tags will
be embedded in the text.