HTML output from PHP function

Question

I have a function whos purpose is to return some HTML ($offer_html) to display on my page. However, I´m seeing some strange things.

Below you see a div is added first to $offer_html (DIV is closing at the end).

$offer_html = '<div class="box middle offer alignleft">';
$offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $volum . '</p>';
$offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $produsent . '</p>';
$offer_html .= wpfp_link();
$offer_html .= '</div';

return $offer_html;

My problem is with the function wpfp_link(). The function returns HTML, but this HTML ends up totally misplaced. When the page renders, the HTML looks like this:

<img class="wpfp-img" title="Favorite" alt="Favorite" src="http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wp-favorite-posts/img/remove.png"&gt;
<div class="box middle offer alignleft">
</div>

As you see, the HTML returned by the wpfp_link() ends up outside the DIV which I want it to be inside.

Does anyone know why this happens?

Answer 1

It's impossible to tell for sure from what little code you show, but maybe you need to directly echo the string instead of returning it.

Answer 2

You wpfp_link() does not return the HTML string, it directly echo's the string. You've to catch that from the output buffer like the following:

<?php
// Turn on outbut buffering
ob_start();


function your_function()
{
    // Fill outbut buffer
    wpfp_link();

    // Fetch and clean output buffer
    $wpfp_html = ob_get_clean();

    $offer_html = '<div class="box middle offer alignleft">';
    $offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $volum . '</p>';
    $offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $produsent . '</p>';

    // Use stuff from output buffer instead of wpfp_link() method.
    $offer_html .= $wpfp_html;

    $offer_html .= '</div';

    return $offer_html;
}

// Don't forget to handle active output buffering!
ob_end_flush();
?>

Answer 3

Try printing out (using echo) the whole string instead.

echo "<div class=\"box middle offer alignleft\">\n<p class=\"detail alignleft\">" . $volum . "</p>\n<p class=\"detail alignleft\">" . $produsent . "</p>\n" . wpfp_link() . "</div>";

Answer 4

The wpfp_link function is probably echoing the HTML instead of returning it. You could use output buffering get the HTML as a string.

$offer_html = '<div class="box middle offer alignleft">';
$offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $volum . '</p>';
$offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $produsent . '</p>';
ob_start();
wpfp_link();
$offer_html .= ob_get_clean();
$offer_html .= '</div';

return $offer_html;

Answer 5

Is this the cause of any problems:

$offer_html .= '</div'; 

should surely be

$offer_html .= '</div>'; 

Answer 6

I apologize for answering twice, I noticed a bug with the code for chosen answer. Consider the following code:

<?php
function wpfp_link() {
    static $count = 0;
    echo '<img class="wpfp-img" title="Favorite" alt="Favorite" src="http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/wp-favorite-posts/img/remove.png"&gt;' . ($count++) ."\n";
}
// Turn on outbut buffering
ob_start();


function your_function()
{
    // Fill outbut buffer
    wpfp_link();

    // Fetch and clean output buffer
    $wpfp_html = ob_get_clean();
    var_dump($wpfp_html);
    $offer_html = '<div class="box middle offer alignleft">';
    $offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $volum . '</p>';
    $offer_html .= '<p class="detail alignleft">' . $produsent . '</p>';

    // Use stuff from output buffer instead of wpfp_link() method.
    $offer_html .= $wpfp_html;

    $offer_html .= '</div>';

    return $offer_html;
}

// Don't forget to handle active output buffering!
ob_end_flush();
echo your_function();
echo your_function();
echo your_function();
echo your_function();
echo your_function();
echo your_function();
echo your_function();

?>

The variable $wpfp_html has a value of false for each call of your_function because output buffering is turned off after ob_end_flush is called. ob_start() needs to be called each time prior to ob_get_clean() for the output buffer to be active.

I would've posted a comment to your answer, Informant but I don't have a high enough reputation.

Answer 7

There is another - and I believe better - way to solve this. Looking at the source code of the plugin containing that function (WP Favorite Posts) you can see that the wpfp_link() function accepts various arguments, the first of which is a flag that changes its behavior between printing its output and returning it.

function wpfp_link( $return = 0, $action = "", $show_span = 1, $args = array() ) {
    global $post;
    $post_id = $post->ID;
    extract($args);
    if ($show_span)
        $str = "<span class='wpfp-span'>";
    $str .= wpfp_before_link_img();
    $str .= wpfp_loading_img();
    $wpfp_options = wpfp_get_options();
    if ($action == "remove"):
        $str .= wpfp_link_html($post_id, wpfp_get_option('remove_favorite'), "remove");
    elseif ($action == "add"):
        $str .= wpfp_link_html($post_id, wpfp_get_option('add_favorite'), "add");
    elseif (wpfp_check_favorited($post_id)):
        $str .= wpfp_link_html($post_id, wpfp_get_option('remove_favorite'), "remove");
    else:
        $str .= wpfp_link_html($post_id, wpfp_get_option('add_favorite'), "add");
    endif;
    if ($show_span)
        $str .= "</span>";
    if ($return) { return $str; } else { echo $str; }
}

so

wpfp_link(TRUE);

should act as you expected.

I checked the source code but this is probably documented somewhere in the plugin information.