Save & Load TinyMCE Content In PHP MySQL (Simple Example)

Welcome to a quick tutorial on how to save and load TinyMCE content with PHP MySQL. So you are building your own CMS or want to give users some flexibility to edit their own product pages? Well, TinyMCE is definitely a good choice.

Let us walk through an example in this guide – Read on!

 

 

TLDR – QUICK SLIDES

Fullscreen Mode – Click Here

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

 

STEP 1) CONTENT DATABASE TABLE

CREATE TABLE `contents` (
  `content_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
  `content_text` text NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;

ALTER TABLE `contents`
  ADD PRIMARY KEY (`content_id`);

ALTER TABLE `contents`
  MODIFY `content_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;

Yep, this is just a very simple table with only 2 fields:

• content_id The content ID, primary key.
• content_text The content itself.

 

 

STEP 2) PHP CONTENT LIBRARY

<?php
class Content {
  // (A) CONSTRUCTOR - CONNECT TO DATABASE
  public $pdo = null;
  public $stmt = null;
  public $error = "";
  function __construct () {
    $this->pdo = new PDO(
      "mysql:host=".DB_HOST.";dbname=".DB_NAME.";charset=".DB_CHARSET, 
      DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, [
      PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
      PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC
    ]);
  }

  // (B) DESTRUCTOR - CLOSE DATABASE CONNECTION
  function __destruct () {
    if ($this->stmt!==null) { $this->stmt = null; }
    if ($this->pdo!==null) { $this->pdo = null; }
  }
  
  // (C) EXECUTE SQL QUERY
  function query ($sql, $data=null) : void {
    $this->stmt = $this->pdo->prepare($sql);
    $this->stmt->execute($data);
  }
 
  // (D) SAVE CONTENT
  function save ($id, $content) {
    $this->query("REPLACE INTO `contents` (`content_id`, `content_text`) VALUES (?,?)", [$id, $content]);
    return true;
  }
  
  // (E) GET CONTENT
  function get ($id) {
    $this->query("SELECT `content_text` FROM `contents` WHERE `content_id`=?", [$id]);
    return $this->stmt->fetchColumn();
  }
}

// (F) DATABASE SETTINGS - CHANGE TO YOUR OWN!
define("DB_HOST", "localhost");
define("DB_NAME", "test");
define("DB_CHARSET", "utf8mb4");
define("DB_USER", "root");
define("DB_PASSWORD", "");

// (G) NEW CONTENT OBJECT
$_CONTENT = new Content();

This one looks complicated at first, but keep calm and study closely.

• (A, B, G) The constructor will connect to the database when $_CONTENT = new Content() is created. The destructor closes the connection when done.
• (C) query() A helper function to run an SQL query.
• (D & E) There are only 2 content functions here!
  • save() Save content into the database.
  • get() Retrieve content from the database.
• (F) Remember to change the settings to your own.

 

 

STEP 3) SAVE CONTENT PAGE

<?php
// (A) INIT
// (A1) LOAD LIBRARY, FIXED CONTENT ID FOR DEMO
require "2-lib.php";
$id = 99;
 
// (A2) SAVE CONTENT ON SUBMIT
if (isset($_POST["content"])) {
  echo $_CONTENT->save($id, $_POST["content"])
    ? "<div>SAVED</div>"
    : "<div>ERROR</div>" ;
}
 
// (B) HTML EDITOR ?>
<!-- (B1) HTML FORM -->
<form method="post">
  <textarea id="mceDEMO" name="content"><?=$_CONTENT->get($id)?></textarea>
</form>
 
<!-- (B2) TINY MCE -->
<!-- https://cdnjs.com/libraries/tinymce -->
<!-- https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/configure/ -->
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/tinymce/6.4.2/tinymce.min.js"></script>
<script>
tinymce.init({
  selector : "#mceDEMO",
  plugins : "save, textcolor, lists",
  menubar : false,
  toolbar: "save | styles | bold italic | forecolor backcolor | alignleft aligncenter alignright alignjustify | bullist numlist"
});
</script>

That’s right, this should be very straightforward.

• (B) Just an HTML form and a text field where we use TinyMCE to create the WYSIWYG editor.
• (A) When the user hits “save” and submits the form, we simply use the PHP library to save the content.

 

 

STEP 4) SHOW CONTENT

<?php
require "2-lib.php";
echo $_CONTENT->get(99);

Does this even need an explanation?

 

 

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EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here for the source code on GitHub gist, just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.