I have mixed html, custom code, and regular text I need
to examine and change frequently on several, long wiki pages. I'm working with a proprietary wiki-like application and have no control over how the application functions or validates user input. The layout of pages that users add must follow a very specific standard layout and always include very specific text in only certain places - a standard which frequently changes. If users add pages that are so far out of the standard, they will be deleted. The fact that all this is obviously a complete waste of time when alternative platforms
to do exactly what's needed here exist is already understood.
I've built a PHP based API
to automate this post-validation and frequent restandardization process for me. I've been able set up regex patterns
to handle all this mixed text, and they all work fine for handling single lines. The problem I have is this: Poorly formed regex against long text with line breaks can lead
to unexpected results, such as connection resets. I have no access
to server-side logs
to troubleshoot. How do I overcome this?
This is just one example of what I currently have: {column} and {section} tags I'm searching for below can have any number of attributes, and wrap any text. {section} may or may not exist and may or may not be one or more lines under {column}, but it has
to be wrapped inside {column}. {column}
itself may or may not exist, and if it doesn't, I don't care. I want
to grab the inner section contents and wrap it in an html div tag. I can't recall the exact pattern I'm using offhand at the moment, but it's close enough...
$pattern = "/\{column:id=summary([|]?([a-zA-Z0-9-_ ]+[:][a-zA-Z0-9-_ ]+[ ]?))\}(.*)({section([|]([a-zA-Z0-9-_ ]+[:][a-zA-Z0-9-_ ]+[ ]?))\}(.*)\{section\}(.*))?{column\}/s";
$replacement = "{html}<div id='summary'$7</div{html}";
$text = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $subject);
Handling the {column} and {section} attributes and passing only valid HTML parameters
to the new html div or a subtext of it is
itself a challenge, but my main focus above right now is getting that (.*) value within {section} above without causing a connection reset. Any pointers?
