Title: [Plugin: HTML Import 2] Importing preformatted text (pre tag) Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # [Plugin: HTML Import 2] Importing preformatted text (pre tag) * [Mark Tuttle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markrtuttle/) * (@markrtuttle) * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-html-import-2-importing-text/) * Are there known issues with importing preformatted text? * Importing the test file * ``` Test 
       This is the first line
       This is the second line
``` * with `
` listed under import settings -> content -> allowed html results 
   in the single unbroken line
 * `
 This is the first line This is the second line 
`
 * Is there a configuration of this plug in that will respect the line breaks within
   the `
` tags?
 * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/import-html-pages/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/import-html-pages/)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Thread Starter [Mark Tuttle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markrtuttle/)
 * (@markrtuttle)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-html-import-2-importing-text/#post-2550138)
 * I propose adding to the HTML_Import class defined in html-importer.php the function
 *     ```
       function strip_insignificant_html_whitespace($string) {
         $pre_start = "|\\s[^>]*>)";
         $pre_end   = "|\\s[^>]*>)";
   
         $old_parts = preg_split(";($pre_start|$pre_end);i",$string,0,PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
         $new_parts = array();
   
         $strip = true;
         foreach ($old_parts as $part) {
           if (preg_match(";$pre_start;i",$part)) {
             $tmp = preg_replace(";\s+;"," ",$part);
             $new_parts[] = preg_replace("; +>;",">",$tmp);
             $strip = false;
             continue;
           }
           if (preg_match(";$pre_end;i",$part)) {
             $tmp = preg_replace(";\s+;"," ",$part);
             $new_parts[] = preg_replace("; +>;",">",$tmp);
             $strip = true;
             continue;
           }
           if ($strip)
             $new_parts[] = preg_replace(";\s+;"," ",$part);
           else
             $new_parts[] = $part;
         }
         return implode("",$new_parts);
       }
       ```
   
 * In clean_html
 *     ```
       replace
         $string = str_replace( '\n', ' ', $string );
       with
         $string = $this->strip_insignificant_html_whitespace($string);
       ```
   
 * In get_post in the `!empty($my_post['post_content']))`
 *     ```
       replace
         $my_post['post_content'] = ereg_replace("[\n\r]", " ", $my_post['post_content']);
       with
         $my_post['post_content'] = $this->strip_insignificant_html_whitespace($my_post['post_content']);
       ```
   
 * It would be nice also to strip the contents of cdata blocks and  blocks cleanly. I find examples like
 *     ```
       
       ```
   
 * that are not stripped cleanly by the application of the php strip_tags function
   in the plugin.
 *  Thread Starter [Mark Tuttle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/markrtuttle/)
 * (@markrtuttle)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-html-import-2-importing-text/#post-2550173)
 * To strip the cdata, script, and style blocks, I think it is sufficient to add
   the functions
 *     ```
       function allowed_tag($tag,$allowedtags=NULL) {
         return
           !is_null($allowedtags) &&
           stripos($allowedtags,$tag) !== false;
       }
   
       function strip_cdata_block($string,$allowedtags=NULL) {
         if ($this->allowed_tag('',$allowedtags)) return $string;
   
         $delim = "@";
         $cdata_start = preg_quote('',$delim);
         $block = "$cdata_start.*?$cdata_end";
   
         return preg_replace("${delim}$block${delim}s","",$string);
       }
   
       function strip_tag_block($tag,$string,$allowedtags=NULL) {
         if ($this->allowed_tag($tag,$allowedtags)) return $string;
         if (!preg_match(":<(.*?)>:",$tag,$match)) return $string;
   
         $delim = "@";
         $tag_str = $match[1];
         $tag_start = "<$tag_str(?:>|\\s[^>]*>)";
         $tag_end   = "|\\s[^>]*>)";
         $block = "$tag_start.*?$tag_end";
   
         return preg_replace("${delim}$block${delim}is","",$string);
       }
   
       function strip_comment_block($string) {
         $delim = "@";
         $comment_start = preg_quote('',$delim);
         $block = "$comment_start.*?$comment_end";
   
         return preg_replace("${delim}$block${delim}s","",$string);
       }
       ```
   
 * and add the following calls before strip_tags at the head of clean_html:
 *     ```
       $string = $this->strip_cdata_block($string,$allowtags);
       $string = $this->strip_tag_block('