Merged Apostrophe displaying with slash

When I type an apostrophe in category descriptions and other places in Kunena, it does not display correctly. It displays with a slash before it.

For example, "Don't be shy" displays as "Don\'t be shy". I've attached a screen capture of my forum with this phrase highlighted.

This happens with Magic Quotes turned on or off in the php.ini configuration file.

I have included my Config Report below.

Thanks in advance for guidance. I'm a newbie to Kunena and with the exception of this one issue, I've had a smooth time getting it set up.

Database collation check: The collation of your table fields are correct

Joomla! SEF: Enabled | Joomla! SEF rewrite: Disabled | FTP layer: Disabled |

This message contains confidential information

htaccess: Exists | PHP environment: Max execution time: 30 seconds | Max execution memory: 128M | Max file upload: 100M

Kunena menu details:

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ID	Name	Menutype	Link	Path
114	Forum	kunenamenu	view=home&defaultmenu=116	forum
115	Index	kunenamenu	view=category&layout=list	forum/index
116	Recent Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=replies	forum/recent
117	New Topic	kunenamenu	view=topic&layout=create	forum/newtopic
118	No Replies	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=noreplies	forum/noreplies
119	My Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&layout=user&mode=default	forum/mylatest
120	Profile	kunenamenu	view=user	forum/profile
121	Help	kunenamenu	view=misc	forum/help
122	Search	kunenamenu	view=search	forum/search
123	Forum	mainmenu	Itemid=114	kunena-2013-05-26

Joomla default template details : protostar | author: Kyle Ledbetter | version: 1.0 | creationdate: Unknown

Kunena default template details : Blue Eagle 2.0 | author: Kunena Team | version: 3.0.0 | creationdate: 2013-05-15

Kunena version detailed: Kunena 3.0.0 | 2013-05-15 [ Wanga ]
| Kunena detailed configuration:

Warning: Spoiler!

Kunena config settings:
board_offline	0
enablerss	0
threads_per_page	20
messages_per_page	6
messages_per_page_search	15
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cache	1
cache_time	60
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rss_feedburner_url
autolink	1
access_component	1

| Kunena integration settings:

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Kunena - AlphaUserPoints Disabled
Kunena - Community Builder Disabled
Kunena - Gravatar Disabled
Kunena - JomSocial Disabled
Kunena - Joomla Enabled: access=1 login=1
Kunena - Kunena Enabled: avatar=1 profile=1
Kunena - UddeIM Disabled

| Joomla! detailed language files installed:

Warning: Spoiler!

Joomla! languages installed:
en-GB	English (United Kingdom)

Third-party components: None

Third-party SEF components: None

Plugins: None

Modules: None

G'day, Bezman, and welcome to Kunena.

I agree that this issue involving unescaped quotes relates to magic_quotes. There's nothing particularly startling that leaps out at me from your configuration report. I will ask other members of the team to look at this and offer you their suggestions as to what you can do.

Kunena doesn't add backslashes so it must be something else that's doing it. Are the backslashes seen when you edit the categories?

If so, try to remove those and look if they get back.

Backslashes are usually something that were used years ago to prevent SQL injections. It was fast discovered that it was a bad idea. I suppose that you've installed something into the system (bad Joomla security plugin?) that's causing this issue.

Thanks for the feedback. I installed the latest version of Joomla and the latest version of Kunena forum. They were both clean installs. The only other add-ons is Akeeba backup.

On my development site (MAMP on my MacBook Pro) all works as expected. On my actual server I have the escape character issue. I looked at the php settings and one thing that is clearly different is that magic_quotes is not on the list on MAMP but is on the list in the live server, though it is turned off.

I'll ask my ISP about it and update the forum if I am able to solve this.

Hopefully, magic quotes feature is removed since php 5.4 , some reading : docs.joomla.org/Magic_quotes_and_security

Thank you. Great link. I have asked my host to update my PHP from 5.3.19 to 5.4. Hopefully that will fix the issue.

I also ran a few tests. I have a php.ini file to easily modify my php settings. In that file all magic_quotes settings are turned to off. If I view my PHP settings on the server, any changes I make to php.ini are displayed. In other words, the server sees the correct settings. However, Joomla still reports the old setting.

I'm not sure where Joomla is looking for the settings, or why it can't get updated to see any php settings changes. But I'll keep hacking away at it and will post on the Joomla forum as well.

To others who may encounter this issue... here is the solution.

First, this is not a Kunena issue. It has to do with Joomla and PHP's magic_quotes setting. If you're running PHP 5.4+ you should be ok. I'm running PHP 3.19, so I had an issue.

I combined tips from three different links to solve the problem:

docs.joomla.org/How_to_turn_off_magic_quotes_gpc_for_Joomla_3
forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=706&t=766329
docs.joomla.org/Magic_quotes_and_security

I was finally able to solve the problem by having a php.ini file that listed the following:
Then I created a .htaccess file with a single line:
Apparently the .htaccess file is what makes Joomla "see" the php.ini file. You have to set the line of code to the right path. To find the path for your setup, go to your Joomla admin panel.

Go to Global Configuration > System > System Information > [Directory Permissions].

Copy the path for your log directory (minus the /logs at the end).

Paste that path into the line of code above so the line would read something like:
Another potential problem you may encounter is that .htaccess is an invisible file on your server, so you'll have to show hidden files in your FTP application. MAKE A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL .htaccess file before overwriting it. I made errors and it broke my site. Fortunately I had a copy to go back to.

I hope these tips help you save the 2.5 hours of anguish I went through to solve this silly issue!

I was writing a post today and noticed that backslashes are being inserted when I use apostrophes. I'm using the JCE editor, and none of my Joomla articles are experiencing this bug. It's just happening in my Forum posts.



Here's my configuration report:

Database collation check: The collation of your table fields are correct

Joomla! SEF: Enabled | Joomla! SEF rewrite: Disabled | FTP layer: Disabled |

This message contains confidential information

htaccess: Exists | PHP environment: Max execution time: 30 seconds | Max execution memory: 256M | Max file upload: 64M

Kunena menu details:

Warning: Spoiler!

ID	Name	Menutype	Link	Path
159	Forum	kunenamenu	view=home&defaultmenu=161	forum
160	Index	kunenamenu	view=category&layout=list	forum/index
161	Recent Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=replies	forum/recent
162	New Topic	kunenamenu	view=topic&layout=create	forum/newtopic
163	No Replies	kunenamenu	view=topics&mode=noreplies	forum/noreplies
164	My Topics	kunenamenu	view=topics&layout=user&mode=default	forum/mylatest
165	Profile	kunenamenu	view=user	forum/profile
166	Help	kunenamenu	view=misc	forum/help
167	Search	kunenamenu	view=search	forum/search
168	Forum	mainmenu	Itemid=159	kunena-2013-07-06
169	The Authors Club Community Forum	memebers-area-redirect	view=home&defaultmenu=159	the-authors-club-community-forum

Joomla default template details : TheAuthorsClub | author: Chris Brown | version: 1.0 | creationdate: Unknown

Kunena default template details : Blue Eagle 2.0 | author: Kunena Team | version: 3.0.0 | creationdate: 2013-05-15

Kunena version detailed: Kunena 3.0.0 | 2013-05-15 [ Wanga ]
| Kunena detailed configuration:

Warning: Spoiler!

Kunena config settings:
board_offline	0
enablerss	1
threads_per_page	20
messages_per_page	6
messages_per_page_search	15
showhistory	1
historylimit	6
shownew	1
disemoticons	0
template	blue_eagle
showannouncement	1
avataroncat	0
catimagepath	category_images
showchildcaticon	1
rtewidth	450
rteheight	300
enableforumjump	1
reportmsg	1
username	1
askemail	0
showemail	0
showuserstats	1
showkarma	1
useredit	1
useredittime	0
useredittimegrace	600
editmarkup	1
allowsubscriptions	0
subscriptionschecked	1
allowfavorites	1
maxsubject	50
maxsig	300
regonly	0
pubwrite	0
floodprotection	0
mailmod	0
mailadmin	0
captcha	0
mailfull	1
allowavatarupload	1
allowavatargallery	1
avatarquality	75
avatarsize	2048
imageheight	800
imagewidth	800
imagesize	150
filetypes	txt,rtf,pdf,zip,tar.gz,tgz,tar.bz2
filesize	120
showranking	1
rankimages	1
userlist_rows	30
userlist_online	1
userlist_avatar	1
userlist_name	0
userlist_posts	1
userlist_karma	1
userlist_email	0
userlist_joindate	1
userlist_lastvisitdate	1
userlist_userhits	1
latestcategory
showstats	1
showwhoisonline	1
showgenstats	1
showpopuserstats	1
popusercount	5
showpopsubjectstats	1
popsubjectcount	5
usernamechange	0
showspoilertag	1
showvideotag	1
showebaytag	1
trimlongurls	1
trimlongurlsfront	40
trimlongurlsback	20
autoembedyoutube	1
autoembedebay	1
ebaylanguagecode	en-us
sessiontimeout	1800
highlightcode	0
rss_type	topic
rss_timelimit	month
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rss_included_categories
rss_excluded_categories
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imagequality	50
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latestcategory_in	1
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userkeywords	0
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topic_layout	flat
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article_display	intro
send_emails	1
fallback_english	1
cache	1
cache_time	60
iptracking	1
rss_feedburner_url
autolink	1
access_component	0

| Kunena integration settings:

Warning: Spoiler!

Kunena - AlphaUserPoints Disabled
Kunena - Community Builder Disabled
Kunena - Gravatar Disabled
Kunena - JomSocial Disabled
Kunena - Joomla Enabled: access=1 login=1
Kunena - Kunena Enabled: avatar=1 profile=1
Kunena - UddeIM Disabled

| Joomla! detailed language files installed:

Warning: Spoiler!

Joomla! languages installed:
en-GB	English (United Kingdom)

Third-party components: None

Third-party SEF components: None

Plugins: None

Modules: None

*** Topics merged ***

Thank you for your question (this is the second time this week we have received a question on this issue) about unescaped apostrophes - the result of magic quotes - appearing in a user's forum. This topic explains what you need to do.

I spoke with my host's tech support and he upgraded my site to PHP 5.4, but the backslashes are still in the forum posts. Can you offer any more advice?

Thanks!