This feature allows you to control the html that your clients can use in their description. Some html can inhibit the use of other features you have like the url fields. If you would prefer clients to use your url fields for url links outside your site you would set the software to remove the "a" or <a> tag from the description. Or you can remove the <a> tag just out of the fact you don't want clients to use links out of your site in their descriptions. You can do this with all html tags if you like.

Many tags html like embed, applet, form, frameset, script, frame, html and object we suggest you never allow as these can be used in suspicious or pernicious ways against browsers of your site. Other tags like div, table, tr, td, th, head and body can interfere with the html in your design or js functionality on your site.

Highlights of this feature:

• Removes any html tags from the clients description field you set the software to remove.
• Allows you to manually determine an html tag to be removed that's not in the current html tag list.
• All html tags we recommend not allowing by default aren't allowed by default. But we also mark them with a red asterisk so you always know our "minimum suggestion" for tags not to use.

<tip c n>by default we set all tags except those with a asterisk (*) tag to be allowed in descriptions. The tags with the asterisk next to them can cause havoc with your category browsing (if you display full descriptions there) or within the listing details page. Many of the tags not allowed by default are html tags that allow the seller to format and if their format/html is not correct it can affect the display of how their listings appear in your site. Even messing up the page entirely</tip>

<tip c n>Note that changes in this admin tool will not affect the content already in the system. Changes in this admin tool can only affect the content of listings that are placed into the system or edited after changes are saved in this admin tool. If there is some HTML or tags you want to remove from a current listing you will need to edit that listing to manually remove the tag(s) in question. You can also test your configuration within this admin tool by editing a current listing with the "infected" HTML on the client side. If you have setup the tags successfully to be removed in this admin tool any tags within current listings should be automatically removed by editing and saving your changes to those listings.</tip>

Look to the following admin tool:

SITE SETUP > ALLOWED HTML

You would see an admin tool that looks like:

Look to the following about the above screenshot:

1. This is where you can find this feature in the admin tool
2. When checked like so this element will be allowed.
3. When unchecked like so this element will NOT be allowed
4. We provide by default tags we do NOT suggest you allow but of course you can always allow them. Any tag with an asterisk like this one we do not suggest you allow. If used these tags could allow outside content, abusive javascript or link to outside sources. Others if allowed could pose problems within the design of your listing details pages if a clients attempts to use them but doesn't use them correctly.
5. Once you are satisfied with your changes click the "save changes" button at the bottom or top of this form to commit your changes.

Many of our clients want to allow their sellers to put html links within their descriptions. To allow the html anchor tag ( <a> ) within listing descriptions you put a check next to the "a" tag in that admin tool. You can see that tag circled in the above screenshot.

If you wish allow access to html features in your wysiwyg that you allow in your ALLOWED HTML admin tool you may consider modifying the wysiwyg configuration as describe here to allow them to insert those tags through the wysiwyg.

By default if a tag is not in the list and allowed by checking it that tag will be removed from the description automatically. So if you find that you want to allow a specific tag within your descriptions and that tag is not in the list to allow you can always add it to the list and then check it to allow it. You would do so through the setting shown in the screenshot below:

Look to the following within the above screenshot:

1. tags no in this list - by default any tag within html brackets ( < and > ) will be removed from your client descriptions. But you can allow any tag not specifically checked within the above list by checking this box
2. Add tag - If you find there is a specific tag you want to allow and it's not in the list insert it here (without < and > ) and click save changes. That will add that tag to the above list. Once in the list you can check to allow it.

The allowed html feature will strip any html not allowed within the description. The default allowed html configuration automatically removes html tags like <a>, <form>,…etc. Some of the "paypal pay me links" we've seen involve using just those tags within the links. So by default any client pasting a paypal link within their description will see their link removed in the final display of the listing. If you wish to allow paypal links within your listing descriptions you will need allow the html those tags use within the SITE SETUP > ALLOWED HTML admin tool. Most paypal links we've seen involve the use of the html <a> tag. So go into the SITE SETUP > ALLOWED HTML admin tool and place a check next to the "a" tag to allow that html in your templates.

Note there may be inadvertent tags disallowed if you use the WYSIWYG within your place a listing process. The WYSIWYG does not have the ability to represent flash or dynamic content within it, among other things. So even if you allowed the <param>, <object>, …etc tags to display this content within the WYSIWYG the WYSIWYG itself may remove the tags.

The WYSIWYG will also attempt to auto-correct HTML according to what it considers is valid HTML. If your clients use the HTML button in the WYSIWYG editor to manually insert or edit the HTML directly, if that HTML is not valid (according to what the WYSIWYG editor considers valid), the editor will try to auto-correct the HTML. Most of the time the effect is fine, as it causes the HTML to be "valid" which search engines (at least Google) seem to prefer. But sometimes, this can cause problems, for instance it may result in un-expected things happening like things being moved around, resized, or removed altogether as a result of the "auto correcting".

In those cases, where the WYSIWYG editor is causing problems with entering the HTML as desired, advise your users to click on [Add/Remove Editor] to temporarily turn off the WYSIWYG editor, and they can enter the HTML directly into a normal "textarea" that will not attempt to change or correct the HTML code they enter in.

• We set the wysiwyg by default to only allow features within it that are allowed in the default allowed html configuration. If you choose to allow more and want those configurations allowed within your wysiwyg editor go here to learn how to configure the wysiwyg
• The software only allows html in the description. All other fields are stripped of html by default in the software.
• For an html tag to be stripped it must be unchecked in the above mentioned admin tool.
• Only html tags in that list could possibly be removed from the html of the description. The software does not scan for tags not on that list.
• If you find we have missed an html tag that you want to remove simply add it to your list. You may also suggest that to use. While we've gotten all that we know of there can certainly be new ones that we need to add to that list so let us know.