How to properly save a WordPress option containing HTML code? - wordpress

Question

Here's a screenshot of what the problem looks like:
And the HTML of that part of the WordPress options page looks like this:
So, in the WordPress admin area, I entered a piece of HTML code (to have a clickable link as the output on the frontend).
This was the code I had entered into that text input field on the backend:
<a title="Website Design London" href="../../website-design/">Website Design</a>
And while on the frontend that link is displaying OK, I'm seeing this mess (see screenshot) on the backend.
As far as I can tell the relevant PHP code is this:
$this->text(
'workdone',
esc_html__( 'Work done', 'mytheme' )
);
So, what is the proper way to save an option that contains HTML code?
And how can I fix the mess shown on the screenshot?

Answer 1

I had the same issue, and this code is working for me:
// render service label
public function render_service_label() {
$value = get_option( 'wbk_service_label', '' );
$value = htmlspecialchars( $value );
$html = '<input type="text" id="wbk_service_label" name="wbk_service_label" value="'.$value.'" >';
$html .= '<p class="description">' . __( 'Service label', 'wbk' ) . '</p>';
echo $html;
}
// validate service label
public function validate_service_label( $input ) {
$allowed_tags = array(
//formatting
'strong' => array(),
'em' => array(),
'b' => array(),
'i' => array(),
'br' => array(),
//links
'a' => array(
'href' => array(),
'class' => array()
),
//links
'p' => array(
'class' => array()
)
);
$input = wp_kses( $input, $allowed_tags );
return $input;
}
So, in the dashboard options page I use htmlspecialchars function
In frontend page I use like this:
$label = get_option( 'wbk_service_label', __( 'Select service', 'wbk' ) );