URL target wrong for URL Custom Fields

Question

Using Custom Fields in Joomla, I created several custom fields for my article layout. The data that will populate the custom fields will include 1) vendor name, and 2) a URL path to the vendor's website.

The php code that loads that data is:

(For the vendor name)

<?php echo $this->item->jcfields[7]->value; ?>

(For the vendor's website URL)

<?php echo $this->item->jcfields[19]->value; ?>

The result should be: Vendor

My current code (for testing) is:

<?php echo $buyURL; ?><br>
<a href='"<?php echo $buyURL; ?>"'> <?php echo $vendorName; ?></a>

I confirmed the $buyURL variable works correctly and displays the correct URL value when echo'd by itself.

When it's used inside <a href=""></a> statements, the resulting embedded URL link points to: https://my-website.com/demo/category/"<"a href="https://vendor-website.com/tdmSmO" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://vendor-website.com/tdmSmO</a>"

It appears Joomla's url.php from /plugins/fields/urls/tmpl has a major role in the wrong URL target.

How do I resolve this problem with the wrong URL target for custom URL fields?

Answer 1

Field's value property returns the rendered HTML. To get the value as entered in the form, use rawvalue property. Additionally, all user input must be escaped to prevent XSS attacks. And it would be a good idea to check that the fields are present, to prevent PHP warnings and invalid HTML output:

<?php if (!empty($this->item->jcfields[7]->rawvalue) && !empty($this->item->jcfields[19]->rawvalue)) : ?>
    <?php $vendorName = $this->item->jcfields[7]->rawvalue ?>
    <?php $buyURL = $this->item->jcfields[19]->rawvalue ?>
    <a href="<?= $this->escape($buyURL) ?>"><?= $this->escape($vendorName) ?></a>
<?php endif ?>