<div>
I have a function called clean_output for db record output<br />
<br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-41835040-1"><span>$read_status = clean_output($row['read_status]);</span>
</code></pre>
<br />
clean_output is basically htmlentities and I think I might have something else in there but can't remember now what it is without going to hunt for it. <br />
<br />
Not sure if that is what you meant by clear data integrity?
</div>


<div>
I just meant, &quot;Can you depend on the value of <i>$read_status</i> &nbsp;to be a true indicator showing whether the information has been read?&quot;<br />
<br />
The general problem we face with knowing whether something has been read or not is that unless the client checks a box that says, &quot;I have read this and agree&quot; we have no way of knowing that the information was actually read. &nbsp;And most of those &quot;I agree&quot; boxes get checked without anyone reading the associated material. &nbsp;For the most part, once &quot;I agree&quot; (or similar) has been checked you are on firm ground in understanding that the client has accepted whatever terms you're presenting.<br />
<br />
It's probably not important, but &lt;strong&gt; and &lt;b&gt; may not have the same style effect. &nbsp;That will depend on the CSS.
</div>


<div>
Oh. No, these aren't for terms and conditions. I have a bootstrap badge that shows the number of unread comments. <br />
<br />
Whenever a new comment is added I have a default value of &quot;unread&quot; set. That is how it counts the number of unread comments I have and uses that number to display a bright red badge with a number in it. I have a SQL count that just counts the number of &quot;unread&quot; rows it finds. <br />
<br />
I am now about to try figure out how to make it change from &quot;unread&quot; to &quot;read&quot; if I click on the link to the specific comment. But, I guess I could use javascript to help (as you know, I am quite new to the world of web development/programming) and unfortunately don't know very much javascript as of yet. But I could probably find a way of doing it just with PHP. Anyway, that is for another question :)
</div>


<div>
PS. <br />
<br />
And the bold part is just to help me know what is unread or read. The message subject will be in bold if I have not yet clicked on it.
</div>


<div>
My preference is to do this<br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-41835055-1"><span>$readstatus = ($read_status == &quot;unread&quot;) ? &quot;newitem&quot; : &quot;&quot;;</span>
<span>echo &lt;&lt;&lt; HTML</span>
<span>  &lt;span class=&quot;{$readstatus}&quot;&gt;{$db_name}&lt;/span&gt;</span>
<span>HTML;</span>
</code></pre>
CSS<br />

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-41835055-2"><span>span.unread {</span>
<span>   font-weight: bold;</span>
<span>}</span>
</code></pre>
This gives you much more granular control over how you want to present the read vs unread. It means you can target both the read and unread items for styling and you are not bound into a specific format with a tag like &lt;strong&gt;.
</div>


<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
If something is unread I want to make it bold but if read then it must display as normal (not bold). I just want to know if the way I have done it is okay or perhaps there is a better way?<br />
<br />

<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-10-28975201-1"><span>&lt;?php </span>
<span>if($read_status == &quot;unread&quot;){</span>
<span>											</span>
<span>   echo &quot;&lt;strong&gt;&quot; . $db_name . &quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&quot;;</span>
<span>											</span>
<span>      } else {</span>
<span>											</span>
<span>           echo $db_name;</span>
<span>      }</span>
<span></span>
<span>?&gt;</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>


If something is unread I want to make it bold but if read then it must display as normal (not bold). I just want to know if the way I have done it is okay or perhaps there is a better way?

(CODE)

Correct way to style text based on status from database

PHP is a widely-used server-side scripting language especially suited for web development, powering tens of millions of sites from Facebook to personal WordPress blogs. PHP is often paired with the MySQL relational database, but includes support for most other mainstream databases. By utilizing different Server APIs, PHP can work on many different web servers as a server-side scripting language.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the main markup language for creating web pages and other information to be displayed in a web browser, providing both the structure and content for what is sent from a web server through the use of tags. The current implementation of the HTML specification is HTML5.

HTML

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language. Usually used to change web pages and user interfaces written in HTML, it can also be applied to any kind of XML document. CSS is designed primarily to distinguish the content of a document from its presentation.