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A powerful tool for automatically removing HTML tags from description fields in OpenCart/ocStore databases. Supports both simple tags and complex selectors with attributes.

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
• Tag Syntax
• Examples
• Security
• Technical Details
• Troubleshooting
• License

• 🎯 Flexible Search: Support for simple tags and complex selectors with attributes
• 🔍 Two-Step Process: Scan first, then clean
• 📊 Detailed Statistics: Complete report for each table and column
• 👁️ Preview Changes: See before/after examples before applying
• ✅ Selective Cleaning: Choose specific tables to process
• 🚀 Batch Processing: Efficient handling of large datasets
• 🎨 Modern Interface: Intuitive web-based UI
• 🔐 Auto-Configuration: Reads settings from config.php
• 🌐 Ukrainian Localization: Fully localized Ukrainian interface

• PHP 7.0 or higher
• MySQL 5.6+ / MariaDB 10.0+
• PDO PHP extension
• OpenCart / ocStore 2.x, 3.x or 4.x
• Database access rights (SELECT, UPDATE)

1. Download html_tag_cleaner.php
2. Place it in the root directory of your OpenCart/ocStore installation (where config.php is located)

/public_html/
├── admin/
├── catalog/
├── system/
├── config.php          ← must be here
├── index.php
└── html_tag_cleaner.php ← place file here

chmod 644 html_tag_cleaner.php

⚠️ MANDATORY! Create a database backup before using:

mysqldump -u username -p database_name > backup_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).sql

Or via phpMyAdmin: Export → Go

1. Access the script

   https://your-domain.com/html_tag_cleaner.php
   

2. Specify tags to remove

   • Enter tags in the field (comma-separated)
   • Or use ready-made templates

3. Scan database

   • Click "🔍 Scan Database"
   • Review scan results
   • Check change examples

4. Select tables

   • All found tables are selected by default
   • You can choose specific tables to process
   • Use "Select All" / "Deselect All" buttons

5. Clean

   • Click "🚀 Start Cleaning"
   • Confirm action
   • Wait for completion

6. Review report

   • Check processing statistics
   • Review number of updated records

7. Delete script

   • Always delete the file after use!

Specify HTML tags (comma-separated):
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ span, strong, em, font              │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

• 🎨 Colored spans - span[style*="color"]
• 📝 Text formatting - span, strong, em, b, i, u
• 🔤 Old font tags - font
• 📦 Block elements - div, p

Removes all occurrences of a tag, keeping content:

span

Result: <span>text</span> → text

Removes several different tags:

span, strong, em, b, i

Removes only tags with specific attribute value:

span[style="color: red"]

Result:

• <span style="color: red">text</span> → text ✅
• <span style="color: blue">text</span> → remains ❌

Removes tags where attribute contains specified text:

span[style*="color"]

Result:

• <span style="color: red">text</span> → text ✅
• <span style="background-color: blue">text</span> → text ✅
• <span style="font-size: 14px">text</span> → remains ❌

span[style*="color"], span[class="highlight"], strong, em

Problem: After import, product descriptions contain <span style="color: #ff0000"> tags

Solution:

span[style*="color"]

Before:

<p>This product is <span style="color: red">high quality</span> and available</p>

After:

<p>This product is high quality and available</p>

Problem: Need to remove all text formatting

Solution:

span, strong, em, b, i, u, font

Before:

<p><strong>Important!</strong> This product is <em>very</em> <u>good</u></p>

After:

<p>Important! This product is very good</p>

Problem: Database contains outdated <font> tags

Solution:

font

Before:

<font face="Arial" size="3" color="black">Product description</font>

After:

Product description

Problem: After copying from Word, special spans with classes remain

Solution:

span[class="mso"]

1. Backup

   # Create backup before EVERY use
   mysqldump -u user -p database > backup.sql

2. Access Restriction

   # .htaccess - restrict access by IP
   <Files "html_tag_cleaner.php">
       Order Deny,Allow
       Deny from all
       Allow from 192.168.1.100
   </Files>

3. Delete after use

   # Delete file immediately after completion
   rm html_tag_cleaner.php

4. Use in dev environment

   • Test on a site copy first
   • Verify results on test data
   • Only then use on production

The script has built-in safety mechanisms:

• ✅ Action validation (only 'scan' and 'clean')
• ✅ PDO with prepared statements (SQL injection protection)
• ✅ HTML escaping in output
• ✅ Transactions for batch processing
• ✅ Error handling with rollback

The script automatically finds ALL tables containing columns with *description* in the name:

Typical OpenCart tables:

• oc_product_description
• oc_category_description
• oc_information_description
• oc_attribute_description
• oc_option_description
• oc_option_value_description
• and others...

Automatically detects table prefixes:

• oc_ (standard OpenCart)
• ocs_ (ocStore)
• Any other custom prefix

Works correctly with:

• Simple PRIMARY KEY
• Composite (multi-column) keys
• UNIQUE keys
• Tables without primary keys

$BATCH_SIZE = 100; // records per batch

Benefits:

• Reduced database load
• Lower memory usage
• Rollback capability on errors

1. HTML decode (convert &lt; to <)
2. Apply regex patterns
3. Iterative removal (up to 10 passes)
4. HTML encode back

Solution: Place html_tag_cleaner.php in the same folder where config.php is located

✅ Correct:
/public_html/config.php
/public_html/html_tag_cleaner.php

❌ Incorrect:
/public_html/config.php
/public_html/admin/html_tag_cleaner.php

Solution: Check database user permissions:

GRANT SELECT, UPDATE ON database_name.* TO 'user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Possible causes:

1. Tags specified with < > - specify without them: span, not <span>
2. Case matters for attributes: style*="Color" ≠ style*="color"
3. Spaces in tags: span[style*="color"] ✅ vs span[ style*="color" ] ❌

Optimization:

1. Increase $BATCH_SIZE in code (line 407):

   $BATCH_SIZE = 500; // instead of 100

2. Process tables in portions (select not all at once)
3. Add indexes on description columns (optional)

Solution: Increase memory limit in php.ini:

memory_limit = 512M

Or in code (add at the beginning):

ini_set('memory_limit', '512M');

✓ Scanning completed!
Search tags: span[style*="color"]

┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Tables found:        5  │
│ Records to process: 234 │
└─────────────────────────┘

📋 oc_product_description
  └─ description: 127 records contain specified tags
     👁️ Change example (first record)
     
📋 oc_category_description
  └─ description: 45 records contain specified tags

✅ Cleaning completed successfully!

┌───────────────────────┐
│ Processed:    234     │
│ Updated:      234     │
│ Time:         2.45 sec│
└───────────────────────┘

Report:
📋 oc_product_description
  └─ description: Processed: 127, Updated: 127

// Line 407
$BATCH_SIZE = 100; // change to desired value

// Add in HTML after existing templates:
<button type="button" onclick="applyTemplate('your, tags, here')" class="template-btn">
    🎯 Your Template
</button>

All styles are in the <style> section. Modify CSS variables:

:root {
    --primary: #6366f1;        /* Primary color */
    --success: #10b981;        /* Success color */
    --danger: #ef4444;         /* Error color */
}

Q: Is tag content deleted?
A: No, only the tags themselves are removed. Content remains.

Q: Can changes be undone?
A: No, so always make a backup before use.

Q: How many records can be processed at once?
A: Virtually unlimited, thanks to batch processing. Tested on 50000+ records.

Q: Does it work with Cyrillic?
A: Yes, full UTF-8 support.

Q: Can it be used on shared hosting?
A: Yes, if you have PDO access and UPDATE rights in the database.

Q: Is it safe to use on production?
A: Yes, but only after testing on a dev copy and creating a backup.

If you found a bug or have ideas for improvement:

1. Create an Issue with detailed description
2. Or submit a Pull Request with fixes
3. Share your experience

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES.

• Author is not responsible for data loss
• Always make a backup before use
• Test in dev environment before production
• Use at your own risk

If you need help:

• 🐛 Create an Issue for bugs
• 💡 Create a Discussion for questions
• ⭐ Star the project if it's useful!

Made with ❤️ for OpenCart/ocStore community

Last updated: February 2026