I had to update my formtextarea.php to the following in order to include html attributes


<?php
// $Id: formtextarea.php 1953 2008-08-10 08:20:26Z phppp $
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// XOOPS - PHP Content Management System //
// Copyright (c) 2000 XOOPS.org //
// <https://xoops.org/> //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify //
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by //
// the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or //
// (at your option) any later version. //
// //
// You may not change or alter any portion of this comment or credits //
// of supporting developers from this source code or any supporting //
// source code which is considered copyrighted (c) material of the //
// original comment or credit authors. //
// //
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, //
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of //
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the //
// GNU General Public License for more details. //
// //
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License //
// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software //
// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ //
// Author: Kazumi Ono (AKA onokazu) //
// URL:http://www.myweb.ne.jp/,https://xoops.org/,http://www.xoopscube.jp/ //
// Project: The XOOPS Project //
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
if (!defined('XOOPS_ROOT_PATH')) {
die("XOOPS root path not defined");
}
/**
*
*
* @package kernel
* @subpackage form
*
* @author Kazumi Ono <onokazu@xoops.org>
* @copyright copyright (c) 2000-2003 XOOPS.org
*/

xoops_load('xoopsformelement');
/**
* A textarea
*
* @author Kazumi Ono <onokazu@xoops.org>
* @copyright copyright (c) 2000-2003 XOOPS.org
*
* @package kernel
* @subpackage form
*/
class XoopsFormTextArea extends XoopsFormElement {
/**
* number of columns
* @var int
* @access private
*/
var $_cols;

/**
* number of rows
* @var int
* @access private
*/
var $_rows;

/**
* initial content
* @var string
* @access private
*/
var $_value;

/**
* initial attributes
* @var string
* @access private
*/
var $_attributes;

/**
* Constuctor
*
* @param string $caption caption
* @param string $name name
* @param string $value initial content
* @param string $attributes attributes
* @param int $rows number of rows
* @param int $cols number of columns
*/
function XoopsFormTextArea($caption, $name, $value = "", $rows = 5, $cols = 50, $attributes = "") {
$this->setCaption($caption);
$this->setName($name);
$this->_rows = intval($rows);
$this->_cols = intval($cols);
$this->setValue($value);
$this->_attributes = $attributes;
}

/**
* get number of rows
*
* @return int
*/
function getRows() {
return $this->_rows;
}

/**
* Get number of columns
*
* @return int
*/
function getCols() {
return $this->_cols;
}

/**
* Get initial content
*
* @param bool $encode To sanitizer the text? Default value should be "true"; however we have to set "false" for backward compat
* @return string
*/
function getValue($encode = false) {
return $encode ? htmlspecialchars($this->_value) : $this->_value;
}

/**
* Set initial content
*
* @param $value string
*/
function setValue($value){
$this->_value = $value;
}

/**
* Set attributes
*
* @param $value string
*/
function getAttributes($attributes){
return $this->_attributes;
}

/**
* prepare HTML for output
*
* @return sting HTML
*/
function render(){
return "<textarea name='".$this->getName()."' id='".$this->getName()."' rows='".$this->getRows()."' cols='".$this->getCols()."'".$this->getExtra()." ".$this->getAttributes().">".$this->getValue()."</textarea>";
}
}
?>