Using php code in database value

I have a dynamically populated menu that populates the menu bar. It consists of the user-friendly name and the link to the page which are stored in the DB table. I would like for one of the menu items to display the logged-in user's name and I have entered <?php $_SESSION['username'];?> in the 'link' field of the DB. This variable is defined in the session variables, but instead of returning "davidg" it actually displays "<?php echo $username;?>" the previous server behaviors would actually run the php code. any suggestions?

For the attached image - the left is the database returned menu item, the right is hard-coded to return of the user's email.

I don't think it would have run the code even in the previous version. I've always used eval() to evaluate code when I've added it to a database value. Can I see a copy of the code you use for the menu? I'll take a look and see what I can suggest.

If it worked before, then it might work now if you use:

<a href="<?php echo($child->getColumnVal("link",true)); ?>"><?php echo($child->getColumnVal("name",true)); ?></a>

but I don't think it will.

A solution I've used in the past is to add an identifier to tell it to run the code in the field and eval() the code when the identifier is present.

So a simple example would be if you put the value in the database like: php:$email

Then use something like this when referring to the value:

<?php echo((strpos($child->getColumnVal("link"),"php:") === 0)?eval(substr($child->getColumnVal("link"),4)):$child->getColumnVal("link")); ?>

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