How to get the input of a TinyMCE editor when using on the front-end?

I’m not sure why I haven’t been able to find this, but does anyone know how to get the input of the TinyMCE editor? I am using it in the front end and want to be able to save whatever the user has typed into the TinyMCE to a database but cannot find the best way to capture that value.

The two solutions that I’ve implemented with some success are:

1. tinyMCE.activeEditor.getContent(); – This one seems to only get the value of the visual editor so if I’m in the HTML editor and make changes and then save, they aren’t picked up.

2. $('#html_text_area_id').val(); – This one is the opposite, it only seems to get the value of the HTML editor.

I know there is a better way – I just can’t seem to find it…

p.s Yes, I’m going to implement security measures to make sure people can’t blow up the database.

Ok apparently WordPress keeps track of what kind of editor (visual or html) is active as a class which is added to the content wrapper so here is a solution that will get you the latest content in the editor

function get_tinymce_content(){
    if (jQuery("#wp-content-wrap").hasClass("tmce-active")){
        return tinyMCE.activeEditor.getContent();
    }else{
        return jQuery('#html_text_area_id').val();
    }
}