'the_content' filter removing html tags from post content

Question

I have a post content(html) like this:

<div id="home_tabs">
<ul>
    <li><a href="#tabs-1">Nunc tincidunt</a></li>
    <li><a href="#tabs-2">Proin dolor</a></li>
    <li><a href="#tabs-3">Aenean lacinia</a></li>
</ul>
<div id="tabs-1">
<p>Proin elit arcu, rutrum commodo, vehicula tempus, commodo a, risus.</p>
<p><a class="jqbut" href="#">read more</a></p>
</div>
<div id="tabs-2">Morbi tincidunt, dui sit amet facilisis feugiat, odio metus gravida ante, ut pharetra massa metus id nunc.</div>
<div id="tabs-3">Mauris eleifend est et turpis. Duis id erat. Suspendisse potenti.</div>
</div>

When I'm using echo $post['post_content']; or echo do_shortcode($post['post_content']); the content shows up fine. But when using echo apply_filters('the_content', $post['post_content']); some of the html tags are removed from the post. The output is like this:

<a href="#tabs-1">Nunc tincidunt</a>
<a href="#tabs-2">Proin dolor</a>
<a href="#tabs-3">Aenean lacinia</a>
<p>Proin elit arcu, rutrum commodo, vehicula tempus, commodo a, risus.</p>
<p><a class="jqbut" href="#">read more</a></p>
Morbi tincidunt, dui sit amet facilisis feugiat, odio metus gravida ante, ut pharetra massa metus id nunc.
Mauris eleifend est et turpis. Duis id erat. Suspendisse potenti.

How to get the exact html contents of the post using the content filter?

Answer 1

You shouldn't be putting arbitrary HTML into post content, instead use shortcodes! Shortcodes were intended for this situation.

Otherwise you face 2 problems:

• Filters will escape your content via the wp_kses_post on output
• TinyMCE will filter/mangle/strip tags when you use the visual editor, even for the slightest of moments

All of these are done for security purposes, content should only contain content, not layout or UI. If you need those, use widgets, or put shortcodes inside your content.