Using a custom shortcode from within the template of a shortcode plugin

Question

I've written a custom plugin, ta-intentclicks which is used as a shortcode:

[ta-intentclicks count="3" category="SEC-EDR"...]

Within this shortcode I'd like to use another shortcode that I can use as a helper. For example; in one of the PHP templates within my plugin.

[ta-intentclicks-link url="$list_item['link']"]Visit website[/ta-intentclicks-link]
[ta-intentclicks-link url="$list_item['link']"]<img src="foo" />[/ta-intentclicks-link]

Which would output this:

<a href="<the URL>" rel="sponsored" target="_blank" class="icp-list-link">Visit website</a>
<a href="<the URL>" rel="sponsored" target="_blank" class="icp-list-link"><img src="foo" /></a>

Here's a quick directory snapshot to help illustrate my question.

The plugin entry point is includes/class-ta-intentclicks.php which defines the shortcode and runs it, calling the Layout class along the way.

class TaIntentClicks {

    function __construct() {
        add_shortcode('ta-intentclicks', array($this, 'run'));
    }

    function run($attributes = []) {
        ... do some stuff
        return $this->layout->render($response, $layoutAttributes, $dataAttributes);
    }

}

class TAIntentClicksLayout {
    function parse($stuff, $template) {

        ob_start();
        $output = '';
        include $template;
        $output = ob_get_contents();
        ob_end_clean();
        return $output;
    }

    function render($response, $layoutAttributes, $dataAttributes) {

        return $this->parse(
            $response,
            $layoutAttributes,
            $this->getTemplate($layoutAttributes),
            $dataAttributes
        );
    }
}

I've seen examples of people calling "do_shortcode" to execute a shortcode, but I'm unclear where the shortcode function goes in my case, OR where to place the "do_shortcode" call.

Can anyone offer guidance here? This is my first plugin and I'm a bit lost as to how and implement this functionality. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If I understand it correctly, inside the shortcode template, you could do something like this:

echo do_shortcode( '[ta-intentclicks-link url="' . esc_url( $list_item['link'] ) . '"]Visit website[/ta-intentclicks-link]' );

But then, instead of having to use do_shortcode(), you could actually simply call the shortcode callback from the (shortcode) template ( which then eliminates the need to find and parse shortcodes in the content or the first parameter for do_shortcode() ):

• If you registered the shortcode like so:

  add_shortcode( 'ta-intentclicks-link', 'my_shortcode' );
  function my_shortcode( $atts = array(), $content = null ) {
      $atts = shortcode_atts( array(
          'url' => '',
      ), $atts );
  
      if ( ! empty( $atts['url'] ) ) {
          return sprintf( '<a href="%s" target="_blank">%s</a>',
              esc_url( $atts['url'] ), esc_html( $content ? $content : $atts['url'] ) );
      }
  
      return '';
  }
  

• Then in the shortcode template, you could simply call the my_shortcode() function above:

  echo my_shortcode( array(
      'url' => $list_item['link'],
  ), 'Visit website' );
  

But if that's not what you meant, or if you had a shortcode in a shortcode like [caption]Caption: [myshortcode][/caption], then as said in the Shortcode API on the WordPress Codex website:

If the enclosing shortcode is intended to permit other shortcodes in its output, the handler function can call do_shortcode() recursively:

function caption_shortcode( $atts, $content = null ) {
  return '<span class="caption">' . do_shortcode($content) . '</span>';
}

... your run() function (or the shortcode callback) would need to capture the second parameter passed to the function, i.e. $content as you could see above, and once you have that parameter (or its value), you can then call do_shortcode().

(With the above "caption" shortcode example, the $content is the Caption: [myshortcode].)

So for example, your run() function be written like so…

// 1. Define the $content variable.
function run( $attributes = [], $content = null ) {
    // ... your code (define $response, $layoutAttributes, $dataAttributes, etc.)

    // 2. Then do something like so:
    return $this->layout->render( $response, $layoutAttributes, $dataAttributes ) .
        do_shortcode( $content );
}

But if you need further help with that, do let me know in the comments (and preferably, please show the code in your template and explain the variables like the $response and $layoutAttributes).

Answer 2

function parse($stuff, $template) {
    ob_start();
    $output = '';
    include $template;
    $output = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();
    $output = do_shortcode($output); // This line will parse shortcodes from $template
    return $output;
}

To add some details: your main shortcode, [ta-intentclicks], I assume you're placing that in the Page/Post content. WordPress runs do_shortcode on the_content so that works as expected.

do_shortcode does not recursively run shortcodes, meaning, nested shortcodes just display as plain text wrapped in brackets / they do not render the shortcode content. So, you need to run do_shortcode again on the content of your shortcode to process the next "level" of the shortcode. Likewise, if you have a shortcode inside of that shortcode inside of [ta-intentclick], you'd need to run do_shortcode a second time (third time if you count WP's core running of it).

I'm not sure that this behavior is specifically documented, but if you read through the do_shortcode source code here it's apparent it doesn't handle sub-shortcodes.

Answer 3

Why don't you use this simple code to do that? I mean, it doesn't require shortcode inside shortcode.

function links( $atts, $content = null ){
    $args = shortcode_atts( array(
        's' => '', //name
        'l' => '', //link
    ), $atts);

    return '<a href="'. $args['l'] .'">'. $args['s'] .'</a>';
}
add_shortcode ('link', 'links');

you can write [link s="NAME" l="LINK"] and it is more simple.