Enclosing Shortcode not working in a Template

Question

I've use the following code for an enclosing shortcode and it works perfectly in the posts.

function date_code($attr, $content)
{
   return '<h3>' . $content . '</h3>';
}

add_shortcode('datecode', 'date_code');

But when I try to use it in a page template using http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/do_shortcode it's not working.

I've use the following code in my template:

echo do_shortcode( '[datecode]' . $content . '[/datecode]' );

Please help me since the non-enclosing shortcode works fine with do_shortcode. And, I'm ignorant with regards to using enclosing shortcode in a page template.

I want to display the shortcode in the page template like in the posts. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The shortcode wraps something in header tags. For the shortcode to work you need to provide that something.

Your code above works fine, you just need to set $content='My header text'; prior to echoing the shortcode in your template. currently you are not wrapping anything in the header tags.

But you shouldn't need to use a shortcode for wrapping in HTML tags- just use the html:

<h1> My header text</h1>

rather than

   <?php echo do_shortcode( '[datecode]' .'My header text'. '[/datecode]' ); ?>