Loop output for custom plugin [solution found]

Question

I am trying to update my plugins to be more user-friendly. One of the things i want to achieve is that i want my plugins output (e.g. for description-fields) to use the full functionality of all normal wordpress posts and pages (use TinyMCE and Loop-Output).

I've found a great article on using the tinyMCE right here but what I'm still stuck at is the usage of loop formatting by other plugins.

Given Example: I use a download manager plugin. In custom posts and pages i can write [download id=1] and it get's nicely formatted by the asociated plugin. I want this functionality in my custom plugins, too.

Right now this is the way i do my plugin output:

add_filter('the_content', array(&$myclass, 'myclass_callback'), 7);

and myclass_callback is the following:

public function myclass_callback($sIn)
{
  if (isset($_GET['myc_id']) && is_numeric($_GET['myc_id'])) {
    $sOut = $this->myclass_detail((int)$_GET['myc_id']);
    return str_replace('[[MYCLASS_TAG]]', $sOut, $sIn);
  }
  $sOut = $this->myclass_index();
  return str_replace('[[MYCLASS_TAG]]', $sOut, $sIn);
}

And this approach doesn't bring my wanted result :) So i am trying to figure out how to, but apparently I'm not good enoug of a googler to do so :S

Any links or keywords for me to search for will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The Solution to my problem is to simply let my plugins output run through the do_shortcode()-Function of WordPress as pointed out by this article: Using Shortcodes Everywhere

I updated my plugin so it uses shortcodes, too, so now my output looks like this:

// Add this upon plugin initialization
add_shortcode( 'dosomethingawesome', array( &$this, 'output_callback') );

/**
 * Plugins output
 *
 * Fetches the output from handle_callback() and then runs it through the
 * do_shortcode() function to work with other plugins, too
 *
 * @uses do_shortcode()
 * @access public
 * @return string
 */
// {{{ output_callback()
public function output_callback() {
  $sOutput = $this->handle_callback(); //returns the string of my plugins action
  return do_shortcode($sOutput);
}
// }}}