wpautop filter and shortcodes

[Looimaster]

I've been told here that this has been fixed in WP3.6 but it wasn't. I just installed WP3.6 Beta 1 and still doing this:

[shortcode]
<img src="">
<img src="">
<img src="">
[/shortcode]

produces this:

<div class="carousel">
<p></p>
<img src="">
<img src="">
<img src="">
<p></p>
</div>

which is highly unwanted because I have to strip <p> tags manually in order to make carousel of images work.

[Looimaster]

Oh, I'm sorry! The correct code:

[shortcode]
<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>
[/shortcode]

It tries to nest div in p and Chrome converts that to <p> at the beginning and at the end.

[azaozz]

No, autop treats the string [shortcode] as text and wraps it on <p>, then the firts <p> and last </p> are removed for known shortcodes. Removing redundant line breaks from inside the shortcode, or at least the first and last one should work properly:

[shortcode]<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>[/shortcode]

[Looimaster]

@azoazz
Yes, I think that you are right. Let's take a look at more examples:

Will work:

[shortcode]<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>[/shortcode]

Will not work:

[shortcode]
<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>
<div><img src=""></div>
[/shortcode]

Will work:

[tabs][tab title="abc"][tab title="def"][/tabs]

Will not work:

[tabs]
[tab title="abc"]
[tab title="def"]
[/tabs]

Generally, from what I noticed, it tries to put <p> everywhere it can and they often appear before, after or inside <div> elements (they should appear in DIV to wrap text but if div contains nested div then it's no longer valid).

It looks like tough development task because wpautop is useful but on the other hand it prevents some shortcodes from working unless they strip additional tags.

[jameskirsop]

Just wanting to say that I've just updated to 3.6 Beta 3 and this is still an issue for me too.

The following short tags and content:

[row]
[span]
hello
[/span]
[/row]

Results in the following HTML output:

<div class="row">
<p></p>
<p></p>
<div class="span">
<p></p>
<p>hello</p>
<p></p>
</div>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</div>

[thiagof]

Yes, the bug naturally persist.
Apparently there is a try to solve it in the ​wpautop and ​shortcode_unautop (plus others) but it is clearly not fully working.
Yep, RegExp really rocks.. but seems like it need attention - so many function around the issue and yet no result.

For now, people still need to use the hack of removing wpautop!!

remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop', 12 );

[Looimaster]

More examples. I'm using Symple Shortcodes plugin - ​http://www.wpexplorer.com/symple-shortcodes/

This will not produce a paragraph inside the column:

[symple_column size="one-third" position="first"]Sample Content[/symple_column]

This will not produce a paragraph inside the column (but will produce additional <br> at the end):

[symple_column size="one-third" position="first"]
Sample Content
[/symple_column]

This will produce a paragraph inside the column (but will not work for those without unfiltered_capability if I'm not mistaken):

<div class="column_1">Sample Content</div>

The plugin does do_shortcode($content) instead of apply_filters('the_content', $content); so this may have impact on that but nonetheless I think that it's worth considering this example as well while resolving this ticket.

[lkraav]

Is the original bug report example written in Visual or Text mode?

I've just discovered that it's hugely important for the ​wpautop() $pees array to have double line breaks to properly separate shortcodes from content. Visual editor adds double line break automatically, but in Text mode you need to do it manually.

Text mode example:

[TBS_ROW]

[TBS_SPAN size="6"]

Don't start your content earlier than here

[/TBS_SPAN]

[/TBS_ROW]

[lkraav]

Replying to lkraav:

I've just discovered that it's hugely important for the ​wpautop() $pees array to have double line breaks to properly separate shortcodes from content. Visual editor adds double line break automatically, but in Text mode you need to do it manually.

Either way, shortcode_unautop is still indeed borken:

This is what comes in:

[07-Oct-2013 22:08:57] Array
(
    [0] => shortcode_unautop
    [1] => <p>[TBS_ROW fluid="y"]</p>
<p>[TBS_SPAN size="6"]</p>
<p>The 6oth day.</p>
<p>[/TBS_SPAN]</p>
<p>[TBS_SPAN size="6"]</p>
<p>Your abs will be tighter, your arms will be leaner and your butt will be higher. You won’t be able to stop admiring yourself in the mirror or wipe the smile off your face.</p>
<p>[/TBS_SPAN]</p>
<p>[/TBS_ROW]</p>
)

And this is what we get:

[07-Oct-2013 22:08:57] Array
(
    [0] => shortcode_unautop return
    [1] => [TBS_ROW fluid="y"]</p>
<p>[TBS_SPAN size="6"]</p>
<p>The 6oth day.</p>
<p>[/TBS_SPAN]</p>
<p>[TBS_SPAN size="6"]</p>
<p>Your abs will be tighter, your arms will be leaner and your butt will be higher. You won’t be able to stop admiring yourself in the mirror or wipe the smile off your face.</p>
<p>[/TBS_SPAN]</p>
<p>[/TBS_ROW]
)

Big yey for unbalanced <p> tags! Is the function really supposed to remove just the first instance of <p></p>?

[lkraav]

Replying to thiagof:

Yep, RegExp really rocks.. but seems like it need attention - so many function around the issue and yet no result.

For now, people still need to use the hack of removing wpautop!!

remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop', 12 );

This works. I'm not able to detect any harmful side effects on this particular site.

Is anyone here aware of an article that would explain and demonstrate step by step how the content gets processed and why this works?

I was looking at the resulting commit from discussion of #6444. That commit by @markjaquith is 5+ years old. Is the strategy still valid?

[aaroncampbell]

This seems pretty closely related to (if not a duplicate of) #14050, which has some unit tests and even patches attached (although they're out of date)

[miqrogroove]

I'm working on a roadmap proposal that would fix this with alternative shortcode syntax.

[miqrogroove]

#23280 was marked as a duplicate.

[miqrogroove]

#22272 was marked as a duplicate.

[miqrogroove]

Duplicate of #6984.