Title: Empty paragraphs using shortcode with html output Last modified: December 10, 2019 --- # Empty paragraphs using shortcode with html output * Resolved [Ghyslain](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghyslain/) * (@ghyslain) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-paragraphs-using-shortcode-with-html-output/) * Hi, I’m using the shortcode with html output, but I’m getting empty paragraphs on publication even if I remove empty spaces between my regular html and my shortcode, this is my code : * ```
[wpp range="last30days" post_type="post" taxonomy="post_tag" term_id="53" stats_views=1 order_by="views" limit="3" thumbnail_width="350" thumbnail_height="188" stats_views="0" wpp_start="
" wpp_end="
" post_html='

{text_title}

{thumb}
']
``` * Is there a way to fix that and to avoid editing functions.php with remove_filter(‘ the_content’, ‘wpautop’); ? Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/) * (@hcabrera) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-paragraphs-using-shortcode-with-html-output/#post-12223849) * Hi [@ghyslain](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghyslain/), * Yeah, that’s WordPress’ doing and disabling `wpautop` seems the only way to prevent it from happening. The problem is, basically, that WordPress sees the HTML tags you’re using in the shortcode and for some reason tries to add paragraphs in there. * When disabling `wpautop` is not an option for whatever reason(s), one kinda “ hackish” workaround (and I call it that because it’s not very elegant but it works) is to create a new custom shortcode that internally renders WPP’s shortcode. For example (untested): * ``` function wp875542_custom_wpp_shortcode( $atts ) { $atts = shortcode_atts( array( 'range' => 'last30days', 'post_type' => 'post', 'taxonomy' => 'post_tag', 'term_id' => 53, 'stats_views' => 1, 'order_by' => 'views', 'limit' => 3, 'thumbnail_width' => 350, 'thumbnail_height' => 188 ), $atts, 'wpp_custom' ); return do_shortcode('[wpp range="' . $atts['range'] . '" post_type="' . $atts['post_type'] . '" taxonomy="' . $atts['taxonomy'] . '" term_id=' . $atts['term_id'] . ' stats_views=' . $atts['stats_views'] . ' order_by="' . $atts['order_by'] . '" limit=' . $atts['limit'] . ' thumbnail_width=' . $atts['thumbnail_width'] . ' thumbnail_height=' . $atts['thumbnail_height'] . ' wpp_start="
" wpp_end="
" post_html=\'

{text_title}

{thumb}
\']'); } add_shortcode( 'wpp_custom', 'wp875542_custom_wpp_shortcode' ); ``` * Usage: * `[wpp_custom]` * `[wpp_custom range="last7days"]` * `[wpp_custom range="last7days" stats_views=0]` * `[wpp_custom range="last7days" stats_views=0 taxonomy="category" term_id="64"]` * All of your parameters -except for the HTML-related ones, _wpp\_start_, _wpp\ _end_ and _post\_html_– remain customizable from the post/page edit screen. With this we lose the ability to edit the HTML markup of the popular posts list from the post/page edit screen but in exchange we don’t get those pesky empty `p` tags. - This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/). Reason: Fixed do_shortcode - This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/). Reason: Improved wording for clarity * Thread Starter [Ghyslain](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghyslain/) * (@ghyslain) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-paragraphs-using-shortcode-with-html-output/#post-12223866) * Hi Héctor, thank you so much for replying that fast! Your solution looks good, before I try it what do you think of that instead ? (I’m using the shortcode in a tag description that’s why I’m using term_description in add_filter below), but so far no luck, it doesn’t see to work … Am I getting close ? * ``` function shortcode_empty_paragraph_fix( $content ) { // define your shortcodes to filter, '' filters all shortcodes $shortcodes = array('wpp'); foreach ( $shortcodes as $shortcode ) { $array = array ( '

[' . $shortcode => '[' .$shortcode, '

[/' . $shortcode => '[/' .$shortcode, $shortcode . ']

' => $shortcode . ']', $shortcode . ']
' => $shortcode . ']' ); $content = strtr( $content, $array ); } return $content; } add_filter( 'term_description', 'shortcode_empty_paragraph_fix' ); ``` * Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/) * (@hcabrera) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-paragraphs-using-shortcode-with-html-output/#post-12223959) * I would do it this way instead (untested): * ``` function remove_all_empty_paragraphs( $content ) { // See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/14261024/9131961 $content = preg_replace( "#

(\s| |)*#", "", $content ); return $content; } add_filter( 'term_description', 'remove_all_empty_paragraphs' ); ``` * You could also just use CSS for this (although I’m not a big fan of this solution): * ``` p:empty { display: none; } ``` - This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/). Reason: Fixed typo * Thread Starter [Ghyslain](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghyslain/) * (@ghyslain) * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-paragraphs-using-shortcode-with-html-output/#post-12225104) * After several attempts, I opted for remove_filter(‘term_description’, ‘wpautop’); 🙂 thanks for your help again ! Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘Empty paragraphs using shortcode with html output’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/wordpress-popular-posts/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1232659) * [WP Popular Posts](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/reviews/) ## Tags * [shortcode](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/shortcode/) * [wpautop](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wpautop/) * 4 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [Ghyslain](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ghyslain/) * Last activity: [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/empty-paragraphs-using-shortcode-with-html-output/#post-12225104) * Status: resolved