Title: Why do_shortcode is not executing the shortcode in data-* html attributes?
Last modified: August 30, 2016

---

# Why do_shortcode is not executing the shortcode in data-* html attributes?

 *  [ExortPress](https://wordpress.org/support/users/exortpress/)
 * (@exortpress)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-do_shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes/)
 * I’ve already asked this question on wordpress.stackexchange.com and so far I 
   got only one user to reply me and he said that he was unable to reproduce the
   error.
 * My request to this sub-forum community is to test the following code, which can
   be a bug in WordPress. I can reproduce the error on my localhost machine as well
   as on the remote development server. I’m simply copy pasting the question to 
   avoid wasting time.
 * This is on Vanilla installation. I’ve made a shortcode:-
 *     ```
       /**
        * Creates a shortcode for shortcode_use_here
        * @author Omar Tariq <XXXXXX@gmail.com>
        */
       function callback_banana_abc( $args ){
           /* Don't echo! Always return */
   
           return 'yay!';
       }
       add_shortcode( 'banana_abc', 'callback_banana_abc' );
       ```
   
 * And I’ve made a template that looks like this:-
 *     ```
       <?php
       /*
        * Template Name: Test Template
        * Description: Hello world.
        */
   
       $str = '<a herf="#" title="[banana_abc]" data-abc="[banana_abc]">[banana_abc]</a>';
       echo do_shortcode($str);
       ```
   
 * The output is:-
 *     ```
       <a herf="#" title="yay!" data-abc="[banana_abc]">yay!</a>
       ```
   
 * This is only for data-* attributes. It works fine when used in title attribute.
 * The actual shortcode is much more complex. I’ve made it small and to the point
   to avoid wasting time.
 * Please let me know if you can reproduce the error.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Chris](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zenation/)
 * (@zenation)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-do_shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes/#post-6368470)
 * Mhh, that’s annoying?! I can reproduce the behavior and in a way I figured out
   why it does what it does. But I don’t have solution other than coding your own
   wrapper function to fix that.
 * The function `do_shortcode()` is located in /wp-includes/shortcodes.php
 * There, in line 209, the function `do_shortcodes_in_html_tags( $content, $ignore_html)`
   is called – always.
 * And so somewhere at the beginning of the function `do_shortcodes_in_html_tags()`
   all square brackets (that are left?) will be converted to their HTML special 
   character codes.
    At this point your string would look like this: `"<a herf="#"
   title="yay!" data-abc="& #91;banana_abc& #93;">yay!</a>"` (without the space 
   between & and #) and the shortcode in the middle won’t be recognized as such 
   anymore.
 * As I understand it the default behavior SHOULD be to prevent just all this from
   happening. The code comment says: “When true, all square braces inside elements
   will be encoded.” but the default is FALSE, so…?
 * The one thing that worked is to kill line 209 in the shortcodes.php (or mark 
   the line as comment // ). But of course, you shouldn’t edit core files!
 *  [Chris](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zenation/)
 * (@zenation)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-do_shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes/#post-6368472)
 * Also, if you do `var_dump( do_shortcode( $str ) );` instead of `echo do_shortcode(
   $str);` you can see that the square brackets have been replaced.
 *  Thread Starter [ExortPress](https://wordpress.org/support/users/exortpress/)
 * (@exortpress)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-do_shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes/#post-6368482)
 * Thanks Chris for your message. I found it’s solution yesterday. Here is the link:-
 * [http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/195665/why-do-shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/195665/why-do-shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Why do_shortcode is not executing the shortcode in data-* html attributes?’
is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [do_shortcode](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/do_shortcode/)

 * In: [Hacks](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/plugins-and-hacks/hacks/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [ExortPress](https://wordpress.org/support/users/exortpress/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-do_shortcode-is-not-executing-the-shortcode-in-data-html-attributes/#post-6368482)
 * Status: not resolved

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