EE Code within channel entries

Question

Is it at all possible to have a text input or area field in which we could enter EE code to be processed by the template.

For example, if we could have a text area called "Advanced Functionality" and within this write things like

 {sn_contact-form}

Right in the channel entry, and then in our template call...

{advanced_functionality}

then that could be valuable in some instances.

Is this too far down the parse order to happen? Or does anybody know of a solution?

Answer 1

You could do this combining Stash and the allow_eecode plugin. http://www.tyssendesign.com.au/articles/cms/more-stash-examples/ has a great example of the functionality you're trying to achieve (example 1 wp shortcode).

For stash see https://github.com/croxton/Stash, allow_eecode http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/allow-ee-code

Answer 2

Stash, yet again(!), is the answer:

{exp:channel:entries}
    {exp:stash:parse process="end"}
        {advanced_functionality}
    {/exp:stash:parse}
{/exp:channel:entries}

... this does the trick for parsing snippets

Then if you want to get more creative with custom shortcodes instead of snippets, you'd use stash:set first like this:

{exp:stash:set name="shortcode_inside_field" type="snippet"}
    <p>Hi there! It's important to set type="snippet" so that {shortcode_inside_field} will get automatically replaced with this sentence by the stash:parse tag later on.</p>
    ... now run all kinds of complicated EE tags here to generate the content of the shortcode (be sure to add parse_tags="yes") ....
{/exp:stash:set}

{exp:channel:entries}
    {exp:stash:parse process="end"}
        {advanced_functionality}                
    {/exp:stash:parse}
{/exp:channel:entries}

Answer 3

I have a new module called Shortcode coming out soon which enables this type of thing. It is a bit more restrictive in that it only allows tags that have been setup for it to be parsed since it'd be very unsafe to allow for open ended template code to be entered as content. That said, it's trivial to add new Shortcodes to the module with just a few lines of code.

For instance, you could easily insert a ProForm form using this tag:

[form form_name="application_form"]

Let me know if you'd like a demo by posting in the Shortcode forum.

Answer 4

Hmm, good question. I dont think this would be possible with snippets, as they are always parsed too early.

By the sounds of things this is basically what the Shortcodes addon will offer - though that isn't publicly available yet - maybe @IsaacRaway can chip in and let us know?