How can I use the output of a shortcode inside of another shortcode in Wordpress?

Question

I have written a shortcode that returns a variable that was set in my php file, and I need to use the value of that variable in another shortcode which I got from a plugin, "Insert Pages". I understand that I cannot do [insert page='[left]' display='content'] because the Wordpress parser ends the shortcode at the first ], but I am wondering if there is a way around this.

Here is the code of my page, apologies for the bad indentation. The shortcodes from my php file are [right] and [left] which return a number corresponding to the value of the option the user chose. The other shortcode is from the Insert Pages plugin and takes the desired ID as the value for which page to show.

The code in question is below the first 'select' tag. 143380 is an example of a value, that is where I need the result of my shortcode to go.


[one_half]
Select a Country


[left]

[insert page='143380' display='content']

[/one_half]

[one_half_last]
Select a Country




[right]
[/one_half_last]

This is my template php file that I wrote the shortcode in. They are defined in left_shortcode and right_shortcode. The file is based off my theme's page.php:

Deven Kumar · Accepted Answer

This answer was given to me on reddit:

"It may be possible to get nested shortcode to work, but you would probably need to process the content twice or something and I would imagine it isn't going to be straightforward.

I think the easiest thing to do would just create a new shortcode as a wrapper and call the original shortcode in it.

So, if the original looks like this: [original_shortcode page=1]

You could create one like this: [original_shortcode_new page_alignment='left']

Then write a shortcode, escape/validate user input, and call the main shortcode.

Essentially:

function original_shortcode_new( $args ) {

    $args = shortcode_atts( 
        array(
            'page_alignment' => ''
        ), $args, 'original_shortcode_new' );


    $page_id = '';

    if($args['page_alignment'] == 'left' && isset($_GET['dropdownl'])){
        $page_id = intval($_GET['dropdownl']);
    } else if($args['page_alignment'] == 'right' && isset($_GET['dropdownr'])){
        $page_id = intval($_GET['dropdownr']);
    }

    if(empty($page_id)){
        return "Error, bad page";
    }

    return do_shortcode("[original_shortcode page={$page_id}]");

}

add_shortcode( 'original_shortcode_new', 'original_shortcode_new' );

Again, when doing the above, I would get rid of the extra shortcodes and globals and just use some logic inside a single shortcode."

This is the part of the answer that answers my question above, but to see the full post click here: Reddit Question

How can I use the output of a shortcode inside of another shortcode in Wordpress?

Answers (1)

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