The Recursive Shortcode plugin provides the [recursive-shortcode] shortcode for Wordpress to use shortcodes in shortcodes.

The plugin can also be found on the Wordpress Plugin Pages.

1. Navigate to Dashboard – Plugins – Add New;
2. Search for Recursive Shortcode;
3. Click Install, then Activate.

1. Download the plugin as a .zip file;
2. Unzip downloaded archive and upload the recursive-shortcode folder under your /wp-content/plugins/ directory (resulted plugin path should be /wp-content/plugins/recursive-shortcode/);
3. Navigate to Dashboard – Plugins and activate the plugin.

Using the shortcode like:

[recursive-shortcode]CONTENT[/recursive-shortcode]

All shortcodes within the content are evaluated with the do_shortcode() function.

deconstruct=true Default: false

open="REGULAR-EXPRESSION" Default: open="\\["

close="REGULAR-EXPRESSION" Default: close="\\]"

The deconstruct=true parameter outputs a (randomly colored) evaluation hierarchy. Use this parameter to check, if the content is evaluated in the wanted way.

Example 1:

[recursive-shortcode deconstruct=true][display-posts category="Verein" orderby="title" include_content="true" image_size="thumbnail" wrapper="div" wrapper_class="display-posts-listing-vereine grid" order="ASC" tag="[urlparam param="tag, Sportart"]" posts_per_page="100"][/recursive-shortcode]

Results in:

Example 2 - More nested shortcodes:

[recursive-shortcode deconstruct=true][display-posts category="Verein" orderby="title" include_content="true" image_size="thumbnail" wrapper="div" wrapper_class="display-posts-listing-vereine grid" order="ASC" tag="[urlparam param="[get-ceo-tags]tag1, tag2[/get-ceo-tags]"]" posts_per_page="100"][/recursive-shortcode]

Results in:

The inner shortcode get-ceo-tags is evaluated first, then urlparam, then display-posts.

Regular expression for the open brace of a shortcode. In normal written text this is a single [.

Since [ has a special meaning in regular expressions, you have to escape it with \, to search it literally.

Because \ has a special meaning in shortcode parameters, you have to escape it with \.

So escape all regular expression special characters with two \\.

Default value: open="\\["

For regular expressions see here: PCRE Patterns

Regular expression for the open brace of a shortcode. In normal written text this is a single ].

Since ] has a special meaning in regular expressions, you have to escape it with \, to search it literally.

Because \ has a special meaning in shortcode parameters, you have to escape it with \.

So escape all regular expression special characters with two \\.

Default value: close="\\]"

For regular expressions see here: PCRE Patterns

The Wordpress shortcode syntax is not explicit. And this piece of software do not the right guess, what's correct.

Example: [A][A]inner-a[/A][/A]

Possible correct interpretations:

1. We have a inner shortcode [A]inner-a[/A], enclosed by an outer shortcode [A][A]inner-a[/A][/A]. This is the way [recursive-shortcode]interprets the text.

2. We have a leading shortcode [A] with no closing tag. Followed by an shortcode [A]inner-a[/A][/A] with inner-A[/A] as content. Correct syntax, but not what you want.

Example: [A][B param="[/A]"][/A]

We have a inner shortcode B and an outer, enclosing, shortcode A. Correct, but not recognized by Wordpress or this shortcode.

[recursive-shortcode]interprets it in this way: The "][/A] at the end will be displayed as normal text.

1. Use deconstruct=true to get the picture of the evaluation hierarchy from this shortcut.

2. Alter the regular expressions for opening and closing braces to use [ and ] literally.

Example - Altered braces: [recursive-shortcode open="@OPEN" close="@CLOSE"]@OPENA@CLOSE@OPENB param="[/A]"@CLOSE@OPEN/A@CLOSE[/recursive-shortcode]

Is interpreted as:

Before do_schortcode() is called, custom braches are replaced with standard shortcode braces.