Write textarea value as PHP

Question

I am creating a WordPress plugin where a user can specify a custom loop repeater based on the value of a textarea.

The idea is, a user can use a predefined repeater that ships with the plugin or they can build their own repeater by simply adding html + PHP to the textarea.

Example of a custom repeater:

<h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1> <?php the_excerpt(); ?> - <?php the_time(); ?>

The issue is when I echo/print the textarea value, the WordPress functions within the <?php ?> tags do not execute.

Is what I'm attempting even possible?

Let me explain further... I am building an installable plugin based on my Ajax Load More script. This plugin will be only used by site admins and for total control of the display of posts I want to allow them to create a custom repeater.

On the plugin settings page, I want to have a textarea where the admins can add whatever html/php code they want in order to customize the repeater.

My issue is how do I execute the PHP entered within the textarea on the frontend as echoing the value does not work.

can you clarify, are you trying to allow them to execute PHP in the wordpress page content area? — DannieCoderBoi, May 30 '14 at 14:08
you do **NOT** want to allow your users to enter arbitrary php code into your site. e.g. consider `` — Marc B, May 30 '14 at 14:10
Yeah, if you just *print* text, you're just printing text. It doesn't matter what that text contains... — deceze, May 30 '14 at 14:11
Yes, essentially I want to echo the value of a textarea (saved via plugin settings) on the frontend within a loop. — Darren Cooney, May 30 '14 at 14:11

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 30 '14 at 14:11

2

Use eval function to change plain text to php code. More about it here

eval('echo "Hello world!"');

will print out "Hello world!" instead of 'echo "Hello world!"'

BUT what if i write to textarea:

die();

answered May 30 '14 at 14:11

Justinas

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`eval` can be quite dangerous. However, there are other ways to get to the same goal, as leri explaned here quite lengthy: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17672183/eval-does-not-return-the-function-results/17672269#17672269 – Tate83 Jun 03 '14 at 10:56

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 30 '14 at 16:13

One way of doing this is to use the eval() function as Justinas says, but I would strongly recommend you don't use it as I have found it to be unreliable and problematic.

What I would recommend is to write the PHP code in the string you extract from the text area to a file and then include that file where you want the PHP to execute.

So, I would recommend running

<?php file_put_contents($file_path, $contents); ?>

whenever the text area is updated to update the file, then

<?php include_once($file_path); ?>

where you want the code on the front end.

thanks. This is exactly the approach I have taken. Works perfectly once written to a php file and then included in the loop. — Darren Cooney, May 30 '14 at 17:08

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered May 30 '14 at 14:11

-1

Those wordpress functions will not work unless they are in the Loop, Here is a basic Loop:

 <?php if(have_posts()) { ?>    
 <?php while(have_posts()) { ?> 
 <?php the_post(); ?>   
 <?php // custom post content code for title, excerpt and featured image ?> 
 <?php } // end while ?>    
 <?php } // end if ?>

answered May 30 '14 at 14:11

DannieCoderBoi

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Issue is not the loop. The issue is executing PHP saved within a textbox inside the loop. – Darren Cooney May 30 '14 at 14:36

Write textarea value as PHP

3 Answers3