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[Resolved] Using square brackets without declaring it as a shortcode

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:

How to force square brackets not to be considered as a shortcode part?

Solution:

Replace "[The Hotel]" with

<span class="square_braces">The hotel</span>

Add this CSS to theme:

.square_braces::before {
content: "[";
}
.square_braces::after {
content: "]";
}
 
html[lang="en-US"] .square_braces::after,
html[lang="en-US"] .square_braces::before {
display: none;
}

In the above CSS replace “en-US” with the language code in which you don’t want to display the brackets.

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This topic contains 14 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Eric Moss 2 years, 7 months ago.

Assisted by: Christopher Amirian.

Author Posts
May 27, 2022 at 4:07 pm #11328637

Eric Moss

Hello

hidden link

In the above blog article, you can see the text "[names]" and "[The hotel]". Neither are shortcodes but WPML thinks they are, which means that they are being picked up as "wpcodeself" in the ATE. I can't skip using these "shortcodes" in the string without getting a formatting error, and translating them as "shortcode attrs" is not ideal because the translated text does not need the square brackets like the english translation does, and the words keep their spaces.

Eg, this sentence in English:
[The hotel] is cooking again ...

Comes out as this in French:
[L’ hôtel] fait à nouveau la cuisine ...

But it should be this:
L’hôtel fait à nouveau la cuisine ...

Is there a way to let WPML know that these are not shortcodes?

I tried escaping the shortcodes as WordPress suggests by using double square brackets [[like this]], and I also tried using HTML entities [like this]

Neither solutions worked. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
May 30, 2022 at 6:08 am #11339301

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

Would you please make sure that on your original post escape the brackets? Use the Unicode equivalent:

[ with [
] with ]

Then save the page and go to the translation and this time you should see the result as a normal text.

Thanks.
May 30, 2022 at 12:52 pm #11343927

Eric Moss

Hi Christopher

That worked for one of the instances of the brackets, but not the other. The HTML entities are showing properly in the block editor (see screenshot) but WPML still seems to read it as a shortcode.

Screenshot 2022-05-30 085153.png
May 30, 2022 at 1:05 pm #11344133

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

Would you please do a test here?

hidden link

I created a clean installation and set up WPML. I want to know if it is possible to replicate the issue that you say there or not.

Thank you.
May 30, 2022 at 2:04 pm #11344791

Eric Moss

Hi Christopher

Yes I've recreated the issue on the sandbox site

English: hidden link
Translated: hidden link

If you use the ATE, you'll see that the first instance of the brackets is read as 

wpcodeself

, and the second instance is read as translatable text.

Additionally, viewing the original post on the frontend shows the HTML entities. If I insert the HTML entities using the "Edit as HTML" option in the block editor, they are converted to brackets and WPML will read them as shortcodes.

So either way, we're back to square one. Thanks for your help so far. Let me know how I can proceed.
May 31, 2022 at 9:19 am #11351271

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

Thank you. I reported this to the second-tier support and waiting for their reply. Going to update you as soon as I have news.

Thanks.
May 31, 2022 at 1:03 pm #11353371

Eric Moss

Thank you!
May 31, 2022 at 1:16 pm #11353669

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

I have an answer from the second tier.

Would you please use the top left search box in the Advanced Translation Editor and search for the text of the shortcode there?

You will find it and you can translate that.

For more information:

https://wpml.org/faq/how-to-translate-urls-shortcodes-and-html-attributes-using-the-advanced-translation-editor/

Thank you.
May 31, 2022 at 1:17 pm #11353675

Eric Moss

Hi Christopher

Yes, I addressed that in my original post. This solution does not make sense for all languages.
May 31, 2022 at 1:50 pm #11353987

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

I am not sure what you mean it does not make sense for other languages.

That is the way it is possible to translate the Shortcodes in ATE.

The reason behind that is to avoid the Automatic Translation to translate unrelated content as explained in the documentation that I shared.

Thanks.
May 31, 2022 at 1:54 pm #11354003

Eric Moss

The problem is that the original text is not a shortcode, it's just text within square brackets, used in this way: hidden link

As I described originally, the issue comes because the text does not need to be in square brackets in the French translation. And translating the shortcode text as individual words puts spaces between those words where there does not need to be.

Eg, this sentence in English:
[The hotel] is cooking again

Comes out as this in French (notice the space between L' and hôtel as well as the square brackets):
[L’ hôtel] fait à nouveau la cuisine

But it should be this:
L’hôtel fait à nouveau la cuisine
May 31, 2022 at 2:03 pm #11354037

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

I see. It seems that I misunderstood the issue. I now see what you want, I updated the issue with the second-tier and will get back to you to see if there is a solution for that or not.

Thanks.
May 31, 2022 at 2:04 pm #11354041

Eric Moss

Thank you

June 1, 2022 at 8:32 am #11360019

Christopher Amirian
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)

Hi there,

I have an answer from the second-tier:

We actually don’t have any method. Also, this request is very customer-specific.

Here is a workaround that is suggested but besides this, there is no method available in WPML:

Replace [] with

<span class="square_braces">The hotel</span>

Add this CSS to theme:

.square_braces::before {
content: "[";
}
.square_braces::after {
content: "]";
}

html[lang="en-US"] .square_braces::after,
html[lang="en-US"] .square_braces::before {
display: none;
}

In the above CSS replace “en-US” with the language code in which they don’t want to display the brackets.

Thanks
June 6, 2022 at 4:37 pm #11397963

Eric Moss

Thank you. Not the answer I was looking for, but this should work!