Function to Properly Render Cornerstone Content Outside of the Editor

[brianjohnsondesign]

Hi guys,

Hopefully an easy question for you. What function can I use to render Cornerstone content that’s not in the editor?

For many years, do_shortcode worked just fine. Now, it doesn’t work anymore. Instead, for some reason the content of the page just displays a second time.

So to specifically illustrate what I’m trying to do, here’s more info.

There’s a section in my footer (on some pages) where I display a portfolio. I’ve built this portfolio in Cornerstone, but I just copy the code into my template file.

In my wp-single.php template, I just have:

do_shortcode(’[cs_content][cs_section]… etc’);

And again, it worked flawlessly for many years. But now, instead of displaying the content, strangely it displays the content of the current post a second time. It’s very odd. I’ve tested it even with extremely basic Cornerstone content, and this still happens.

So I’m just wondering: is there a different function I should be using? Is there a reason this doesn’t work anymore? I get that it’s not the normal use case but I’m just wondering why something that worked without issue for so long is no behaving so strangely.

Thank you!

[friech]

Hi @brianjohnsondesign,

Thank you for writing in, what do you mean do_shortcode() is not working? that is a core WordPress function, it should work.

Instead of having a bunch of shortcodes, please rebuild your portfolio as a Global Block, global block will give you a single shortcode, please use that with the do_shortcode() function.

Hope it helps,
Cheers!

[brianjohnsondesign]

Hi there,

I mean that instead of properly rendering the content, do_shortcode(), when used with Cornerstone content, will instead just duplicate the current post content, which is really odd. I suppose it’s possibly a core WP bug in the current version but I haven’t had issues elsewhere.

But a global block does make more sense. When I built this site, I don’t think that functionality existed yet so it wasn’t an option. I’ll give that a try.

[tristup]

Hi @brianjohnsondesign,

I also suggest you use the Global Blocks instead of the do_shortcode. Please let us know if you face any difficulties in using it. Please also read the following article on Global Blocks and how that can be used.

Global Blocks | Themeco Docs

Global Block | Themeco Docs

Thanks

[brianjohnsondesign]

Thank you!

That worked, and it was super easy. I already had a template block made of it, so I just created a global block added the template, and then updated the shortcode and it worked.

Very slick!

Actually, funny enough, in 2016 I wrote a blog article about how to make a reusable content block (basically a global block) in X Theme, long before the feature was actually implemented. Now that I think about it, I think one of your product developers called me about it once.

Here’s the post if you’re curious about it. Not sure it actually works anymore, nor would it be advisable!

[marc_a]

Hi @brianjohnsondesign,

We’re glad that you’re able to figure it out! If you have any other concerns or clarifications regarding our theme features, feel free to open up a new thread.

Thank you.