Shortcodes (or an alternative) in front matter

support
1

My site has multiple archetypes, including “events” and “ingredients”.

The front matter of an “ingredient” has some variables and looks like this:

---

draft: false

name: "apple A"
category: "fruit"
color: "red"

---

The front matter of an “event” is more complex and looks like this:

---

draft: true

details:
  - specials:
      recipes:
        - recipe:
            company: "Foodtruck ABC"
            chef: "John"
            name: "Pancake"
            short_description: "The winning pancake with [[apple a]]!"
        - recipe:
            company: "Foodtruck XYZ"
            chef: "Sarah"
            name: "Cupcake"
            short_description: "Best cupcakes with [[apple a]], [[mango]] and [[chocolate]]"
---

Each word in details.specials.recipes.recipe.short_description that starts with specific characters [[ and ends with ]] reflects the name variable of an “ingredient” post.

In the front-end, this should result in the following HTML. Please note the:

  1. working hyperlink to the related “ingredient” (“apple a” in this example)
  2. values “fruit” and “red” from the page variable category and color.
<div>
  <h1>Pancake</h1>
  <div>by John</div>
  <div>The winning pancake with <a href="https://site.com/ingredients/apple-a"><div>category: fruit</div><div>color: red</div>apple a</a>!</div>
</div>

<div>
  <h1>Cupcake</h1>
  <div>by Sarah</div>
  <div>Best cupcakes with <a href="https://site.com/ingredients/apple-a"><div>category: fruit</div><div>color: red</div>apple a</a>, <a href="https://site.com/ingredients/mango"><div>category: fruit</div><div>color: green</div>mango</a> and <a href="https://site.com/ingredients/chocolate"><div>category: snacks</div><div>color: brown</div>chocolate</a>!</div>
</div>

In many topics I’ve read that it is not possible to use shortcodes in front matter, so that is why I try to achieve this with special characters like [[ and ]]. Is this possible?

2

You can use the short_description in your template with the usual string functions like findRE, substr, ìnandreplace`. Does that help?

However, it is not clear what you want to achieve in the 2nd case with three parameters in the short_description. Generate three links?

3

Thank you @chrillek for your reaction.

However, it is not clear what you want to achieve in the 2nd case with three parameters in the short_description . Generate three links?

Yes, that is correct! I’ve updated the last codeblock as an example my first post accordingly.

4

You can also split your content into main content and short description. Then you can use the shortcodes.