How-to

In Hungred Dot Com, we have been having problem with text formatting in WordPress for all our codes due to WordPress smart quotes functionality. Most of us who write code for the public usually uses those smart plugin such as 'SyntaxHighlighter Evolved' to present it nicely to our users. The problem with using external plugins such as this is that WordPress smart quotes doesn't see the tag for the plugin in this case,

,
as one of excluding formatting tag. Tag such as 'pre', 'code', 'kbd', 'style', 'script', 'tt' are excluded from smart quotes which you can personally view it on the source code of WordPress located at wp-includes/formatting.php. Hence, your WordPress codes article will not be showing '"' instead of the normal '"' symbol. However, there are ways to solve such problem and here we will present them to you to eliminate all these trouble once and for all!

Include Tag In WordPress Text Formatting Function

One way to solve this problem is to add the plugin tag into the core function wptexturize which locate at wp-includes/formatting.php. In that file you will notice the following function,

/**
 * Replaces common plain text characters into formatted entities
 *
 * As an example,
 * <code>
 * 'cause today's effort makes it worth tomorrow's "holiday"...
 * </code>
 * Becomes:
 * <code>
 * ’cause today’s effort makes it worth tomorrow’s “holiday”…
 * </code>
 * Code within certain html blocks are skipped.
 *
 * @since 0.71
 * @uses $wp_cockneyreplace Array of formatted entities for certain common phrases
 *
 * @param string $text The text to be formatted
 * @return string The string replaced with html entities
 */
function wptexturize($text) {
	global $wp_cockneyreplace;
	$output = '';
	$curl = '';
	$textarr = preg_split('/(<.*>|\[.*\])/Us', $text, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
	$stop = count($textarr);
	
	/* translators: opening curly quote */
	$opening_quote = _x('“', 'opening curly quote');
	/* translators: closing curly quote */
	$closing_quote = _x('”', 'closing curly quote');
	
	$no_texturize_tags = apply_filters('no_texturize_tags', array('pre', 'code', 'kbd', 'style', 'script', 'tt'));
	$no_texturize_shortcodes = apply_filters('no_texturize_shortcodes', array('code'));
	$no_texturize_tags_stack = array();
	$no_texturize_shortcodes_stack = array();

	// if a plugin has provided an autocorrect array, use it
	if ( isset($wp_cockneyreplace) ) {
		$cockney = array_keys($wp_cockneyreplace);
		$cockneyreplace = array_values($wp_cockneyreplace);
	} else {
		$cockney = array("'tain't","'twere","'twas","'tis","'twill","'til","'bout","'nuff","'round","'cause");
		$cockneyreplace = array("’tain’t","’twere","’twas","’tis","’twill","’til","’bout","’nuff","’round","’cause");
	}

	$static_characters = array_merge(array('---', ' -- ', '--', ' - ', 'xn–', '...', '``', '\'s', '\'\'', ' (tm)'), $cockney);
	$static_replacements = array_merge(array('—', ' — ', '–', ' – ', 'xn--', '…', $opening_quote, '’s', $closing_quote, ' ™'), $cockneyreplace);

	$dynamic_characters = array('/\'(\d\d(?:’|\')?s)/', '/(\s|\A|")\'/', '/(\d+)"/', '/(\d+)\'/', '/(\S)\'([^\'\s])/', '/(\s|\A)"(?!\s)/', '/"(\s|\S|\Z)/', '/\'([\s.]|\Z)/', '/(\d+)x(\d+)/');
	$dynamic_replacements = array('’$1','$1‘', '$1″', '$1′', '$1’$2', '$1' . $opening_quote . '$2', $closing_quote . '$1', '’$1', '$1×$2');

	for ( $i = 0; $i < $stop; $i++ ) {
		$curl = $textarr[$i];

		if ( !empty($curl) && '<' != $curl{0} && '[' != $curl{0}
				&& empty($no_texturize_shortcodes_stack) && empty($no_texturize_tags_stack)) { // If it's not a tag
			// static strings
			$curl = str_replace($static_characters, $static_replacements, $curl);
			// regular expressions
			$curl = preg_replace($dynamic_characters, $dynamic_replacements, $curl);
		} else {
			wptexturize_pushpop_element($curl, $no_texturize_tags_stack, $no_texturize_tags, '<', '>');
			wptexturize_pushpop_element($curl, $no_texturize_shortcodes_stack, $no_texturize_shortcodes, '[', ']');
		}

		$curl = preg_replace('/&([^#])(?![a-zA-Z1-4]{1,8};)/', '&$1', $curl);
		$output .= $curl;
	}

	return $output;
}

You can add your tag into the function on this link,

$no_texturize_tags = apply_filters('no_texturize_tags', array('pre', 'code', 'kbd', 'style', 'script', 'tt'));

for our example we will add [\php\]

$no_texturize_tags = apply_filters('no_texturize_tags', array('pre', 'code', 'kbd', 'style', 'script', 'tt', ''));

Although this solved your problem but this solution also required you to edit the codes in the WordPress which will be replaced with every new release of WordPress.

Remove WordPress Text Formatting

The most efficient way is to remove the root of the problem! Unless you desperately want WordPress text formatting to be made available, you will want to remove this. Otto42 who is one of the moderator suggested a good way to eliminate such problem. We will add the following two code to remove the function wptexturize in WordPress which perform the formatting in our theme function.php file.

remove_filter('comment_text', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_excerpt', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_content', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_rss_content', 'wptexturize');

This way all your text and code will be safe from formatting on that theme. You can also create a very small plugin that do this by placing the above three links to ANY WordPress plugin (may be you don't even have to create any plugin for this).

Replace WordPress Default Text Formatting

For those who want WordPress smart quote to be enabled but doesn't want it to format your codes, you can try to replace the function wptexturize. You can do this on your theme or any plugin available for you. Basically, you can remove the default function wptexturize through the following code,

remove_filter('comment_text', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_excerpt', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_content', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_rss_content', 'wptexturize');

After that on the same page, you can copy the following code and add the action hook for your new wptexturize solution that cater to your personal need.

function my_wptexturize($text) {
	global $wp_cockneyreplace;
	$output = '';
	$curl = '';
	$textarr = preg_split('/(<.*>|\[.*\])/Us', $text, -1, PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
	$stop = count($textarr);
	
	/* translators: opening curly quote */
	$opening_quote = _x('“', 'opening curly quote');
	/* translators: closing curly quote */
	$closing_quote = _x('”', 'closing curly quote');
	
	$no_texturize_tags = apply_filters('no_texturize_tags', array('pre', 'code', 'kbd', 'style', 'script', 'tt', ''));
	$no_texturize_shortcodes = apply_filters('no_texturize_shortcodes', array('code'));
	$no_texturize_tags_stack = array();
	$no_texturize_shortcodes_stack = array();

	// if a plugin has provided an autocorrect array, use it
	if ( isset($wp_cockneyreplace) ) {
		$cockney = array_keys($wp_cockneyreplace);
		$cockneyreplace = array_values($wp_cockneyreplace);
	} else {
		$cockney = array("'tain't","'twere","'twas","'tis","'twill","'til","'bout","'nuff","'round","'cause");
		$cockneyreplace = array("’tain’t","’twere","’twas","’tis","’twill","’til","’bout","’nuff","’round","’cause");
	}

	$static_characters = array_merge(array('---', ' -- ', '--', ' - ', 'xn–', '...', '``', '\'s', '\'\'', ' (tm)'), $cockney);
	$static_replacements = array_merge(array('—', ' — ', '–', ' – ', 'xn--', '…', $opening_quote, '’s', $closing_quote, ' ™'), $cockneyreplace);

	$dynamic_characters = array('/\'(\d\d(?:’|\')?s)/', '/(\s|\A|")\'/', '/(\d+)"/', '/(\d+)\'/', '/(\S)\'([^\'\s])/', '/(\s|\A)"(?!\s)/', '/"(\s|\S|\Z)/', '/\'([\s.]|\Z)/', '/(\d+)x(\d+)/');
	$dynamic_replacements = array('’$1','$1‘', '$1″', '$1′', '$1’$2', '$1' . $opening_quote . '$2', $closing_quote . '$1', '’$1', '$1×$2');

	for ( $i = 0; $i < $stop; $i++ ) {
		$curl = $textarr[$i];

		if ( !empty($curl) && '<' != $curl{0} && '[' != $curl{0}
				&& empty($no_texturize_shortcodes_stack) && empty($no_texturize_tags_stack)) { // If it's not a tag
			// static strings
			$curl = str_replace($static_characters, $static_replacements, $curl);
			// regular expressions
			$curl = preg_replace($dynamic_characters, $dynamic_replacements, $curl);
		} else {
			wptexturize_pushpop_element($curl, $no_texturize_tags_stack, $no_texturize_tags, '<', '>');
			wptexturize_pushpop_element($curl, $no_texturize_shortcodes_stack, $no_texturize_shortcodes, '[', ']');
		}

		$curl = preg_replace('/&([^#])(?![a-zA-Z1-4]{1,8};)/', '&$1', $curl);
		$output .= $curl;
	}

	return $output;
}
remove_filter('comment_text', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_excerpt', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_content', 'wptexturize');
remove_filter('the_rss_content', 'wptexturize');

add_filter('comment_text', 'my_wptexturize');
add_filter('the_excerpt', 'my_wptexturize');
add_filter('the_content', 'my_wptexturize');
add_filter('the_rss_content', 'my_wptexturize');

This way you will solved your problem of code being wrongly formatted and at the meantime have the capability of smart quote. The only fall back of this method is that you might need to maintain this code in the future if WordPress ever update this function so that you will always have the latest version of smart quote.

Article Formatted Solution

If your post have many articles and you haven't had this problem solved at the beginning, your visitors will still be seeing formatted code in your article and might just drive your visitors away! Hence, you might want to consider reversing the function of wptexturize to return the format for you. You can do this by adding the reversed version of wptexturize and placed in on either a plugin or your theme.

We used hungred smart quotes to solve our issue on the above mention matters.

Summary

Smart quote in WordPress can be annoying and troublesome. Nonetheless, it also benefits those who truly wanted such function built within WordPress as it might just destroy your layout due to the unencoded tag by other writers. Hence, for those who are troubled by this, hopefully the solutions above help!