Description

Sourcerer enables you to place PHP and any kind of HTML style code (including CSS and JavaScript) right in to your content! Not only in your articles, but also in sections, categories, modules, components, META tags, etc.

You can now just place your original codes right into your WYSIWYG editor. The only thing you have to do is surround the code with the Sourcerer tags. Easy peasy!

So now you can also use PHP scripts in your content. That opens up a great deal of possibilities.

Most Joomla! Text Editors will strip parts of your HTML code, like JavaScripts (think of statistics scripts) and movie embed tags. With Sourcerer you won't have these limitations.

Easy to use editor button

Sourcerer comes with a very easy to use editor button. This will help you paste your code in a clean format that will not cause any problems. Also it can give some colors to different types of code.

Syntax

Sourcerer can read the code you place in your editor. Your editor will add html to the code when you have enters or give code colors and styling. But Sourcerer will strip those (hidden) html tags, so it will not be a problem.

Tags get stripped? Use double bracket syntax

Some editors (i.e. TinyMCE) will strip html style tags when you enter them in the WYSIWYG view. For that reason you can also use double square brackets for the HTML style tags. So if your tags get stripped, use the double bracket syntax.

For instance, instead of doing this:

{source}<strong>Text</strong>{/source}

Use this syntax:

{source}[[strong]]Text[[/strong]]{/source}

The editor button will help you convert code to double bracket syntax (or back to normal tags).

Using html entities

When you want to use html entities in your code, you will notice that most editors will convert them to actual characters when saving.

You can prevent that from happening by using an underscore to escape it, like:

{source}Dani&_euml;lle{/source}

This works from version 2.0.1

Not using a WYSIWYG editor?

Sourcerer is designed to be used with a WYSIWYG editor. It will strip all tags in the html of the content, to prevent styling from messing with the code.

When you do not use a WYSIWYG editor, practically all code will be stripped, which you don't want off course.

To disable Sourcerer from stripping the html code, you can use the '0' parameter imn the {source} tag, like:

{source 0}code in a html editor{/source}

Examples

Note: The default Sourcerer syntax tags {source}...{/source} will be used in these examples. The Sourcerer plugin gives you the possibility to change these to whatever you want. So you could - for instance - use shorter syntax tags like {s}...{/s}.

{source}your code{/source}

{source}<span style="color:red">This text should be red!</span>{/source}

<span style="color: red">This text should be red!</span>

{source}[[span style="color:red"]]This text should be red![[/span]]{/source}

<span style="color: red">This text should be red!</span>

{source}
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('This text is placed through <b>JavaScript</b>!');
//-->
</script>
{/source}

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('This text is placed through <b>JavaScript</b>!');
//-->
</script>

{source}
<?php
echo 'This text is placed through <b>PHP</b>!';
?>
{/source}

This text is placed through <b>PHP</b>!

{source}

<span style="color:red">This text should be red!</span>
<br />

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('This text is placed through <b>JavaScript</b>!');
//-->
</script>

<?php
echo '<p>';
echo 'This text is placed through <b>PHP</b>!';
echo '</p>';
?>

{/source}

<span style="color:red">This text should be red!</span>
<br />

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.write('This text is placed through <b>JavaScript</b>!');
//-->
</script>

<p>This text is placed through <b>PHP</b>!</p>

{source}
<?php
echo 'Oops, forgot to close the print_r function!';
print_r( $myvar;
?>
{/source}

<!-- Comment - Sourcerer: The PHP code has been removed, because it contains errors. (Log in as (Super) Administrator to show the PHP Debugging.) -->

Screenshots

Sourcerer editor button

Sourcerer plugin setting: editor button

Sourcerer plugin setting: system plugin

Troubleshooting

Please use the forum for support.

Can't get your codes to work? Please try the below suggestions:

Sourcerer does not work. I still see the source tags in the frontend.

• The Sourcerer plugin is not published.
  Check if the Sourcerer plugin is published. Go to Extensions >> Plugin manager and search for the system plugin "System - Sourcerer". Then publish it.
• There is markup code in the Sourcerer syntax tags.
  Sourcerer has no problem with markup codes between the {source} tags. However, the {source} tags themselves will have to be free from markup. So this will make the {source} block from working:
  

  <span>{</span>source}

Code is stripped when I save the article (like JavaScript and PHP).

• Some editors remove tags you enter in the editor (even if not in html view).
  To prevent tags from being stripped, use the double bracket syntax. So instead of <tag>, do [[tag]].
  Some editors (like JCE) allow you to enter tags in the WYSIWYG view.

Code is stripped on the frontend. (In the editor the code is all there)

• The security level prevents the use of Sourcerer.
  You can set certain security settings in the Sourcerer plugin. This way you can prevent certain user group levels and certain content types to not allow the use of Sourcerer. Please look in the html output source of you site to see if you have a Sourcerer comment that tells you this is the case.
• If you use JavaScript or PHP in the tags...
  Please see below for more answers.

JavaScript is not working.

• You have forgotten the script open- and close-tags.
  JavaScript should be placed inside the script tags:
  

  <script type="text/javascript">...</script>

  
  Or for double bracket syntax:
  

  [[script type="text/javascript"]]...[[/script]]

• The security level prevents the use of JavaScript.
  You can set certain security settings in the Sourcerer plugin. This way you can prevent certain user group levels and certain content types to not allow the use of JavaScript. Please look in the html output source of you site to see if you have a Sourcerer comment that tells you this is the case.

PHP is not working.

• You have forgotten the PHP open- and closetags.
  PHP should be placed inside the PHP tags:
  

  <?php .. ?>

  
  Or for double bracket syntax:
  

  [[?php ... ?]]

• The security level prevents the use of PHP.
  You can set certain security settings in the Sourcerer plugin. This way you can prevent certain user group levels and certain content types to not allow the use of PHP. Please look in the html output source of you site to see if you have a Sourcerer comment that tells you this is the case.
• There are errors in your PHP code.
  Sourcerer will not execute your PHP code if it has errors. You can check if you have errors by looking in the html output source of you site to see if you have a Sourcerer comment that tells you this is the case.
  You can also set the PHP debugging option on (in the Sourcerer plugin) to see a report of where the error is.
  You can only see the PHP debugging report if you are logged in as (Super) Administrator in the frontend.

Haven't found the answer you were looking for?

Please use the forum for support.

Upgrading to v2

If you are upgrading, you do not have to uninstall the old version. The install package will automatically update Sourcerer to the new version.
If you do uninstall the old version, you will lose all your settings.

Sourcerer 2 is pretty different to version 1. A lot of things have changed that effect the way it works. So if you have been using Sourcerer 1, please take note of these changes.

No more Sourcerer Module

In the Sourcerer 1 you had a special module that could handle the source tags. The new version doesn't need that module and can handle the source tags in any module, and anywhere else in your site for that matter.
When you install Sourcerer 2, all the Sourcerer Modules will be converted to normal Custom HTML modules.

The Sourcerer Module also had a support for a {module} tag to include other modules. With the removal of the Sourcerer Module, that ability is gone too... but...

To get that same functionality back, you can use Modules Anywhere.

No more problems with hidden html code

The Sourcerer forum is filled with people having trouble getting their codes to work (in Sourcerer 1). Usually the problem was due to coping and pasting code, which results in all sorts of markup code messing stuff up.

Sourcerer 2 has no problem with these markup codes between the {source} tags. However, the {source} tags themselves will still have to be free from markup. So this will make the {source} block from working:

<span>{</span>source}

But this is no problem:

<span>{source}</span>

Other changes

Please read the rest of the information to see how version 2 works. So please read Syntax and the Changelog for more information.