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Ability to embed HTML / data using a shortcode #5452
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Originally created by @thestepafter on GitHub (Oct 10, 2025).
Describe the feature you'd like
Hello everyone!
I'm currently evaluating wiki's for the ability to add a "shortcode" (e.g., [embed src="$apiEndpoint" fields="productName, productPrice"] similar to WordPress.
Adding this shortcode would make a call to the API endpoint and display the response (raw text or HTML) in the BookStack document when it is viewed. It would be great if this could be done as a custom button in the WYSIWYG editor or by adding the shortcode when editing the document in text only mode.
I assume this would require writing the functionality for the API call and parsing the shortcode in Laravel, I'm just curious if it's already been attempted or how difficult it would be. You would have to hook into the rendering of the document and parse the shortcode accordingly.
Describe the benefits this would bring to existing BookStack users
This would allow BookStack users to embed data from databases, APIs, and other systems.
Can the goal of this request already be achieved via other means?
I'm not sure.
Have you searched for an existing open/closed issue?
How long have you been using BookStack?
Over 5 years
Additional context
No response
@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Oct 11, 2025):
Hi @thestepafter,
Thanks for the request.
This generally wouldn't be the kind of thing Id' look to add specific support for, especially as the scope is fairly wide and there's little desire for it, but I can think of a couple of methods for this kind of thing using existing options in current versions of BookStack:
Page includes with the logical theme system
BookStack supports specific include tags to fetch in content from other pages:
https://www.bookstackapp.com/docs/user/reusing-page-content/#include-tags
We also have the logical theme system to run custom PHP code on certain events:
https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack/blob/development/dev/docs/logical-theme-system.md
One of the events you can listen to is page include tag parsing/rendering:
0838d5ea16/app/Theming/ThemeEvents.php (L103-L116)You could make use of this to listen to page includes with a certain syntax/code, then run your desired logic to run any custom action/code you want, and return whatever HTML you want to include.
You could even call external systems via PHP with this, although I'd advise at having some kind of caching logic to prevent each page load causing external requests and delays.
As an example, the following hack uses some of the above mentioned systems/events:
https://www.bookstackapp.com/hacks/page-include-tag-value/
REST API
You could update pages as required via scripts, potentially automated, using the BookStack REST API. You could look for certain syntax and then update stored pages with the content you which to include.
This may take a little more extra external parsing, and requires thought in how content is tracked/marked to the "tags"/configuration for future updates.