ExpressionEngine Docs

Typography Class

Calling the Typography Class

class Typography

The Typography class is used in ExpressionEngine to parse type, providing tools for automatic XHTML, auto line-breaking, email encoding, word censoring, decoding BBCode, syntax highlighting, and gateway access to formatting plugins.

To use the these features in your modules, you need to first instantiate the Typography Class:

ee()->load->library('typography');
ee()->typography->initialize();

Note that after loading the Typography library you need to initialize it with ee()->load->typography->initialize(); or you will be inheriting the class properties of whatever code last used it.

Typography Class Properties

The Typography class has a number of class properties that you may wish to set before calling any methods. Below is a description of available class properties and their default values (in bold).

$allow_img_url

(string) [ y / n ] — Allow inline images?

$allow_js_img_anchors

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Whether to allow JavaScript submitted (within <a href> and <img> tags

$auto_links

(string) [ y / n ] — Auto-link URLs and email addresses? (Note that auto-linking does not ever occur if $html_format is “none”)

$bounce

(string) — Used to construct redirect links, to prevent control panel URLs from showing up in referrer logs, and on the front-end for rank denial. This property is set dynamically based on site preferences and is not necessary to set directly.

$censored_replace

(string) — String that censored words are replaced with, taken from site preferences.

$censored_words

(array) — Array of words to be censored, taken from site preferences.

$code_chunks

(array) — Array of temporary markers and content used to prevent formatting from being applied to syntax highlighted code.

$code_counter

(int) — Used as keys of the $code_chunks array, to keep the temporary markers organized.

$convert_curly

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Convert curly brackets ( “{“ and “}”) into entities?

$emoticon_path

(string) — The preference setting for the URL path to the site’s emoticons. This property is set dynamically based on site preferences and is not necessary to set directly.

$encode_email

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Whether or not email addresses are encoded.

$encode_type

(string) [ javascript / noscript ] — Type of encoding applied to email addresses if email address encoding is enabled. "noscript" renders in a human readable format (e.g. “name at example dot com)”, suitable for use where JavaScript is inappropriate, such as in a feed.

$file_paths

(array) — Array of file upload directories in key (ids) => value (urls) pairs.

$highlight_code

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Perform PHP syntax highlighting on [pre] and [code] blocks?

$html_fmt_types

(array) [ array(‘safe’, ‘all’, ‘none’) ] — Array of standard HTML handling types available to the Typography class.

$html_format

(string) [ safe / all / none ] — Controls how HTML is handled in text.

$parse_images

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Whether or not {file:XX:url} and {filedir_#} variables are to be parsed.

$parse_smileys

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Replace text smileys with smiley images?

$popup_links

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Create links as popups?

$single_line_pgfs

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Whether to treat single lines as paragraphs in auto-XHTML

$smiley_array

(mixed) [ FALSE ] — If emoticons are enabled for the site, this property will contain an array of smiley conversions in key (smiley) => value (image) pairs. If emoticons are not enabled, this will be set to FALSE.

$text_fmt_plugins

(array) — Array of available installed plugins.

$text_fmt_types

(array) [ array(‘xhtml’, ‘br’, ‘none’, ‘lite’) ] — Array of standard formatting types available to the Typography class.

$text_format

(string) [ xhtml / br / none / lite ] — Controls what formatting is applied to text.

$use_span_tags

(bool) [ TRUE / FALSE ] — Use <span> tags for font color and size BBCode? Setting to FALSE uses <font> tags.

$word_censor

(bool) [ FALSE ] — Whether or not word censoring is applied. This property is set dynamically based on site preferences and is not necessary to set directly.

$yes_no_syntax

(array) [ array(‘y’, ‘n’) ] — Array of valid Yes / No strings for use in properties. Used to ensure that valid settings are being provided for a Yes / No type preference.

Parsing Type

parse_type($str[, $prefs = ''])

Parameter Type Description
$str String String to parse
$prefs Array Associative array containing parsing preferences (see below)
Returns String Parsed string

This method returns a string of parsed type. It is the most common use of the Typography class, and many of the individual methods also described in this document are used within the parse_type() method. The format the string is returned in is determined by both the class properties and the array of properties provided in the second argument.:

$str = ee()->typography->parse_type($str);

You may override class properties directly in the $prefs array for the following:

$prefs = array(
    'text_format'   => 'xhtml',
    'html_format'   => 'all',
    'auto_links'    => 'y',
    'allow_img_url' => 'y'
);

$str = ee()->typography->parse_type($str, $prefs);

Using a Plugin for Text Formatting

Any installed formatting plugin may be used to parse type. Simply use the class name of the plugin, in lowercase letters:

$str = ee()->typography->parse_type($str, array('text_format' => 'markdown'));

If you attempt to use a plugin that is not installed, no text formatting will be performed. It may be wise to check for the existence of plugins before using them, so if they are not installed, you can fall back on one of the native formatting types:

$text_format = (in_array('markdown', ee()->typography->text_fmt_plugins)) ? 'markdown' : 'xhtml';
$str = ee()->typography->parse_type($str, array('text_format' => $text_format));

Encode Email Addresses

encode_email($email[, $title = ''[, $anchor = TRUE]])

Parameter Type Description
$email String Email address
$title String Text to use as the title of the link
$anchor Boolean Whether to create a clickable link or not
Returns String Encoded email address

This method encodes email addresses with Javascript, to assist in prevention of email harvesting by bots.:

$str = "brett.bretterson@example.com";
$str = ee()->typography->encode_email($str, "Email Brett Bretterson");

If you want to return a human readable “encoded” email address instead, you can also set the Typography::$encode_type class property to "noscript".

Auto (XHTML) Typography

auto_typography($str[, $reduce_linebreaks = FALSE])

Parameter Type Description
$str String Text to apply XHTML typography to
$reduce_linebreaks Boolean Set to TRUE to reduce more than two consecutive newlines to two
Returns String Formatted and cleaned text

This method takes a string of text and returns typographically correct XHTML:

$str = ee()->typography->auto_typography($str);

Its primary modifications are:

Formatting Characters for XHTML (“Light” Typography)

format_characters($str)

Parameter Type Description
$str String Text to apply character formatting to
Returns String Character formatted text

This method performs the character transformation portion of the XHTML typography only, i.e. curly quotes, ellipsis, ampersand, etc.:

$str = ee()->typography->format_characters($str);

Markdown

markdown($str[, $options = array()])

Parameter Type Description
$str String String to parse
$options Array Associative array containing options:
- encode_ee_tags (yes/no) can be used to disable ee tag encoding
- smartypants (yes/no) enable or disable smartypants
Returns String Parsed Markdown content

This method lets you parse your content using Markdown and Smartypants:

$str = ee()->typography->markdown($str);