How to allow static blocks in product description?

Question

I'd like to add static blocks like

{{block type="cms/block" block_id="this_is_the_block_id"}}

in the product description (and/or short description).

We currently have an Magento CE 1.9 installation with the "Static Blocks Everywhere" extension (https://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/catalog/product/view/id/13663/) which should be migrated to a Magento CE 2.1 installation. There is no similar Magento 2 extension. Many of our current product desriptions are containing static blocks.

Answer 1

basically, you have to process the description through the Block Filter class.

Lately, I had to do this for Categories to allow widgets, the same should work for block directives (although the directive looks slightly different in Magento2)

{{block id="123"}}

To execute the filter on the description when a category is loaded I added a plugin on the repository get Method and to execute it also when categories are loaded through a colelction I added an observer on the catalog_category_collection_load_after function.

I'll try to translate it to product ;)

First the loading for a single Object:

In your di.xml, define a new Plugin on the ProductRepository:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:ObjectManager/etc/config.xsd">
    <type name="Magento\Catalog\Api\ProductRepositoryInterface">
        <plugin name="filterProductDescription" type="Vendor\Module\Plugin\ProductRepository\FilterProductDescription"/>
    </type>
</config>

Then you need to create the Plugin Class in your module:

<?php
declare(strict_types = 1);
namespace Vendor\Module\Plugin\ProductRepository;

use Magento\Catalog\Api\ProductRepositoryInterface;
use Magento\Catalog\Api\Data\ProductInterface;
use Magento\Catalog\Model\Product;
use Magento\Cms\Model\Template\FilterProvider;

class FilterProductDescription
{
    const ATTR_DESCRIPTION = 'description';
    /**
     * @var FilterProvider
     */
    private $filterProvider;

    public function __construct(
        FilterProvider $filterProvider
    ) {
        $this->filterProvider = $filterProvider;
    }

    /**
     * @param ProductRepositoryInterface $subject
     * @param ProductInterface|Product $product
     * @return ProductInterface
     */
    public function afterGet($subject, ProductInterface $product): ProductInterface
    {
        if (false === $product->hasData(static::ATTR_DESCRIPTION)) {
            return $product;
        }

        $filteredDescription = $this->filterProvider->getBlockFilter()
            ->filter($product->getData(static::ATTR_DESCRIPTION));

        $product->setData(static::ATTR_DESCRIPTION, $filteredDescription);

        return $product;
    }
}

Now to also apply the filter, when a product collection is loaded, you need to add the same logic to the collection.

You can do this by adding an observer in the events.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Event/etc/events.xsd">
    <event name="catalog_product_collection_load_after">
        <observer name="filterProductDescription" instance="Vendor\Module\Observer\ProductCollection\FilterProductDescription" />
    </event>
</config>

and finally implement the observer class:

<?php
declare(strict_types = 1);
namespace Vendor\Module\Observer\ProductCollection;

use Magento\Cms\Model\Template\FilterProvider;
use Magento\Framework\Event\Observer;
use Magento\Framework\Event\ObserverInterface;
use Magento\Catalog\Model\ResourceModel\Product\Collection as ProductCollection;

class FilterProductDescription implements ObserverInterface
{
    const ATTR_DESCRIPTION = 'description';
    /**
     * @var FilterProvider
     */
    private $filterProvider;

    public function __construct(
        FilterProvider $filterProvider
    ) {
        $this->filterProvider = $filterProvider;
    }


    /**
     * @param Observer $observer
     * @return void
     */
    public function execute(Observer $observer)
    {
        /** @var ProductCollection $productCollection */
        $productCollection = $observer->getData('product_collection');

        foreach ($productCollection->getItems() as $product) {
            $filteredDescription = $this->filterProvider->getBlockFilter()
                ->filter($product->getData(static::ATTR_DESCRIPTION));
            $product->setData(static::ATTR_DESCRIPTION, $filteredDescription);
        }
    }
}