Google Maps shortcode: fix %26 in place names causing 400 errorsFix: Google Maps shortcode fails when place name includes &

[matticbot]

Fixes TSTAISB-11

Proposed changes

• Fix [googlemaps] shortcode failing with a 400 error when a place name contains &.

Root cause: When the shortcode is processed, parse_str() URL-decodes %26 to a bare &. The previous code used esc_attr() to rebuild query parameters, which HTML-encodes & as &. When a browser fetches the iframe src, it HTML-decodes & back to &, which Google's API interprets as a query-parameter separator rather than part of the place name — resulting in a 400 error.

Fix: Replace esc_attr() in the URL reconstruction loop with rawurlencode() on the value. This re-encodes & as %26 (proper URL encoding). The esc_url() call at the end still handles HTML-safety for the src attribute.

Related product discussion/links

• Linear: TSTAISB-11

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

No.

Testing instructions

1. Go to Google Maps and copy the embed code for a location with & in the name (e.g. "The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa").
2. Paste the <iframe> into a WordPress post (Block Editor).
3. WordPress converts it to a [googlemaps ...] shortcode.
4. Publish/preview — the map should render correctly (no 400 error).

Before: The embed fails with a 400 error because & in the place name value is decoded by the browser to &, which Google treats as a query-parameter separator.

After: The embed renders correctly because %26 is preserved in the URL, and Google decodes it server-side to & as part of the place name.

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