Can environment variables be access from OJS?

Start by creating the website project, setting TEST_VAR in _environment, and rendering index.qmd with the OJS examples. Compare the working Markdown, knitr, and vanilla JavaScript cases with the OJS and import.ts cases; done means the environment value is available as a string in OJS contexts.

Bug description

I've found I can use the env shortcode to access environment variables defined in _environment in lots of places, like static Markdown, vanilla JavaScript, and rendered code cells.

But it seems like the shortcode won't work in OJS. Any method I could think of quoting the shortcode leads to it not being interpolated, and interpolating it without quotes means it ends up as a bare symbol rather than a string. A knitr R chunk and a vanilla JavaScript block inside raw HTML both worked successfully. (I also tried @cscheid's trick of importing a TypeScript file, but I also had no luck there.)

(Note that I've attached a PDF printout of the page, but I get the same result in the browser itself — this isn't being introduced by the printout.)

Steps to reproduce

quarto create project (website), then:

_environment:

TEST_VAR=hello world

import.ts:

export const imported_var = `{{< env TEST_VAR >}}`

index.qmd:

---
title: "OJS Shortcode Test"
engine: knitr
---

My `TEST_VAR` works fine in static Markdown: {{< env TEST_VAR >}}

What about in a rendered code cell? Yup! (At least in knitr with R):

```{r}
print("{{< env TEST_VAR >}}")
```

And in vanilla JavaScript when wrapped in quotes (check the console to see it):

```{=html}
<script>
  const test_var_js = "{{< env TEST_VAR >}}"
  console.log("TEST_VAR IS:", test_var_js)
</script>
```

```{ojs}
md`But not in OJS! Here it is, interpolated into Markdown inside OJS: {{< env TEST_VAR >}}`
```

And again, inside an OJS braced function. This first example interpolates as expected, but of course we can't return a literal symbol, leading to an error:

```{ojs}
{
  return {{< env TEST_VAR >}}
}
```

Wrapping in quotes, however, fails to interpolate:

```{ojs}
{
  return "{{< env TEST_VAR >}}"
}
```

What about backticks?

```{ojs}
{
  return `{{< env TEST_VAR >}}`
}
```

Or an expression inside Markdown?

```{ojs}
{
  return md`${ {{< env TEST_VAR >}} }`
}
```

Again, interpolating, but no longer works because we now no longer have a quoted string.

Here's one final shot, short of just embedding the var in a `<meta>` tag in the page header — let's take advantage of [importing from a TypeScript file](https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/discussions/11371#discussioncomment-11246537):


```{ojs}
import { imported_var } from "./import.ts"

imported_var
```

Alas, no.

For good measure, here's trying to use it with the unified inline syntax: `{ojs} {{< env TEST_VAR >}} }`

[OJS Shortcode Test.pdf](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/20156350/OJS.Shortcode.Test.pdf)

Actual behavior

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Your environment

• OS: MacOS 15.4.1
• VSCode 1.100.0

Quarto check output

Quarto 99.9.9
[✓] Checking environment information...
      Quarto cache location: /Users/jimjamslam/Library/Caches/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.6.3: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.85.1: OK
      Deno version 1.46.3: OK
      Typst version 0.13.0: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 99.9.9
      commit: 6202430787bc0787b97c19026cb96aa4e8a3ea19
      Path: /Users/jimjamslam/code/tools/quarto-cli/package/dist/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: (not installed)
      Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Tex:  (not detected)

[✓] Checking Chrome Headless....................OK
      Using: Chrome found on system
      Path: /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome
      Source: MacOS known location

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.13.3
      Path: /opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.13/bin/python3.13
      Jupyter: (None)

      Jupyter is not available in this Python installation.
      Install with python3 -m pip install jupyter

[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.4.1
      Path: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.4-arm64/Resources
      LibPaths:
        - /Users/jimjamslam/Library/R/arm64/4.4/library
        - /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.4-arm64/Resources/library
      knitr: 1.49
      rmarkdown: 2.29

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK