Ahmad Awais

NAVIGATE


SHARE


Code Your First Shortcode in WordPress

Ahmad AwaisAhmad Awais

Shortcode API in WordPress is fun. It helps you create small tags to address aΒ chunk of code. All you do is write some [tag] and it returns the HTML/CSS/PHP code which you have saved inside it. Shortcodes can be used both in the Visual & the Text tab of your post/page editor. Let’s build a basic shortcode.Β Building shortcodes is fun.Β AΒ beginner can easily code a shortcode in underΒ one minute. Shortcodes are based upon a philosophy called DRY i.e. Don’t Repeat Yourself. E.g. I link [aboutme] page in my blog posts a lot. Same is the case with [contact] page link. Instead of writing these links each and every time, I have created shortcodes to help me optimize my workflow.

Β Coding a Shortcode in WordPress#

The algorithm of using shortcode API in WordPress is quite a simple one. All you have to do is write a function, return something and register a tag, which is then later used to render the shortcode. Let’s take an easy example;

I am going to create a basic shortcode which will help me in linking to my [aboutme] page in form of a shortcode [ aa_me]. So, I registered a function aa_me_shortcode() which is returning some HTML code(the code between return’HTML/CSS_CODE‘;). After that add_shortcode() function is registering [aa_me] against the same aa_me_shortcode() function.

Modify this code, and paste it inside your theme’s functions.php file. At the very end before the closing PHP tag i.e. ?>. Don’t copy the <?php ?> tags from the code.
After saving the file go to the editor and type [aa_me] to render the shortcode. That’s about it. Enjoy building awesome shortcodes.

Two More Shortcodes#

I have coded two more shortcodes for you people. One is for custom placement of Adsense or any other ads code. Other one hides the content inside it from users who are not logged in. Usage examples are given inside the code in a commented form.

Founder & CEO at Langbase.com Β· Ex VP DevRel Rapid Β· Google Developers Advisory Board (gDAB) founding member. πŸ§‘β€πŸ’» AI/ML/DevTools Angel Investor ❯ AI/ML Advisory Board member San Francisco, DevNetwork

🎩 Award-winning Open Source Engineer & Dev Advocate 🦊 Google Developers Expert Web DevRel πŸš€ NASA Mars Ingenuity Helicopter mission code contributor πŸ† 8th GitHub Stars Award recipient with 3x GitHub Stars Award (Listed as GitHub's #1 JavaScript trending developer).

🌳 Node.js foundation Community Committee Outreach Lead, Member Linux Foundation, OpenAPI Business Governing Board, and DigitalOcean Navigator. πŸ“Ÿ Teaching thousands of developers Node.js CLI Automation (100 videos Β· 22 Projects) & VSCode.pro course. Over 142 Million views, 22 yrs Blogging, 56K developers learning, 200+ FOSS.

✌️ Author of various open-source dev-tools and software libraries utilized by millions of developers worldwide ⓦ WordPress Core Developer πŸ“£ TEDx Speaker with 100+ international talks.

✨ As quoted by: Satya Nadella Β· CEO of Microsoft β€” Awais is an awesome example for developers.
πŸ™Œ Leading developers and publishing technical content for over a decade πŸ’œ Loves his wife (Maedah) ❯ Read more about Ahmad Awais.

πŸ‘‹β€¦ Awais is mostly active on Twitter @MrAhmadAwais

πŸ“¨

Developers Takeaway

Stay ahead in the web dev community with Ahmad's expert insights on open-source, developer relations, dev-tools, and side-hustles. Insider-email-only-content. Don't miss out - subscirbe for a dose of professional advice and a dash of humor. No spam, pinky-promise!

✨ 172,438 Developers Already Subscribed
Comments 2
  • Khuldoon Hameed
    Posted on

    Khuldoon Hameed Khuldoon Hameed

    Reply Author

    All your posts are great source of information regarding WordPress, Keep posting and at my end i will implement to learn and improve. Thanks


  • Abhishek Sachan
    Posted on

    Abhishek Sachan Abhishek Sachan

    Reply Author

    You taught me something I was looking for from 6 months. It will help me creating WordPress plugins.
    Thanks Ahmed.