Coding a Basic Shortcodes WordPress Plugin Boilerplate

• Shortcodes in functions.php
• Shortcodes in a Custom plugin (Recommended)

 Shortcodes in functions.php#

In a WordPress install, there is a folder wp-content which contains both the plugins & themes folders. If you browse the path wp-content/themes/YourActivatedThemeDirectory/ you can always find a functions.php file here. Yes! in the root of your activated theme’s folder. One can easily put the code for shortcodes in this functions.php file to create a shortcode. I wrote about this method in coding your very first shortcode in WordPres.

Problem?

The problem with this method is that whenever you change your theme you end up loosing all the shortcodes. Solution to which is hunting down all the shortcodes in old theme’s functions.php file and then re-adding them to the new theme’s functions.php file. Even a beginner can sense something fishy here.

Shortcodes in a Custom Plugin#

When you create shortcodes in the form of a WordPress plugin, you never ever have to worry about them. Even when you change your theme, the plugin keeps on working, flawlessly. This is the right way of doing it.

So, if you are a freelancer/WordPress developer, then the very next time your client ask you to add some shortcodes in his project, do it through a plugin. I am starting a very basic plugin for shortcodes which I will keep updating to create a full-fledged boilerplate for shortcode plugins in WordPress. But for now, it only allows you to understand the basics of creating a plugin and then using standard, organized and modular approach to executing your needs.

Themes are used for presentation while plugins are responsible for the functionality relevant features in WordPress projects. Whenever you are building something in WordPress, think it through. Decide what is a presentation and what is functionality. Then decide what should and shouldn’t be there in theme’s functions.php file.

Coding a Basic Shortcodes Plugin Boilerplate#

We are going to code a basic shortcodes plugin which will have a base plugin file and shortcodes’ module files in it. Before I start, let me tell you that the base file in a WordPress plugin acts similar to functions.php in your theme. This base file can have a custom name. It can execute functions in WordPress just like the functions.php file of a theme. So, the code of shortcodes is not going to be changed. It will be similar to what I wrote about in code your first shortcode in WordPress tutorial, this tutorial is more about where to add this code and how to add it.

Fork at Github

Plugin Files/Folders Hierarchy#

The structure of our basic plugin is as follows

Registering the Plugin#

First of all, for WordPress to recognize your plugin, you need to populate the header of your base plugin file with few lines of a PHP comment. Let’s see what are these lines

	<?php
	/**
	* The plugin bootstrap file.
	*
	* @link http://ahmadawais.com/coding-a-basic-shortcodes-plugin-boilerplate/
	* @since 1.0.0
	* @package aa_basic_shortcodes
	*
	* @wordpress-plugin
	* Plugin Name: AA Basic Shortcodes Plugin Boilerplate
	* Plugin URI: http://ahmadawais.com/coding-a-basic-shortcodes-plugin-boilerplate/
	* Description: Coding shortcodes in a plugin with maintainable code practices.
	* Version: 1.0.0
	* Author: Ahmad Awais
	* Author URI: http://ahmadawais.com/
	* License: GPL-2.0+
	* License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
	* Text Domain: aa_basic_shortcodes
	* Domain Path: /languages
	*/

view raw gistfile1.php hosted with by GitHub

Requiring the Shortcode Modules#

Then I added few lines of code to ensure no one calls this PHP file directly. Then comes the code where I required the shortcode modules in the shortcode folder.

Shortcode Modules#

I have added three basic shortcode modules.

• Link shortcode [aa_me]
• Adsense ad shortcode [adsense]
• Members only shortcode [member][/member]

In each of these shortcode modules, we have shortcode functions and their registering actions. Pretty simple, but modular.

Link Shortcode#

[aa_me]

	<?php
	/**
	*
	* About me shortcode.
	*
	* Wrtie [aa_me] in your post editor to render this shortcode.
	*
	* @package aa_basic_shortcodes
	* @since 1.0.0
	*/
	function aa_me_shortcode($atts) {
	return ' <a href="/about/">About me</a> ';
	}
	add_shortcode('aa_me','aa_me_shortcode');
	?>

view raw gistfile1.php hosted with by GitHub

Adsense Ad Shortcode#

[adsense]

	<?php
	/**
	* Adsense ad shortcode.
	*
	* Wrtie [adsense] in your post editor to render this shortcode.
	*
	* @package aa_basic_shortcodes
	* @since 1.0.0
	*/
	function aa_adsense_shortcode() {
	return '<script type="text/javascript"><!--
	google_ad_client = "pub-********";
	google_ad_slot = "********";
	google_ad_width = 468;
	google_ad_height = 60;
	//-->
	</script>
	<script type="text/javascript"
	src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
	</script>
	';
	}
	add_shortcode('adsense', 'aa_adsense_shortcode');
	?>

view raw gistfile1.php hosted with by GitHub

Members Only Shortcode#

[member][/member]

	<?php
	/**
	* Only login users can read the text shortcode.
	*
	* E.g. [member]This content is hiddent from users who are not logged in[/member].
	*
	*
	* @package aa_basic_shortcodes
	* @since 1.0.0
	*/
	function aa_login_users_only_shortcode( $atts, $content = null ) {
	if ( is_user_logged_in() && !is_feed() && !is_null( $content ) )
	return $content;
	return '';
	}
	add_shortcode( 'member', 'aa_login_users_only_shortcode' );
	?>

view raw functions.php hosted with by GitHub

I hope you people get the idea of how to organize and code a standard shortcode plugin in WordPress. In future, I’ll try to improve this boilerplate to OOP code for industrial level shortcodes.

It Your Turn?#

Did you enjoy the maintainable standard WordPress plugin code with documentation? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Pull requests and issues are most welcomed at the GitHub’s repository.

Fork at Github