As a security precaution, running PHP inside WordPress content is forbidden; to allow dynamic interactions with the content, Shortcodes were presented in WordPress version 2.5.

Shortcodes are macros that can be used to perform dynamic interactions with the content. i.e creating a gallery from images attached to the post or rendering a video.

Why Shortcodes?

Shortcodes are a valuable way of keeping content clean and semantic while allowing end users some ability to programmatically alter the presentation of their content.

When the end user adds a photo gallery to their post using a shortcode, they’re using the least data possible to indicate how the gallery should be presented.

Advantages:

• No markup is added to the post content, which means that markup and styling can easily be manipulated on the fly or at a later state.
• Shortcodes can also accept parameters, allowing users to modify how the shortcode behaves on an instance by instance basis.

Built-in Shortcodes

By default, WordPress includes the following shortcodes:

• – allows you to wrap captions around content
• – allows you to show image galleries
• – allows you to embed and play audio files
• – allows you to embed and play video files
• – allows you to display collection of audio or video files
• – allows you to wrap embedded items

Shortcode Best Practices

Best practices for developing shortcodes include the plugin development best practices and the list below:

• Always return!
  Shortcodes are essentially filters, so creating “side effects” will lead to unexpected bugs.
• Prefix your shortcode names to avoid collisions with other plugins.
• Sanitize the input and escape the output.
• Provide users with clear documentation on all shortcode attributes.

Quick Reference

See the complete example of using a basic shortcode structure, taking care of self-closing and enclosing scenarios, shortcodes within shortcodes and securing output.

External Resources

• WordPress Shortcodes Generator