Noby

<p>The “Meta Functions Shortcode” Plugin installs the Shortcode ‘meta’. With it you can access the custom fields of your articles by a simple shortcode.</p>
<p>Shortcode Syntax: <code>[meta func="" name="" alt=""]</code></p>
<p>The shortcode has three functions yet:</p>
<ol>
<li>func=”url”<br />
  Displays a link using your custom field in “name” as the link target and “alt” as the caption. If “alt” is empty the link target is used as the caption.</li>
<li>func=”plain”<br />
  Simply displays the custom field in “name” as plain text. If the field is empty it displays the text in “alt”.</li>
<li>func=”img”<br />
  Inserts the image at the url in your custom field “name” into the article. The “alt” argument is used as the images alternative text attribute.</li>
<li>More functions in later versions of the plugin… Or extend the plugin on your own. See Extending the Plugin (under Other Notes) for details.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Example</h4>
<pre><code>[meta func="url" name="download_url" alt="Download here"]
</code></pre>
<p>This little code in your article displays a link using your custom field “download_url” as the link target and “Download here” as the caption. If you leave the “alt” argument empty then it uses the link target as the caption.</p>
<p>The resulting html code is:</p>
<pre><code><a href='{download_url}'>{alt}</a>
</code></pre>
<h3>Extending the Shortcode</h3>
<h4>Method 1: Hardcoded</h4>
<p>You can extend the plugin by adding the PHP function</p>
<pre><code>function meta_functions_shortcode_{func}($meta, $alt="") {
       return "your desired text or generated html content";
}
</code></pre>
<p>by writing your own plugin file with the function in it. Be sure to replace {func} with your desired function name (will result in the parameter “func” in the shortcode). $meta will be the value of the custom field and $alt the “alt” parameter.</p>
<p>The function should return the text by which the shortcode will be replaced. For example the “_plain” function simply returns $meta or $alt if $meta is empty.</p>
<h4>Method 2: In the admin panel</h4>
<p>This method is more convenient. You can add new functions in the admin panel. For this go to the options page called “Meta Functions Shortcode”.<br />
Here you can enter a new function name, specify parameter names and set the output html code with the parameters.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<ul>
<li>Function Name: link</li>
<li>Function Parameter Names: link_url, link_caption</li>
<li>Function Result Code: <code><a href='{link_url}'>{link_caption}</a></code> </li>
</ul>
<p>If you now enter the shortcode [meta func=”link” link_url=”download_url” link_caption=”download_caption”] then in the article/page<br />
it will be replaced by <code><a href='contents of custom field download_url'><i>contents of custom field download_caption</i></a></code>.</p>


Meta Functions Shortcode

The “Meta Functions Shortcode” Plugin installs the Shortcode ‘meta’. With it you can access the custom fields of your articles by a shortcode.

scribu

<p>Custom fields are great for storing various meta data about a post. However, if you routinely need to display posts that have a certain custom field value, you should consider switching to a <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Taxonomies" rel="nofollow ugc">custom taxonomy</a>, which is better suited for grouping posts.</p>
<p>With this simple plugin, you can convert all custom fields with a certain key to terms in a certain taxonomy, while maintaining the post association.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> If you’re looking for the old version, see <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-query-fields/" rel="ugc">Custom Query Fields</a></p>
<p>Links: <a href="http://scribu.net/wordpress/custom-field-taxonomies" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin News</a> | <a href="http://scribu.net" rel="nofollow ugc">Author’s Site</a></p>


Custom Field Taxonomies

Convert custom fields to tags, categories or taxonomy terms

Meta Functions Shortcode vs Custom Field Taxonomies