Anything Shortcodes

A powerful WordPress plugin that lets you retrieve and display virtually any data in WordPress using simple shortcodes. Effortlessly pull information from posts, users, options, and more — with support for dynamic attribute parsing, flexible formatting, and customizable output wrapping.

It supports:
– Post Field
– Post Meta
– Term Field
– Term Meta (coming soon)
– User Field
– User Meta
– Link
– Option
– Function (whitelisted)

You can also:
– Apply custom formatting (date, datetime, number, capitalize, uppercase, lowercase, strip_tags, etc.)
– Add before/after text
– Use fallback values
– Use nested shortcodes inside attributes
– Use URL parameters as values
– Cache output
– Secure and sanitize output

Shortcode Usage

General syntax:
[anys type="TYPE" name="KEY" id="ID" before="TEXT" after="TEXT" fallback="TEXT" format="FORMAT" delimiter="DELIMITER"]

Attributes:
– type — post-field, post-meta, user-field, user-meta, option, function (required)
– name — The field name, meta key, option name, or function call (required)
– id — Post ID or User ID (optional; defaults to current context)
– before — Text to prepend before output (optional)
– after — Text to append after output (optional)
– fallback — Value if empty (optional)
– format — Output formatting type (optional: date, datetime, number, capitalize, uppercase, lowercase, strip_tags, values, keys_values, etc.)
– delimiter — Separator used to join multiple values (optional)

Supported Types and Examples

Post Field
Retrieve standard post fields by name.

Examples:

• [anys type="post-field" name="post_title"] — Shows the post title.
• [anys type="post-field" name="post_date" format="date"] — Shows the post publish date (formatted).
• [anys type="post-field" name="post_author" id="123"] — Shows the author ID of post 123.
• [anys type="post-field" name="post_content" fallback="No content"] — Shows the post content or fallback text.

Other fields supported: ID, post_name, post_excerpt, post_status, comment_status, ping_status, post_password, post_parent, menu_order, guid, post_type, post_mime_type, post_modified, post_modified_gmt

Post Meta
Retrieve post meta by key.

Examples:

• [anys type="post-meta" name="my_meta_key"] — Shows value of my_meta_key.
• [anys type="post-meta" name="price" id="456" format="number"] — Shows the price of post 456, formatted as number.
• [anys type="post-meta" name="release_date" format="date"] — Shows release date formatted as date.

Term Field
Retrieve standard term fields by name.

Examples:

• [anys type="term-field" name="name"] — Shows the term name.
• [anys type="term-field" name="slug"] — Shows the term slug.
• [anys type="term-field" name="term_id" id="15"] — Shows the ID of term 15.
• [anys type="term-field" name="taxonomy" id="15"] — Shows the taxonomy of term 15.
• [anys type="term-field" name="description" fallback="No description"] — Shows term description or fallback text.
• [anys type="term-field" name="count" id="15" format="number"] — Shows the number of posts in term 15.

Other fields supported: term_group, parent

Notes:
– If no “id” is provided, it defaults to the current queried term (e.g., category/tag archive page).
– Supports “before”, “after”, “fallback”, and “format” (for number, date, etc.).

User Field
Retrieve user standard fields.

Examples:

• [anys type="user-field" name="user_email" id="12"] — Shows email of user 12.
• [anys type="user-field" name="display_name"] — Shows current user display name.
• [anys type="user-field" name="user_registered" format="date"] — Shows user registration date.

Common user fields: ID, user_login, user_nicename, user_url, user_activation_key, user_status, description

User Meta
Retrieve user meta by key.

Examples:

• [anys type="user-meta" name="favorite_color" id="12"] — Shows favorite_color of user 12.
• [anys type="user-meta" name="profile_phone"] — Shows current user’s phone.

Link
Retrieve URLs or generate link anchors for common WordPress locations.

Examples:

• [anys type="link" name="logout"] — Returns the logout URL.
• [anys type="link" name="logout" redirect="/"] — Returns the logout URL and redirects to home after logout.
• [anys type="link" name="login" redirect="/dashboard"] — Returns the login URL with redirect to /dashboard.
• [anys type="link" name="register"] — Returns the registration URL.
• [anys type="link" name="home"] — Returns the home page URL.
• [anys type="link" name="siteurl"] — Returns the main site URL.
• [anys type="link" name="admin"] — Returns the WordPress admin URL.
• [anys type="link" name="profile"] — Returns the user profile page URL.
• [anys type="link" name="post" id="123"] — Returns the permalink for post with ID 123.
• [anys type="link" name="term" id="45"] — Returns the archive link for term with ID 45.
• [anys type="link" name="current"] — Returns the current page URL.
• [anys type="link" name="auth"] — Dynamically returns the login or logout URL based on user status.

Formatting options:

• [anys type="link" name="logout" format="anchor"] — Outputs a clickable link: Logout.
• [anys type="link" name="auth" format="anchor"] — Dynamically shows Login or Logout link depending on user state.
• [anys type="link" name="auth" format="anchor" label_logged_in="Sign Out" label_logged_out="Sign In"] — Customizes labels for both states.

Attributes supported:
– name: The link type (e.g., logout, login, home, admin, etc.).
– redirect: Optional redirect URL (used for login/logout links).
– format: Either url (default) or anchor for clickable links.
– target: Optional anchor target (e.g., _blank).
– label: Optional link text (default varies by type).
– label_logged_in: Custom label when the user is logged in (used with auth).
– label_logged_out: Custom label when the user is logged out (used with auth).
– id: Used for post and term links.

Option
Retrieve WordPress option values.

Examples:

• [anys type="option" name="blogname"] — Shows site title.
• [anys type="option" name="admin_email"] — Shows site admin email.

Function
Execute a whitelisted PHP function and optionally pass arguments.

Examples:

• [anys type="function" name="date_i18n, F j, Y"] — Shows today’s date.
• [anys type="function" name="sanitize_text_field, (anys type='option' name='blogdescription')"] — Sanitizes and shows site description.
• [anys type="function" name="date_i18n, F j, Y" before="Today is "] — Shows today’s date with custom prefix.
• [anys type="function" name="date_i18n, F j, Y" after="."] — Shows today’s date with custom suffix.
• [anys type="function" name="my_custom_function" fallback="N/A"] — Shows output of custom function or fallback.
• [anys type="function" name="my_custom_function" format="capitalize"] — Shows output of custom function and automatically capitalizes the output (e.g., “hello world” → “Hello World”).
• [anys type="function" name="my_custom_function" delimiter=", "] — Shows output of custom function. If the function returns an array, the values are joined using the given delimiter (e.g., ["apple", "banana"] → “apple, banana”).

Notes:
– Only functions whitelisted in plugin settings can be executed.
– Arguments can include other [anys] shortcodes using () instead of [].
– Output can be formatted or wrapped with before/after content and fallback.

Dynamic Attribute Parsing

Supports dynamic placeholders inside attribute values:
– {get:param} — gets value from $_GET[‘param’]
– {post:param} — gets value from $_POST[‘param’]
– {func:function_name,arg1,arg2} — calls a whitelisted PHP function
– {shortcode:(tag)} — parses nested shortcode (use () instead of [])
– {const:CONSTANT_NAME} — replaces with PHP constant value

Example:
[anys type="post_field" name="post_title" id="{get:post_id}" before="Title: "]

Formatting Options

• date — Format timestamps using WordPress date format.
• datetime — Format timestamps using WordPress date and time format.
• number — Localized number format.
• json — Encode value as JSON string.
• serialize — Serialize PHP value.
• unserialize — Unserialize string if serialized.
• print_r — Human-readable output of variable.
• var_export — Parsable string representation.
• implode — Join array values.
• values — Join array values only.
• keys — Join array keys only.
• keys_values — Join array key-value pairs.
• capitalize — Capitalize words.
• uppercase — Uppercase all characters.
• lowercase — Lowercase all characters.
• strip_tags — Remove HTML/PHP tags.

Custom formats are supported via filters.

Hooks

Filters
– anys/attributes — Filter attributes before processing.
– anys/{type}/attributes — Filter attributes dynamically by type.
– anys/output — Filter final output.
– anys/{type}/output — Filter output dynamically by type.
– anys/link/handlers – Filter link handlers.

Actions
– anys/output/before — Fires before output.
– anys/{type}/output/before — Fires before output for specific type.
– anys/{type}/missing — Fires when handler file missing.
– anys/output/after — Fires after output.
– anys/{type}/output/after — Fires after output for specific type.

Security

• All inputs sanitized using WordPress functions.
• Function calls restricted to whitelisted list.
• Outputs sanitized with wp_kses_post().
• Dynamic parsing uses caching for performance.

Support & Contribution

For bugs, feature requests, or contributions, open an issue or PR on the plugin repository.

Thank you for using Anything Shortcodes!

1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate the plugin via the “Plugins” menu in WordPress.
3. Use the [anys] shortcode anywhere you want.

1.3.0 – 2025-10-07

• Added Link type.

1.2.0 – 2025-09-29

• Added Term Field type.

1.1.0 – 2025-08-15

• Added Function type.
• Added Settings page.
• Added Whitelisted Functions setting for better security control.
• Added more formats (json, serialize, unserialize, print_r, var_export, implode, keys, capitalize, uppercase, lowercase, strip_tags, values, keys_values).
• Improved shortcode registration for future shortcodes.
• Improved hooks naming conventions.
• Improved docs.

1.0.0 – 2025-08-04

• Initial release.