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

Installation

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.

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, link, 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: <a href="...">Logout</a>.
• [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="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="wp_get_attachment_url, 99 | full"] — Gets the URL of attachment ID 99 in full size. Use the pipe (|) to separate multiple arguments.
• [anys type="function" name="sanitize_text_field, (anys type='option' name='blogdescription')"] — Sanitizes and shows site description.
• [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.
• Additional arguments can be passed to the function using a pipe (|).
• 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.

Integrations

Navigation Menu

The plugin now supports using shortcodes directly in navigation menu items. You can add dynamic values in both the Menu Label and Menu Link fields using the [anys] shortcode. For example:

• Use [anys type="link" name="logout"] in the Link field.
• Use [anys type="user-field" name="display_name"] in the Label field.

This allows creating dynamic and personalized menus effortlessly.

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!