WordPress introduced the shortcode API in version 2.5. Shortcodes are now used by a large number of WordPress plugins to allow users to add content to their posts and pages. All of us have probably used them at one time or another. They usually come bundled with plugins, or even themes, and what they do is watch for when you insert something inside square brackets then replace that with some other content; it could be a simple sentence or it could be a massive PHP function, it all depends on what you instructed WordPress to do.

The shortcode API allows you to create your own shortcodes by adding functions to your theme functions.php template (this is located at www.yourwebsite.com/wp-content/themes/yourtheme/).

In addition to creating your own shortcodes, WordPress also includes five default shortcodes with the WordPress core:
audio – Allows you to embed audio files.
caption – Allows you to wrap captions around content. It is commonly used with images.
embed – Allows you to embed a wide range of content such as video, audio and tweets.
gallery – Allows you to insert image galleries.
video – Allows you to embed video files.

In this article we will create some simple WordPress shortcodes to help you create any functionality you like.

A Basic Example

In our first example we want to create a shortcode that will create some “custom text” every time we type [spin2win] into the editor. First we need to create the callback function that will return the “custom text”

function spin2win_func() {
return “I am new shortcode text”;
}

Next we need to add this shortcode to WordPress using the add_shortcode function in either our functions.php file

add_shortcode( ‘spin2win’, ‘spin2win_func’ );

So the full code would be like this :

function spin2win_func() {
return “I am new shortcode text”;
}
add_shortcode( ‘spin2win’, ‘spin2win_func’ );

Note : spin2win_func and spin2win can be any name.

Creating a Shortcode With Attributes

Attributes can expand the functionality of shortcodes by allowing you to pass data through your shortcodes.

When WordPress encounters this we want a function that will insert an image. It needs to read the width and height attributes

function get_images($atts) {
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
‘width’ => 250,
‘height’ => 180,
), $atts));
return ‘‘;
}

add_shortcode(‘getpics’, ‘get_images’);

That’s all 🙂

How to change continue reading link text in wordpress. In this tutorial I will show you how you can change the “continue reading” text in wordpress. If you want to modify continue reading link with Read more , you can use this function in your functions.php file.

function my_code_excerpt_more( $more ) {
return ‘ ‘ . __(‘Read More’, ‘your-text-domain’) . ‘‘;
}
add_filter( ‘excerpt_more’, ‘my_code_excerpt_more’ );

May be your theme does have another text except “continue reading”, so this trick also will work for those.

How to use post excerpt in WordPress Twenty Fifteen theme

To use post excerpts in the WordPress Twenty Fifteen theme, you first need to enable them in your posts.

By default, the theme shows full content on the homepage and archives, but you can change that by manually setting an excerpt.

When editing a post, scroll down to the “Excerpt” field in the post editor and add a custom summary or short version of your content.

If this field is not visible, enable it by clicking on “Screen Options” at the top of the editor page and checking the box for “Excerpt.

” Once you’ve added your excerpt, the Twenty Fifteen theme will automatically display it in the post list on your homepage or archive pages, instead of the full content.

This is especially useful for creating clean, easy-to-navigate layouts with summaries of your posts.

Additionally, you can customize the appearance of excerpts via the theme’s settings or by editing the theme’s files, such as index.php or archive.php, to control how excerpts are shown.