Shortcodes are a handy way to let a nontechnical person, such as an editor of a website, include dynamic content within pages and posts, without having to actually use any PHP, complex HTML structures, or custom JavaScript. In other words, shortcodes are handy reusable pieces of code, yet they don't require any actual coding experience or knowledge on the end user's part.
Shortcodes
Shortcodes and the way they work
The way a shortcode works is that you tell WordPress to look at the text within square brackets ([]) and evaluate it by running a PHP function. That PHP function can live in the functions.php file of your theme, or in a plugin file, or in a widget file. Let's create a simple shortcode and include...