Wordpress : using template tags and functions in shortcodes

Question

I'm trying to figure out why my shortcode isn't working - can anyone see why (apologies for crappy formatting, can't seem to get this shortcode to display properly)?

The code is running above my shortcode for some reason. Not sure I completely understand how to use template tags /WP functions in shortcodes as I believe you need to use something like get_ at the beginning of the function in order to return it in a variable within shortcodes. Can anyone help?

Thanks

osu

/* News from Blog category only - category 3 */

add_shortcode( 'latestblogposts', 'osu_latestblogposts' );

function osu_latestblogposts() {
    $start = '<div class="widget widget_osu_blog">';
    $start .= '<a title="Subscribe to our RSS feed" href="/feed?cat=3" class="rss"><img alt="RSS" src="' . get_bloginfo('template_directory') . '/images/ico-rss-big.png"></a>';
    $start .= '<div>';

    $my_query = new WP_Query('category=3&showposts=3');
    while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();
        $inner = '<div class="item"><a href="' . get_permalink() . '" title="';
        $inner .= printf( esc_attr__( 'Permalink to %s', 'inspire' ), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) );
        $inner .= '" rel="bookmark" class="title">' . the_title() . '</a>';
        $inner .= '<p class="post-meta">';
        $inner .= '<span class="small">by</span> <span class="post-author"><a title="Posts by ';
        $inner .= the_author();
        $inner .= '" href="' . the_author_posts_link() . '">' . the_author() . '</a></span>';
        $inner .= '<span class="small">on</span> <span class="post-date">';
        $inner .= get_the_date('d/m/Y') . '</span></p>';
        $inner .= the_excerpt() . '</div> <!-- End div.item -->';
    endwhile;

    $end = '</div>';
    $end .= '</div> <!-- End div.widget_osu_blog -->';

    $latestblogposts = $start . $inner . $end;
    return $latestblogposts;
}

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, you need to call the functions with an optional argument in order to get the returned value instead of echo it directly. For instance, with the_title(), you have 3 optional arguments, the third sets the output (defaults to true). the_title().

For other values you will need to change the function you call. the_author() always displays (echo) the value, you need to call get_the_author() instead.