Dynamic shortcodes and functions in WordPress

Question

I am having a bit of an issue with autogenerating shortcodes, based on database entries.

I am able to get a normal shortcode working i.e:

function route_sc5() {
        return "<div>Route 5</div>";
    }
    add_shortcode('route 5','route_sc');

and the following shortcode to activate it would be [route 5]

This works. But what I need is the shortcode to be produced for each database entry. something like:

$routes = $wpdb->get_results( $wpdb->prepare("SELECT * FROM wp_routes") );
foreach($routes as $route)
{
    function route_sc$route->id () {
        return "<div>Route $route->id</div>";
    }
    add_shortcode('route $route->id','route_sc$route->id');
}

The above is just an example of how I want it to work. Not literally the code I am using. How would I go about achieving this? ): Thanks.

Answer 1

Here's an example of dynamic shortcode callbacks using PHP 5.3 anonymous functions:

for( $i = 1; $i <= 5; $i++ ) { 
    $cb = function() use ($i) {
        return "<div>Route $i</div>";
    };  

    add_shortcode( "route $i", $cb );
}

I have to ask, though: can you just accomplish what you need to do using shortcode arguments? ie. [route num=3]. Then you could just have one handle_route() function and one [route] shortcode, which may simplify things.

Also, while technically you can include a shortcode with a space in the name, I think it creates a confusing ambiguity. If you decide you need specific shortcodes for each route, I would recommend "route5" or "route-5" rather than "route 5."