Simple shortcode woes, coding for dummies - php

Question

been asked to help a friend display some custom data on a Wordpress site, easy I thought...
Have a table with customer data in. Idea a plugin to is to query the table based on current user id and spit it out as shortcodes so they can place the output where ever they like.
After much googling (I'm not a coder) I got something that worked! Problem is, even to my untrained eye, it looks like a bodge, repeating queries when there's clearly a more intelligent way of doing it.... Can someone clever please show me the way based on the this >> ?
<?php
Plugin Name: do stuff
Description: Do site specific stuff
function spend_data() {
global $wpdb;
global $current_user;
wp_get_current_user();
$userid = $current_user->ID;
$spend = $wpdb->get_var ( "SELECT spend FROM mytable WHERE the_id=$userid");
return $spend;
}
function detail_data() {
global $wpdb;
global $current_user;
wp_get_current_user();
$userid = $current_user->ID;
$detail = $wpdb->get_var ( "SELECT detail FROM mytable WHERE the_id=$userid");
return $programs;
}
add_shortcode('spend', 'spend_data');
add_shortcode('detail', 'detail_data');
/* Stop Adding Functions Below this Line */

Answer 1

I guess you could do a query for all fields at a hook that fires before the shortcodes and then store it all in $current_user. Don't forget to replace mytable with the correct tablename.
function marks_prepare_user_shortcodes () {
global $wpdb;
global $current_user;
$current_user = wp_get_current_user();
$userid = $current_user->ID;
$row = $wpdb->get_row( "SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE the_id=".$userid, ARRAY_A);
$current_user->marks_shortcodes = $row;
}
add_action( 'wp_head', 'marks_prepare_user_shortcodes');
And then your shortcodes change to
function spend_data() {
global $current_user;
$spend = $current_user->marks_shortcodes['spend'];
if (!is_null($spend))
return $spend;
}
function detail_data() {
global $current_user;
$detail = $current_user->marks_shortcodes['detail'];
if (!is_null($detail))
return $detail;
}
add_shortcode('spend', 'spend_data');
add_shortcode('detail', 'detail_data');
I'm not sure if wp_head is the correct /best action to pick here, you could give it a try. I figured it is called before all the shortcodes are. Code is untested.
Ps. As a sidenote, I believe your extra user data should actually be stored in the wp_usermeta table, instead of a separate table. You'd retrieve the fields with get_user_meta(): https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_user_meta/
Update
Instead of the code block directly above, you could also use this:
function mikes_data_shortcode($atts) {
global $current_user;
$atts = array_change_key_case((array)$atts, CASE_LOWER);
// override default attributes with user attributes
$actual_atts = shortcode_atts([
'field' => 'YouDidntEnterAFieldNameAsAttribute',
], $atts);
$data = $current_user->marks_shortcodes[$actual_atts['field']];
if (!is_null($data))
return $data;
}
function mikes_shortcodes_init()
{
add_shortcode('mikes_data_shortcode', 'mikes_data_shortcode');
}
add_action('init', 'mikes_shortcodes_init');
Where you use shortcodes like this:
[mikes_data_shortcode field="spend"]
or
[mikes_data_shortcode field="detail"]