How to make a conditional statement within $output in shortcodes.php?

Question

I've got a shortcode that's got HTML in an $output field that's lovely. I just want to add one paragraph to it at the bottom that's conditional on this statement:

<?php if ( get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'campus', true ) ) : ?> 

I can't quite figure out how to format a statement like that (if possible) into an existing $output field.

Here's what the $output looks like at present, I want to add this condition on line 8 and basically have another paragraph tag with some content there that shows there only if the statement is true:

'<div class="w-blog-entry" style="padding:0;">
                                <div class="w-blog-entry-h">
                                <div class="l-subsection color_dark" style="background-image: url('.$the_thumbnail.'); background-position: center center; padding-top:0; padding-bottom:0; background-attachment: inherit;">
                                <div class="l-subsection-h">
                                    <div class="l-subsection-hh g-html i-cf" style="font-family:Century Gothic; text-shadow: 0px 2px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);">
                                        <a class="w-blog-entry-link" href="'.get_permalink(get_the_ID()).'"><h2 class="w-blog-entry-title" style="line-height:1em; margin-left:0; padding-left:4px; font-size:20px;"><span class="w-blog-entry-title-h" style="color:#fff;">'.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'destination', true ).'<br><span style="font-size:0.6em; color:#f2f2f2;">'.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'depart', true ).' <span style="text-transform: lowercase; font-size:0.8em;">to</span> '.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'return', true ).'</span></span></h2></a>
                                        <p style="line-height:1.2em; padding-left:4px; font-size:0.9em;">'.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'projectdesc', true ).'</p>                                      
                                    </div>
                                </div>
                            </div>

                            </div>';
    }

    $output .=          '</div>
                    </div>
                </div>'

Is this possible, or do I have to make a whole other condition to the shortcode with two outputs?

Let me know if you need more context from the shortcode, I just didn't want to waste too much space if my original goal is possible.

Answer 1

If I understand you right you just want to use a '?' type of if statement:

$output = '<div class="w-blog-entry" style="padding:0;">
                            <div class="w-blog-entry-h">
                            <div class="l-subsection color_dark" style="background-image: url('.$the_thumbnail.'); background-position: center center; padding-top:0; padding-bottom:0; background-attachment: inherit;">
                            <div class="l-subsection-h">
                                <div class="l-subsection-hh g-html i-cf" style="font-family:Century Gothic; text-shadow: 0px 2px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);">
                                    <a class="w-blog-entry-link" href="'.get_permalink(get_the_ID()).'"><h2 class="w-blog-entry-title" style="line-height:1em; margin-left:0; padding-left:4px; font-size:20px;"><span class="w-blog-entry-title-h" style="color:#fff;">'.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'destination', true ).'<br><span style="font-size:0.6em; color:#f2f2f2;">'.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'depart', true ).' <span style="text-transform: lowercase; font-size:0.8em;">to</span> '.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'return', true ).'</span></span></h2></a>
                                    <p style="line-height:1.2em; padding-left:4px; font-size:0.9em;">'.get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'projectdesc', true ).'</p>';
$output .= get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'campus', true ) ? '<p>True so do this paragraph</p>' : '<p>false, so do this instead</p>';
$output.='                                    </div>
                            </div>
                        </div>

                        </div>';

A standard if else would have worked OK too so I'm not sure where the confusion was.

Another way is to use a php output buffer which would work like this:

ob_start();
?>
<div class="w-blog-entry" style="padding:0;"> etc etc
<?php if(get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'campus', true )) {?>
<p>True paragraph</p>
<?php }else{ ?>
<p>false paragraph</p>
<?php } ?>

And then when you've finished with all your output you put it in your $output variable like this:

$output = ob_get_clean();

When you start an output buffer it basically means that any HTML you put outside of the PHP tags goes into the buffer rather than being output to the browser. I prefer this sometimes when there's a lot of different conditions and logic in the output.

ob_start, ob_get_clean

Answer 2

$output = 'Hello World !'; mean you just assignment a value in $output variable.but when you use like
$a = 1; $output = 'Hello'; if($a == 1){ $output .= 'World'; }else{ $output .= 'Universe'; } $output .= '!'; if you print this $output then output will be same like Hello World ! because of concatenation.

so if you are not clear about (your_statement) ? 'True' : 'False' like get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'campus', true ) ? '<p>True so do this paragraph</p>' : '<p>false, so do this instead</p>';
you can write this instead this like
if(get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'campus', true )){ $output .= '<p>True so do this paragraph</p>'; }else{ $output .= <p>false, so do this instead</p>'; }

Thanks Musa