I wrote a WordPress plugin that creates an admin page for deciding what posts go in a feature slider on the front page. Everything works fine and I’m simply calling to the function inside the plugin with
<?php uwffs_display(); ?>
in the home.php file.
The issue is that if I were to deactivate the plugin, the home page breaks at the point the
<?php uwffs_display(); ?>
function call occurs and stops rendering the rest of the page.
What is a more graceful way I can call this plugin’s function so that, if deactivated, it will load the rest of the page?
One thought is I could write it as:
<?php if(function_exists('uwffs_display'))
{
uwffs_display();
}
?>
Is that the best way?
The other option would be to use any hooks available in the Theme, which would allow your Plugin to inject the slider at a filter or action hook. If the Plugin is deactivated, its
add_action()oradd_filter()call is never run, nothing attempts to be added to the template, and, voila: no breakage.But, barring that (and since Themes that offer such custom hooks are still in the minority),
function_exists()wrapper is the way to go. So +1 to @rmlumley.Yes it is.
Checking for the existence of the function in the way that you just posted is the proper way of doing this.