How to make method from plugin available in theme?

June 6, 20231 Views

Let’s say this was in my plugin:

class pluginslug_foo {
    public function bar() {
         //stuff
    }
}

and I wanted to make the method bar available for use outside of the plugin, for instance in a theme file so it could be called with pluginslug_bar();.

I tried:

function pluginslug_get_foo() {
      $foo = new pluginslug_foo();
      return $foo;
}
function pluginslug_bar() {
      $bar = $foo->bar;
}

But I got an unknown variable error for $bar when I tried pluginslug_bar(); in my theme:(

Post Views: 1

3 comments

An alternative way is to use static class methods in plugins, and optionally write functions as alias:

in Plugin:

class Pluginslug_Foo {

    static $foo = 'Bar!';

    public static function bar() {
       return self::$foo;
    }

}

if ( ! function_exists( 'pluginslug_bar' ) ) {
    function pluginslug_bar() {
       echo Pluginslug_Foo::bar();
    }
}

in Theme:

if ( function_exists( 'pluginslug_bar' ) ) {
    pluginslug_bar(); // echo 'Bar!';
}

if ( method_exists('Pluginslug_Foo', 'bar' ) ) {
     echo Pluginslug_Foo::bar(); // echo 'Bar!';
}

Of course static methods and variables not always fit the scope, and this is a general theoric example: without know your real scope/code is impossible to say if it’s good for you or not.

If your arenât very familiar with PHP, use simple actions and filters in your theme, and register callbacks for those in your plugin class.

A basic example

Plugin

class Plugin_Class
{
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->register_callbacks();
    }

    protected function register_callbacks()
    {
        add_filter( 'theme_foo', array( $this, 'foo' ) );
        add_action( 'theme_bar', array( $this, 'bar' ) );
    }

    public function foo()
    {
        return 'foo';
    }

    public function bar()
    {
        print 'bar';
    }
}

Theme

$foo = apply_filters( 'theme_foo', FALSE );

if ( $foo )
    echo "foo is $foo";

do_action( 'theme_bar' ); // prints 'bar'

You have made a mistake in your functions. pluginslug_bar function doesn’t contain $foo variable, you need to initialize it first:

function pluginslug_get_foo() {
    $foo = new pluginslug_foo();
    return $foo;
}

function pluginslug_bar() {
    $foo = pluginslug_get_foo();
    $bar = $foo->bar();
}

Then in your theme’s functions.php file you can call it like this:

if ( function_exists( 'pluginslug_bar' ) ) {
    pluginslug_bar();
}

Comments are closed.

Related posts