How to include WordPress functions in custom .php file?
PhpWordpressIncludePhp Problem Overview
How can I include WordPress functions in a custom .php file?
In detail: I have a directory under my theme (Constructor) named reports. These contain .php files that generate reports from data from the site with DOMPDF for downloading. For these I would like to use functions that the WordPress engine provides, for example get_the_author_meta( 'user_firstname', $user_id )
. If I use these i get (naturally) the following error:
> Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_the_author_meta() in ROOT/public_html/wp-content/themes/constructor/reports/testreport.php on line 15
I was lead to believe that I need to include wp-blog-header.php . I use require_once("../../../../wp-blog-header.php");
. With this I get the following 404 error:
> No webpage was found for the web address: ROOT/wp-content/themes/constructor/reports/testreport.php
(The require points to the correct path. If I fiddle with it, I get Warning: require_once(../../../wp-blog-header.php): failed to open stream... So the path must be correct.)
Is there something I overlook? Why can't I include this wp file? What is the correct method to include the wp functions?
Thanks for the help, Sziro
Php Solutions
Solution 1 - Php
You're on the right track. Try this instead:
require_once("../../../../wp-load.php");
Solution 2 - Php
To use wp functions in custom .php files, you must include wp-load.php
in your file.
You can do so by adding the following line:
require_once(PATH_TO.'/wp-load.php');
If WordPress is in the document root add instead:
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/wp-load.php');
Solution 3 - Php
Well if someone has newer PHP versions installed (ver >= 5.5.x) then they can also try the below code in the root script in WordPress website directory itself:
<?php
define("WP_ROOT", __DIR__);
define("DS", DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
require_once WP_ROOT . DS . "wp-load.php";
Or
<?php
define("WP_ROOT", __DIR__);
define("DS", DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
require_once WP_ROOT . DS . "wp-blog-header.php";
I guess this is a more direct and clean approach and doesn't involve manually adding slashes and changing diretories by ..
.
Hope this helps someone.
Solution 4 - Php
require_once(dirname(__FILE__) . '/options.php');
This is better way to include a file in WordPress.
Solution 5 - Php
External files can easily access the WordPress functions. You just need to include the file wp-load.php
in your external file.
The wp-load.php
file is located in root of your WordPress installation.
Example: Suppose your file is test.php
located at root directory of WordPress installation.
<?php
require_once('wp-load.php');
// Your custom code
?>
Solution 6 - Php
I use this method to load WordPress environment outside WordPress.
if (file_exists($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/wp-load.php')) {
/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/wp-load.php');
}