Title: Creating Custom PHP Functions
Last modified: June 16, 2021

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# Creating Custom PHP Functions

 *  [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * (@dpimental2021)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/)
 * I don’t know if this is the correct sub-forum for this topic.
    But, I need a 
   little guidance on where / how to create a php function, which I want to call
   from several different pages – and maybe it should be a plugin. For example, 
   if i want a function to connect and log in to the database, but I don’t want 
   to code that every time I use it, how / where do I store a function that does
   that job, which I can simply call it when I need it.
 * Thanks,
    dpimental

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

 *  [Joy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/joyously/)
 * (@joyously)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14563045)
 * “when I need it” is the key phrase here.
    WP already handles the database connection
   for you, so you don’t need to write any functions for that. Custom code should
   always go in a plugin, unless it’s modifying the theme in which case it should
   be a child theme. But “when you need it” is really handled by attaching your 
   code to actions that fire at the appropriate context. [https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_action/](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_action/)
 * If you are wanting to affect the content on different pages, it could be a shortcode
   
   [https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_shortcode/](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_shortcode/)
   or a filter [https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_filter/](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_filter/)
   or if it’s the whole page, it could be a page template in a child theme.
 *  Thread Starter [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * (@dpimental2021)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14563197)
 * So, here is the actual situation.
    I am modifying pages for a church site. Currently,
   there are queries against recorded teachings (search by Title or by key word 
   in the description or by Scripture reference.
 * I am modifying the searches to also search written articles on the site, stored
   in the database.
 * Here is what I wanted to do – and you can tell me “NO. Don’t do that!”.
    I want
   to take the function I have written on a page and take it out of the page and
   store it somewhere that I can call it. I would like to call it on the Teaching
   Search pages as well as call it from pages that only search the articles.
 * What is the best method to achieve this?
    dpimental
 *  [Alan Fuller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanfuller/)
 * (@alanfuller)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14564042)
 * > I want to take the function I have written on a page and take it out of the
   > page
 * Can you expand what you mean a (PHP) function you have written on a page? This
   sounds strange language. Where exactly have you written this – in a page template
   file for instance?
 *  Thread Starter [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * (@dpimental2021)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14564061)
 * We have a plugin that allows us to enter php code on a wordpress page.
    So, I
   have some code that takes the input of the text box and uses it for the criteria
   of an sql query.
 * So, I have this code on a page and I want to be able to reuse it, without having
   the same code on multiple pages.
 * I was thinking if there was a way to store the code in one place and then simply
   call it on the pages it was needed that would be helpful.
 * Is there a way to do that?
    dpimental
 *  [Alan Fuller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanfuller/)
 * (@alanfuller)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14564145)
 * The simplest way is to create a shortcode and then you can add the shortcode 
   to any page you like.
 * [https://generatewp.com/shortcodes/](https://generatewp.com/shortcodes/)
 * Many tutorials suggest putting such snippets in functions.php but I advocate 
   that you should create a plugin, plugins are really easy at a basic level, just
   a php file with a header
 * See this [https://gist.github.com/alanef/87d367877dd9ad228606ecc0e9fc732a/](https://gist.github.com/alanef/87d367877dd9ad228606ecc0e9fc732a/)
   for an example
 *  Thread Starter [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * (@dpimental2021)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14564152)
 * Much thanks for your assistance.
    I will try creating the plugin. dpimental
 *  Thread Starter [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * (@dpimental2021)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14566814)
 * I just want to make sure I am following best practices. I found an example and
   want to make sure it’s correct.
 * My goal is to create a plugin and pass a search term to it.
    The plugin would
   then connect to the database, search the database using the search term as criteria
   and return a formatted result set.
 * So, in the plugin, I was going to do the following.
 * 1. do_action( ‘my_plugin_hook’ );
 * 2. add_action( ‘my_plugin_hook’, ‘my_plugin_echo’ );
 * 3. Create Function
    function my_plugin_echo( $url ){ echo “The home url is $url”;}
 * On my page, I was going to do the following.
    1. [my_plugin_hook]
 * Am I doing this correctly?
    Can I use the “hook” on any page I want?
 * dpimental
 *  [Alan Fuller](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alanfuller/)
 * (@alanfuller)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14567121)
 * You are doing it wrong. Please read the add shortcode link I gave you.
 *  Thread Starter [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * (@dpimental2021)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14567218)
 * So, I use this code:
 *     ```
       // Add Shortcode
       function custom_shortcode() {
   
       }
       add_shortcode( '', 'custom_shortcode' );
       ```
   
 * And the empty string ” I put in what I want the shortcode to be named.
    And the‘
   custom_shortcode’ is the function being connected to the shortcode? dpimental

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

The topic ‘Creating Custom PHP Functions’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [db](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/db/)
 * [functions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/functions/)
 * [php](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 9 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [dpimental2021](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dpimental2021/)
 * Last activity: [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/creating-custom-php-functions/#post-14567218)
 * Status: not resolved

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