How To Create Function Php File In Wordpress Theme

Your Guide to the WordPress Functions.php File

In this article, we'll take an in-depth look at the WordPress functions file. We'll discuss how it works and where you can find it. Finally, we'll show you some interesting tweaks you can make to your functions.php file.

To get involved in WordPress development, you first need to understand how the platform's most important files work. WordPress makes it pretty easy to begin tinkering with your site. However, it can be difficult to know where to start — or predict what your changes will actually do.

A perfect place to learn is with the functions.php file, which is also known as the functions file. This is a common location for making changes and adding code to WordPress. By editing this file, you can accomplish several useful things, such as adding Google Analytics to your site, creating custom menus, or displaying a post's estimated reading time.

What Is the functions.php File?

The WordPress functions.php file comes included with all free and premium WordPress themes. To the untrained eye, it may not look like much, but the functions file is a powerful tool that enables you to do a lot of interesting things.

The WordPress Codex describes the functions file like this:

"You can use it to call functions, both PHP and built-in WordPress, and to define your own functions. You can produce the same results by adding code to a WordPress Plugin or through the WordPress Theme functions file."

In simple terms, the functions file enables you to add custom code to your site. It lets you create new functions or reference existing ones in customized ways. As the Codex points out, this makes the functions file very similar to a plugin, but there are some differences between the two.

The most important difference is that the functions file belongs to a specific theme. If you were to change themes or update to a newer version, the changes you've made would disappear. For this reason, you should consider creating a child theme and adding the new code to the child's functions file instead. This way, you can update the parent theme without losing your changes.

Whether you choose to use the functions file or create a plugin is entirely up to you, depending on your needs. Let's now look at the different ways you can edit your functions file.

How to Edit the Functions File (2 Methods)

Editing your functions file is as easy as using a standard text editor, like TextEdit or Notepad. Before you get started, it is vitally important that you create a backup of your site, and save the original, unedited functions.php file. This will enable you to restore your site if something goes wrong during the editing process.

1. Use the WordPress Editor

If you have access to the WordPress admin interface, you can edit the functions file directly from the Theme Editor. Go to Appearance > Editor.

On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see a list of all files contained in the theme. These differ depending on which theme you use, but one of the top options should be Theme Functions (functions.php). Simply click on the file to open it in the editor.

Now, you're able to edit the file directly. Don't forget to click on Update File at the bottom to save your changes when you're done.

2. Access the File Through FTP

If you are unable to use the admin dashboard or prefer to configure files directly, you can also access the functions file using an FTP tool such as FileZilla.

Open your FTP tool and enter your hosting credentials to connect to your site. To find the right file, navigate to wp-content/themes/[the name of your theme]. When you open this folder, you'll see the functions.php file.

All you have to do now is to edit it using your preferred text editing software. When you have finished making changes, save and overwrite the functions file with the exact same name and extension.

8 Tricks You Can Accomplish With the WordPress Functions File

You should now be ready to start editing your functions file. To get you started, here are some examples of the kinds of tweaks you can make. All you need to do is to copy the provided code snippets and paste them on a new line at the very bottom of your functions file (don't forget to save it!).

1. Add Google Analytics to Your Site

There are several ways of integrating Google Analytics with your WordPress site. One of them is by adding your credentials directly to the functions file. This will insert the analytics tracking into your site's header, ensuring that every visit is properly captured.

Start by pasting the following code at the bottom of your functions file:

<?php add_action('wp_head', 'wpb_add_googleanalytics'); function wpb_add_googleanalytics() { ?> // Replace this line with your Google Analytics Tracking ID <?php } ?>

All you have to do now is to find your Tracking ID and paste it in the line that contains the placeholder text. When you save the functions file, your site will be connected to your Google Analytics account.

2. Change the Default Login Error Message

By default, when somebody makes an unsuccessful login attempt to a WordPress site they'll see an error message like this:

This is not ideal because the site is giving potential intruders information about why the attempt didn't work. A more secure solution is to change this to a generic message instead.

You can do this easily by adding the following code to your functions file:

function no_wordpress_errors(){ return 'Something went wrong!'; } add_filter( 'login_errors', 'no_wordpress_errors' );

See that 'Something went wrong!' message on the second line? That's the message that will appear the next time an incorrect login attempt occurs:

You can change this to whatever you want, as long as you keep the single quote characters. Try it out with different messages to see how it works.

3. Add the Estimated Reading Time for a Post

This neat trick enables you to calculate and display the estimated amount of time required to read a post. Your visitors can then get a general idea of how long the content is right away.

To implement this code, you need to make two separate edits. The first one is done to the functions file as usual, where you'll want to paste the following snippet:

function reading_time() { $content = get_post_field( 'post_content', $post->ID ); $word_count = str_word_count( strip_tags( $content ) ); $readingtime = ceil($word_count / 200); if ($readingtime == 1) { $timer = " minute"; } else { $timer = " minutes"; } $totalreadingtime = $readingtime . $timer; return $totalreadingtime; }

However, this only performs the calculation. You'll now need to add the following code wherever you want the results to be displayed:

echo reading_time();

For example, you could add it to the metadata that appears alongside each post. Every theme is constructed differently, but in the Twenty Seventeen theme, this is located in template-parts > post > content.php.

The estimated reading time will now appear in each post's header alongside the date.

4. Remove the WordPress Version Number

Old versions of WordPress can contain security flaws that malicious hackers and bots can exploit. One way to avoid this risk is to hide which version of WordPress your site uses. This is called security through obscurity.

Before we move on, it's important to note that obscurity should never be your only security measure. It's more like adding an extra bulwark to your already secure WordPress fortress.

Hiding your version number only requires that you add the following, very simple code snippet to the functions file:

remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

The version number will now be removed from all areas of your site, including its code and your RSS feed.

5. Automatically Update Your Copyright Notice

Updating the year in your copyright notice is one of those little tasks that's easy to forget. One way you can keep up is by using this trick that automatically generates the copyright date based on the year when your first post was made up.

Paste the following code into your functions file:

function wpb_copyright() { global $wpdb; $copyright_dates = $wpdb->get_results(" SELECT YEAR(min(post_date_gmt)) AS firstdate, YEAR(max(post_date_gmt)) AS lastdate FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' "); $output = ''; if($copyright_dates) { $copyright = "© " . $copyright_dates[0]->firstdate; if($copyright_dates[0]->firstdate != $copyright_dates[0]->lastdate) { $copyright .= '-' . $copyright_dates[0]->lastdate; } $output = $copyright; } return $output; }

Then add the following code wherever you want the copyright information to be displayed:

<?php echo wpb_copyright(); ?>

You'll now see the dynamically updating copyright date on your site.

In this case, we added the date to the footer.php file so it would be displayed at the bottom of the page.

6. Add Custom Menus

Most themes have pre-defined navigation menus, but what if you want to create your own menu and place it wherever you want on your site? All you need to do is paste this code into your functions file:

function wpb_custom_new_menu() { register_nav_menu('my-custom-menu',__( 'My Customized Menu' )); } add_action( 'init', 'wpb_custom_new_menu' );

You can replace 'My Customized Menu' with the name you want to give the menu. If you go to Appearance > Menus in your admin area, you should see the new option listed.

You can now add the new menu anywhere on your site.

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'my-custom-menu', 'container_class' => 'custom-menu-class' ) ); ?>

Most commonly, you'll want to place this code in the header.php file.

7. Customize Your Excerpts

Excerpts are short sample descriptions of your posts that can be displayed on your homepage or in search results, instead of the full post's contents. By default all excerpts have the same length and link text, but you can change that.

First, let's alter the text of the link that takes you from the excerpt to the full post. This is usually "Read more" or "Continue reading," but you can make it whatever you want by pasting the following snippet into your functions file:

function new_excerpt_more($more) { global $post; return '<a class="moretag" href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '"> Read the full article...</a>'; } add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');

Here the link text has been set to Read the full article...:

Then, let's change the length of the excerpt. Paste this code into your functions file:

function new_excerpt_length($length) { return 20; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length');

By default, the standard length is 55 words. In this example, it's been set to 20. You can change the number to whatever you wish.

8. Add a Random Background to Your Site

Finally, let's end with a fun design trick. This tweak enables you to randomly generate a new background color for your site every time somebody visits it. Start by adding the following code to the functions file:

function wpb_bg() { $rand = array('0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'); $color ='#'.$rand[rand(0,15)].$rand[rand(0,15)].$rand[rand(0,15)]. $rand[rand(0,15)].$rand[rand(0,15)].$rand[rand(0,15)]; echo $color; }

This code generates the HTML tag for the colors, so all you need to do now is to make sure it gets applied to the page. To do that, you'll need to find the <body> tag, which should look like this:

<body <?php body_class(); ?>>

This is usually found in the header.php file, but can be elsewhere depending on your theme. When you've located the right line, simply replace it with the following code:

<body <?php body_class(); ?> style="background-color:<?php wpb_bg();?>">>

Save your file now and open your website. You should see that it has a new background color.

Reload the page, and you'll see a new color every time.

This is obviously not the right design choice for every site, but it's a neat trick for some.

Conclusion

The WordPress functions.php file is a perfect place to start learning how to tinker with your site's default functionality. It's a powerful file that gives you a lot of control over your site, once you understand how it works.

How To Create Function Php File In Wordpress Theme

Source: https://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress/guide-to-wp-functions/

Posted by: griffithatted1945.blogspot.com

Share this post