Wordpress - make variables available for all theme files (without Globals) - php

Question

I'm developing a Wordpress theme and I'm trying to store some of my variables in a function to re-use it among my theme files, without writing the same variables hundreds of time and without make them global. I've read that's a bad practice.
For now I'm using add_action but without results. Having in my functions.php
add_action( 'run_pms_variables', 'pms_variables_function' );
function pms_variables_function ($uid ) {
$the_group_uid = isset($_COOKIE["v_group_id"]) && !empty($_COOKIE["v_group_id"]) ? trim(strip_tags($_COOKIE["v_group_id"])) : "";
$session_detail = vpb_get_the_user_detail($uid);
$session_username = strlen($session_detail[0]) > 40 ? ucfirst(substr($session_detail[0],0,40)) : ucfirst($session_detail[0]);
$session_uid = $session_detail[1];
$session_email = $session_detail[2];
$session_photo = $session_detail[3];
$session_country = $session_detail[4];
//$session_usernames = explode(' ', $session_detail[0]);
$session_firstname = get_user_meta($uid,'first_name', true );
$session_lastname = get_user_meta($uid,'last_name', true );
}
and using eventually in my files like:
do_action('run_pms_variables', $uid );
I mean, can you address me to the right method? Thanks.

Answer 1

Write a class, declare a global object of that class, save all your variables as attribute/property of that class.
Now from anywhere just get the global object.
You have all variables stored inside that.

Answer 2

Uuuuhmm you are mixing apples with peaches. The WordPress Hooks, Actions and Filters are ment to modify the WordPress core the way you want, it is not build to store any data somewhere in your template.
One way to do it would be to simply store the values in the database of your WordPress installation. To do that you need to get familiar with the "Nonce" function, which is security mechanism for storing stuff in the database of WP.
There are hundrets and thousands of tutorials out there which show how to do it.
If you want only to store some numeric values or short strings, you could use the HTML data-* object to store some data, when php spits it back.

Answer 3

add_action( 'run_pms_variables', 'pms_variables_function' );
function pms_variables_function ($uid ) {
class GlobalVariables{
function __construct ($uid){
$this->the_group_uid = isset($_COOKIE["v_group_id"]) && !empty($_COOKIE["v_group_id"]) ? trim(strip_tags($_COOKIE["v_group_id"])) : "";
$this->session_detail = vpb_get_the_user_detail($uid);
$this->session_username = strlen($session_detail[0]) > 40 ? ucfirst(substr($session_detail[0],0,40)) : ucfirst($session_detail[0]);
$this->session_uid = $session_detail[1];
$this->session_email = $session_detail[2];
$this->session_photo = $session_detail[3];
$this->session_country = $session_detail[4];
//$session_usernames = explode(' ', $session_detail[0]);
$this->session_firstname = get_user_meta($uid,'first_name', true );
$this->session_lastname = get_user_meta($uid,'last_name', true );
}
}
return GlobalVariables($uid);
}
//and to access:
$global_variables = do_action('run_pms_variables', $uid );
echo $global_variables->the_group_uid;
As a side note, be definition global variables are variables that can be accessed anywhere, other options include setting variables in the $_SESSION super global (as most of you're variables look session specific) inside the pms_variables_function instead of setting class attributes.