Title: File is outside WordPress Scope after enqueue
Last modified: May 31, 2022

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# File is outside WordPress Scope after enqueue

 *  [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/)
 * I got a file that includes some CSS but its extension is `.php` because I need
   to write PHP inside it, let’s called this file `styling.php`. I enqueue `styling.
   php` in the main PHP file called `main.php` inside the plugin folder with the
   hook `wp_enqueue_scripts`.
 * Inside the `styling.php`, I need to use the `$wpdb` but the file is outside the
   WordPress scope because it’s already enqueued to the frontend, therefore the `
   $wpdb` won’t work (undefined).
 * The only way I could think of is to manually include the `wp-config.php` inside
   the `styling.php`, but I have read many articles that say this is a bad practice
   for calling WordPress instead of WordPress calling the plugin like here: [https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/159347/best-way-to-include-wp-config-php](https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/159347/best-way-to-include-wp-config-php)
 * But I couldn’t think of a better way, is there any better solution?
 * For reference, here is the code for `main.php`:
 *     ```
       add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'styling_1' );
   
       function styling_1() {
          wp_register_style( 'product_css', plugins_url( 'Testing/Styling/styling.php' ) );
          wp_enqueue_style( 'product_css' );
       }
       ```
   
 * Here is the code for `styling.php`:
 *     ```
       <?php
       $table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'newdata';
       $results = $wpdb->get_var($wpdb->prepare("SELECT name FROM $table_name WHERE id = 1"));
   
       header("Content-type: text/css; charset: UTF-8");
       ?>
   
       .single_button {
          background-color: <?php echo $results; ?>;
       }
       ```
   

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15696714)
 * Include wp-load.php and you have the whole WordPress-Core available for your 
   custom style-file.
 *  [Dion](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/)
 * (@diondesigns)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15699529)
 * Loading a PHP script to output a single line of CSS is a **_bad_** idea. Loading
   WordPress in that script would mean you’re doubling the server load because you
   would be executing WordPress twice on every frontend page.
 * Please try something like this instead:
 *     ```
       add_action( 'wp_head', 'styling_1' );
   
       function styling_1() {
       	global $wpdb;
       	$table_name = "{$wpdb->prefix}newdata";
       	$results = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT name FROM $table_name WHERE id = 1");
       	echo "<style>.single_button {background-color: $results;}</style>\n";
       }
       ```
   
 * I removed `$wpdb->prepare()` because there is nothing in your query that needs
   escaping. The `\n` is to “prettify” the output; it can be removed.
 *  Thread Starter [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15699994)
 * [@threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/) This is working but 
   I’m not sure it’s great for performance and considered a good practice.
 *  Thread Starter [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700001)
 * [@diondesigns](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/) The CSS is so
   long that I can’t write them all here, the reason I’m only writing one of them
   here is to give a general idea of what I’m doing and why I need `$wpdb`.
 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700030)
 * A more perfomanent idea would be:
    You are obviously reading something from a
   database table. You could therefore generate the CSS file every time something
   changes in the content of the table. An event for this could be found if you 
   describe what kind of table it is and how its contents are generated. You write
   the CSS file with always the same file name into the file system and include 
   it like you did it with the PHP file. This way the load for generating the CSS
   file lies with the change to the database table and not with the user who loads
   the page.
 *  [Dion](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/)
 * (@diondesigns)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700738)
 * If this is for your own personal site, then you already know the database credentials.
   So add them to your PHP script and use `mysqli` functions to access the values
   in the database. Just make sure to close the DB connection at the end of your
   script.
 * Please be aware that you’ll need some sort of cache control header…otherwise 
   the PHP script would run on every page load, which is a bad idea.
 *  Thread Starter [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700797)
 * [@threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/) I actually made one 
   form and users can field the form to update the information, I store this information
   in the database. I then use the value of the column to style on the frontend.
 * For example, the first input of the form is `main color`, when the user field
   with blue, it is then saved to the database, I then pull this value to style 
   the site.
 * Its’ MySQL btw.
 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700798)
 * Then create the CSS file exactly when the user updates this data. Will surely
   be an input form in the WordPress backend? Seems to be already an individual 
   solution that you can also customize in this regard.
 *  Thread Starter [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700799)
 * [@diondesigns](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/) But is there
   any similar way to get the specific data like `get_var`? I’m developing a plugin
   and I think I cannot know the database credential of the user who installs it.
   Any example is much appreciated to accomplish what I’m doing as I’ve shown.
 *  Thread Starter [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700800)
 * [@threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/) Yes, the form is in 
   the backend and not frontend. Can you elaborate more or maybe give some reference
   on how to generate the CSS file every time something changes in the content of
   the table? I haven’t heard of this and therefore have no idea how to actually
   do this.
 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700810)
 * This is actually quite simple. You just have to write the CSS code via file_put_contents()
   to a location inside your plugin or theme from where you then load them.
 * Simple example:
    `file_put_contents('path/to/style.css', '.selector { background-
   color: #'.$variable.'; }');`
 * [https://www.php.net/manual/de/function.file-put-contents.php](https://www.php.net/manual/de/function.file-put-contents.php)
 * … and that’s more or less where you write the value into the database anyway.
 *  [Dion](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/)
 * (@diondesigns)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15700903)
 * If this will be a plugin for other users, then saving the CSS file as [@threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
   mentions is the best way to proceed. However, you’ll need a “cachebuster” value
   to append to the URL of the CSS file; otherwise, you could update the file but
   users will not load it until the version in their browser cache expires. The 
   easiest way to generate a “cachebuster” value is to create one every time you
   update your CSS values:
 * `update_option('my_cachebuster', time());`
 * You can then append the cachebuster value like this:
 *     ```
       $url = '(URL for stored CSS file)';
       $cachebuster = get_option('my_cachebuster');
       $url .= "?v=$cachebuster";
       ```
   
 * In this way, users will reload the CSS file every time it changes.
 *  Moderator [threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
 * (@threadi)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15701559)
 * You don’t need to set up an extra option for something like this. This can also
   be done when including the file by using its modification time. Example:
 * `wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() .'/style.css',
   array(), filemtime(get_stylesheet_directory() .'/style.css'), 'all' );`
 *  [Dion](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/)
 * (@diondesigns)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15703056)
 * Using `filemtime()` is how I used to create cachebusters, but it has some drawbacks.
   The most serious is that `filemtime()` counts against any IOPS limitations imposed
   by the host (mostly an issue with shared hosting). Since autoload options are
   cached, there is no system overhead when retrieving them from a plugin. I also
   prefer to manually append the cachebuster to the URL, but if one wants to specify
   it separately, this would work:
 *     ```
       wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() .'/style.css', array(), get_option('my_cachebuster'), 'all' );
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * (@ace0930)
 * [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15720790)
 * [@diondesigns](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/) [@threadi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/threadi/)
   Working like a charm, thank you so much!
 * [@diondesigns](https://wordpress.org/support/users/diondesigns/) If I put it 
   into one line like:
    `update_option( 'my_cachebuster', date( 's-d-m-Y', time()));`
 * `wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() .'/style.css',
   array(), get_option('my_cachebuster'), 'all' );`
 * I’m not sure this will impact the performance because the version number is changing
   every second when I inspect the page source. How do I only update the file when
   the file is updated like the input value is successfully saved into the file 
   by `file_put_contents`?
 * Something like this?
 *     ```
       update_option('my_cachebuster', time());
   
       if( isset( $_POST['color'] ) ) {
          file_put_contents(
             plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'css/styling.css',
             'body { background-color: ' . $_POST["color"] . '; }'
          );
   
          get_option('my_cachebuster');
       }
       ```
   

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

The topic ‘File is outside WordPress Scope after enqueue’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 15 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [ace0930](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ace0930/)
 * Last activity: [3 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-is-outside-wordpress-scope-after-enqueue/#post-15720790)
 * Status: not resolved

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