Displaying theme options in css

Question

I am literally pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. I have been at it for almost 12 hours now.

Being new to PHP and theme development I am having a hard time understanding how to get theme_options('value'); to display when putting in a PHP stylesheet.

I have taken an example off a blog post I read here using the parse_request method.

code in header.php

<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href="<?php echo get_template_directory() ?>/css/theme_styles.php?my-custom-content=css" />

and in theme-styles.php

<?php
    add_action( 'parse_request', 'my_custom_wp_request' );
    function my_custom_wp_request( $wp ) {
        if ( !empty( $_GET['my-custom-content'] ) && $_GET['my-custom-content'] == 'css' ) {
            # get theme options
            header( 'Content-Type: text/css' );
?>
        a { color: <?php echo get_option('some_other_option') ?> !important; }
<?php
        exit;
        }
    }
?>

That's all it says to do in the post so now I am lost. I have tried many other solutions that also did not work. Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

Although @Jevuska did solve my issue, I have found a much easier solution to adding dynamic CSS from my theme options page. Here we go!

Add this to functions.php

add_action('wp_head', 'my_custom_css');
function my_custom_css(){
require_once( get_template_directory() . '/css/theme-styles.php' );
}

Now you can treat theme-styles.php as a normal CSS stylesheet

<style type="text/css">
a {
    color: <?php echo get_option('some_other_option');?> !important;
}
</style>

Done! It was that simple.

Answer 2

CSS customizable by manipulate parse_query

@Scott Reinmuth, I think you misdirection about those tutorials, yes you use parse_request method.

If you follow, this code is a hook with function and you need to put in functions.php

<?php
    add_action( 'parse_request', 'my_custom_wp_request' );
    function my_custom_wp_request( $wp ) {
        if ( !empty( $_GET['my-custom-content'] ) && $_GET['my-custom-content'] == 'css' ) {
        # get theme options
        header( 'Content-Type: text/css' );
?>
a {color: <?php echo get_option('some_other_option'); ?> !important;}
<?php
        exit; 
        }
    }
?>

And in header.php with this code ( without file /css/theme_styles.php ) to make a request with parameter my-custom-content and value css. Thats why we need a hook with function to make it work.

<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href="<?php bloginfo( 'url' ); ?>/?my-custom-content=css" />

we done here.

---

BUT if you need to use css in out side function, then you create custom-css.php. And your function in functions.php will be like this:

add_action( 'parse_request', 'my_custom_wp_request' );
function my_custom_wp_request( $wp ) {
    if ( !empty( $_GET['my-custom-content'] ) && $_GET['my-custom-content'] == 'css' ) {
    # get theme options
       header( 'Content-Type: text/css' );
       require dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/css/custom-css.php';
       exit;
    }
}       

and inside your custom-css.php

a {
  color: <?php echo get_option('some_other_option'); ?> !important;
} 

In header.php still the same above.

---

Similar approach with validate

My similar approach with validate data. We just use file functions.php theme to add this code.

/** Enqueue style for custom css
 *  we use parameter wpse_css and ( int ) 1 as value
 *
 */
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'wpse221867_enqueue_style', 99 );
function wpse221867_enqueue_style()
{
    /** check url ssl */
    $url = ( is_ssl() ) ?
            home_url( '/', 'https' ) : home_url( '/' );
    
    /** Register and enqueue wpse_style_php
     *  Build query with wpse_css as parameter, 1 as number to validation
     *
     */
    wp_register_style( 'wpse_style_php',
        add_query_arg( array(
            'wpse_css' => ( int ) 1
        ), $url ),
        array(), //your style handled
        null, //remove wp version
        'all' //media
    );
    wp_enqueue_style( 'wpse_style_php' );
}

/** Fire parse_request with function wpse221867_print_css
 *  Generate css in PHP
 *
 *  @return string CSS Content
 */
add_action( 'parse_request', 'wpse221867_print_css' );
function wpse221867_print_css()
{
    /** validate query on input */
    $css = filter_input( INPUT_GET, 'wpse_css', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT );
    
    if ( ! $css || ( int ) 1 != $css )
        return;
    
    ob_start();
    header( 'Content-type: text/css' );
    
    /** wpse_option_settings contain css in an array i.e
     *  array( 'wpse_css_content' => 'a{color:#ececec}' )
     *
     */
    $options = get_option( 'wpse_option_settings' );
    $raw_css = ( isset( $options['wpse_css_content'] ) )
                ? $options['wpse_css_content'] : '';
    
    /** sanitize for output */
    $content = wp_kses( $raw_css,
        array( '\'', '\"' )
    );
    $content = str_replace( '>', '>', $content );
    echo $content; // output
    die();
}

IMHO, this method not recommended, especially for performance issue. Just use static css file, find another way to make it your css customizable, please take a look wp_add_inline_style ( example available ) and get_theme_mod.