Functions when woocommerce isn't installed

Question

I'm working on a theme right now and I'm using some functions like is_shop() in the header if the woocommerce plugin is installed. However when the plugin isn't installed these functions aren't defined and I run into some issues. What is the best way to deal with this? I've thought about just defining empty functions like function is_shop() { }. Is this the best way to do this? Or should I do something else?

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you define your own empty function, then it can cause a problem when the plugin tries to load its same function. The simplest way around this is to use PHP's built-in function_exists() method wrapped around the function call. If that function is defined (like inside the plugin) it'll run the call. If not, it's skips over it without a second thought.

if ( function_exists( 'is_shop' ) ) {
    is_shop();
    // do other stuff related to is_shop()
}