How to use init action in WordPress

init action

The ‘init’ action hook is your go-to when WordPress is gearing up and loading all the necessary PHP files, plugins, and themes in the background. It’s a fantastic hook to register your plugin, widgets, or assets in functions.php.

To get started with the init action, you need to register it using add_action. You can place this code in the functions.php of your active theme or within a custom WordPress Plugin. At WePlugins, we always recommend creating a custom WordPress Plugin when using hooks to avoid any issues during theme updates.

Example 1: Basic Hook Usage

In this live example, we’ve defined a function weplugins_execute_on_init_event and registered it using add_action. The first parameter init is the name of the hook. The second parameter weplugins_execute_on_init_event is the function that needs to be called.

    function weplugins_execute_on_init_event(){
        // Code you want to execute during the init event
    }
    // add the action
    add_action("init", "weplugins_execute_on_init_event");
    

Example 2: Registering a Custom Post Type

Here’s how you can register a custom post type using the init hook.

    function weplugins_custom_post_type_registration() {
        $args = array(
            'public' => true,
            'label'  => 'Custom Post Type'
            // Add more arguments as needed
        );
        register_post_type('custom_post', $args);
    }
    add_action('init', 'weplugins_custom_post_type_registration');
    

Example 3: Enqueuing a Custom Stylesheet

This example demonstrates how to enqueue a custom stylesheet using the init hook.

    function weplugins_enqueue_custom_stylesheet() {
        wp_enqueue_style('custom-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/css/custom-style.css', array(), '1.0', 'all');
    }
    add_action('init', 'weplugins_enqueue_custom_stylesheet');
    

If you ever need to remove a registered hook, you can use remove_action like this:

    remove_action("init", "weplugins_execute_on_init_event");
    

Ensure you provide the same callback function name, priority, and number of arguments when removing the hook callback.