Use WordPress functions within Magento

gistfile1.php

<?php

// I do a lot of websites where the client would like the ease of WordPress for a blog and 
// for regular pages, but want something enterprise level for the e-commerce portion of 
// their site. In order to service this need, I usually setup a wordpress site as the main 
// site and then setup Magento as a secondary site at something like example.com/shop/. 
// Then, I use the following 'hack' in order to use WP elements from within Magento so I
// don't have to do twice the work and/or so the client, if they are managing the site 
// themselves, don't have to change things in two places. For example, you can use WordPress
// nav menus within Magento, so that you don't have to maintain 2 menus. You can also call
// widget areas, query recent posts for the sidebar, include custom css styling, and so on.

// If anybody comes across this and has questions, please email me at [email protected]

// STEP 1 - PREVENT __() CONFLICT

// WHY:
// WP & Magento both create new __() functions on init. If you're loading WP from within Magento,
// the WP one will run second & cause an error because that function has already been created. 
// To prevent this, we can wrap it in a conditional statement that checks if the function exists.
// By checking if it exists and not removing the function all together, we are allowing WordPress
// to use the function when it's operating normally (when it's not being called within Magento).

// In /wp-includes/l10n.php, FIND:
function __( $text, $domain = 'default' ) {
	return translate( $text, $domain );
}

// REPLACE WITH:
if(!function_exists("__")) {
  function __( $text, $domain = 'default' ) {
	  return translate( $text, $domain );
  }
}


// STEP 2 - INITIATE WORDPRESS WITHIN MAGENTO

// WHY?
// First, In order to load just the parts of WP that we want, we define WP_USE_THEMES as false. 
// Second, we set the global wp variables that are required to initiate wordpress. 
// Third, we include the file that initiates WordPress. 
// The last step is to call wp() which sets up all the functions we want access to. 

// In your magento theme file(s), define the following before you want to use a WP function
// You only need to define this once per file
define('WP_USE_THEMES', false);
global $wp, $wpdb, $wp_query, $wp_the_query, $wp_rewrite, $wp_did_header; 
require('/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/WORDPRESS/DIRECTORY/wp-load.php'); // Replace with correct path
wp();


// STEP 3 - USE ANY WORDPRESS FUNCTION YOU'D LIKE

bloginfo("title"); // This will echo the title of your WordPress site

// I usually test with this one, but you're able to do queries, loops and so on. 
// Enjoy!