The best way to use variables on all WordPress pages

Question

I'm building a custom theme that has a lot of variables that I wish to use throughout.

Example:

$tv     = $options['tv'];
$movies = $options['movies'];
$print  = $options['print'];
//....and about 50 more.

For this purpose I have been simply placing them all in a file called vars.php and then in header.php of the theme I include it...

require_once('vars.php');

While this does work, it doesn't feel like the best way. I've read on numerous occasions that use global variables (presumably in functions.php) isn't a good idea, but is this true?

But if it's fine to use global variables in functions.php (even lots of them) is this the right way to go about it?:

global $tv;
$tv     = $options['tv'];

global $movies
$movies = $options['movies'];

global $print
$print  = $options['print'];

Answer 1

The best way for this is to define all the variables explicitly in functions.php or in main plugin file for plugin. I have verified this is the way most popular plugins including akismet use. Specifically you need to do this.

define( MYVAR_TV, $options['tv'] );
define( MYVAR_MOVIES, $options['movies'] );
define( MYVAR_PRINT, $options['print'] );

After these you can just use them whereever you want like

echo MYVAR_TV;

Hope it helps.