making new function in theme.php

[veez]

Hello,  I had a question from another thread, which I must have confused a lot of people. so I would like to start fresh here.
link to previous threadhttp://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php/topic,51245.0.html

objective: to do string manipulation after obtaining the full url to the intermediary pictures

Example:  mysite.com/album/uploads/pic1/picture1.jpg

Where:  use it in theme.php


From the previous thread with the help from the fellow members:

I tried making a new function in theme.php

Code Select Expand

function newfunction()
{

global $lang_picinfo, $CURRENT_PIC_DATA;


$picture_url = get_pic_url($CURRENT_PIC_DATA, 'normal');
$name = 'http://mysite.com/' . $picture_url;

return $name;
}

Then I assign the function to a variable:

Code Select Expand

$picture_path=newfunction();

Then to display the result, I put it into $template_display_media, just after the EOT

Code Select Expand

$template_display_media = <<<EOT
$picture_path
..
..



But I keep getting a blank output.

would appreciate the help
thanks