How to create new helpers in Magento custom module

Magento's Helper classes contain utility methods that will allow you to perform common tasks on objects and variables. Sometimes you may want to add new utility methods or classes in your Magento module. Helpers are a good place to create these utility methods or classes. This tutorial will show you how you can add a new helper class to your Magento module.

1. Declare the helper

Suppose our helper name is 'Utility', in your module's config.xml, you need to declare the new helper class as follows:

<config>
 ...
 <global>
  ...
  <helpers>
   <utility> <!-- helper name -->
    <class>ModuleName_Utility_Helper</class> <!-- helper class -->
   </utility>
  </helpers>
 </global>
</config>

2. Create helper class

You need to create the helper class in 'app\code\local\\\Helper' directory. Our file name will be 'Utility.php'. The class structure will look like:

<?php
class <Namespace>_<Module>_Helper_Utility extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
{
 public function myhelper() {
 
 }
}

3. Call the helper

You can call the newly created helper class as:

<?php
$utility = Mage::helper('<module>/utility');
$utility->myhelper();