Simple PHP encryption and decryption

<?php
/**
 * simple method to encrypt or decrypt a plain text string
 * initialization vector(IV) has to be the same when encrypting and decrypting
 * PHP 5.4.9
 *
 * this is a beginners template for simple encryption decryption
 * before using this in production environments, please read about encryption
 *
 * @param string $action: can be 'encrypt' or 'decrypt'
 * @param string $string: string to encrypt or decrypt
 *
 * @return string
 */
function encrypt_decrypt($action, $string) {
    $output = NULL;

    $encrypt_method = "AES-256-CBC";
    $secret_key = 'This is my secret key';
    $secret_iv = 'This is my secret iv';

    // hash
    $key = hash('sha256', $secret_key);

    // iv - encrypt method AES-256-CBC expects 16 bytes - else you will get a warning
    $iv = substr(hash('sha256', $secret_iv), 0, 16);

    if( $action == 'encrypt' ) {
        $output = openssl_encrypt($string, $encrypt_method, $key, 0, $iv);
        $output = base64_encode($output);
    }
    else if( $action == 'decrypt' ){
        $output = openssl_decrypt(base64_decode($string), $encrypt_method, $key, 0, $iv);
    }

    return $output;
}

$plain_txt = "This is my plain text";
echo "Plain Text = $plain_txt\n";

$encrypted_txt = encrypt_decrypt('encrypt', $plain_txt);
echo "Encrypted Text = $encrypted_txt\n";

$decrypted_txt = encrypt_decrypt('decrypt', $encrypted_txt);
echo "Decrypted Text = $decrypted_txt\n";

if( $plain_txt === $decrypted_txt ) {
  echo "SUCCESS";
}
else {
  echo "FAILED";
}

echo "\n";
?>

Reference:

https://naveensnayak.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/simple-php-encrypt-and-decrypt/