Why does including a file in theme’s functions.php not work?

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For example, if I write some code (e.d. add a custom post type or something) in my theme’s functions.php, it works fine. If I move it to a new file, then include() the file in my theme’s functions.php file, it no longer works (but debug code using error_log() still works.

e.g.

Here’s functions.php:

<?php
// ###### functions.php ######
error_log("fu_debug: Including the post type.");

add_action('init', 'fu_create_project_post_type');
function fu_create_project_post_type() {
    error_log("fu_debug: create project post type");

    register_post_type( 'fu_project',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => __( 'Projects' ),
                'singular_name' => __( 'Project' )
            ),
            'public' => true,
            'has_archive' => true,
            'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'projects'),
        )
    );
}
?>

That works fine. Now, if I change functions.php to this:

<?php
// ###### functions.php ######
include "newfile.php";
?>

and put the code inside newfile.php like this:

<?php
// ###### newfile.php ######
error_log("fu_debug: Including the post type.");

add_action('init', 'fu_create_project_post_type');
function fu_create_project_post_type() {
    error_log("fu_debug: create project post type");

    register_post_type( 'fu_project',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => __( 'Projects' ),
                'singular_name' => __( 'Project' )
            ),
            'public' => true,
            'has_archive' => true,
            'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'projects'),
        )
    );
}
?>

the code no longer works, but the error_log() message still shows up in the logs.

Why does the error message still work, but the wordpress code not?

2 Answers
2

When including files in functions.php, you need to reference the correct filepath, using get_template_directory():

include( get_template_directory() . '/newfile.php' );

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