Using locate-template & shortcodes doesn't appear to work

Question

For organisation, I'm trying to split up the functions.php file into separate files. In particular the functions for shortcodes in a separate file, with the shortcodes being defined in functions.php. Here's the code in the functions.php:-

locate_template( array( 'inc/shortcode-functions.php' ), true, true ); 
add_shortcode( 'abc-row', 'echo_abc_row' );
add_shortcode( 'abc-span', 'echo_abc_span' );

I have taken the code out of inc/shortcode-functions.php into the functions.php, so does appear to work, and no error is coming up in debug mode, so I'm a bit stumped. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The locate_template() function is intended to be used to locate/include template files, not functional files.

Just use include() and/or require() to include functional files in functions.php.

Answer 2

If and only if you are looking for a way to make your shortcode-functions.php file overrideable by child themes I'd suggest get_template_part, like this:

get_template_part('inc/shortcode-functions');

Notice that there is no .php at the end. That will load your file, whereas locate_template will fail. (I just tested it.) The difference between the two is that get_template_part does a little bit more work constructing file paths.

If you aren't trying to make it overrideable by a child theme, just use include.