Include files in functions.php

Question

This is a rewritten post since the way I worded my old post totally confused everyone.

MikeSchinkel shows how he uses Include files in his theme's functions.php file In this Stackexchange post: Organizing Code in your WordPress Theme's functions.php File?

Example:

require_once('includes/my-file.php');

How would you write this php line if the file to include is inside a directory, inside the wp-content directory? Location: [wordpress install]/wp-content/new-directory/my-file.php

The only way I can think of is like this:

require_once( ABSPATH . '/wp-content/new-directory/my-file.php' );

Would this be the correct way?

Answer 1

Including a file inside a subdirectory is the same as any other as long as you know the path to the file. Since it's possible to move the 'wp-content' directory, don't pass that part of the path to the require statement; instead, use the WP_CONTENT_DIR constant.

require_once WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/new-directory/my-file.php';

Also, you can leave out the parentheses since include and require are statements, not functions.

Answer 2

This also works:

require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-content/new-directory/my-file.php' );

or

require_once get_stylesheet_directory() . '/my-file.php';