PHP include is only working in certain places in my custom WP theme

Question

I am building a site using a custom WP theme, and I have been using:

<?php include('header-bar.php'); ?> 

in order to include a navigation bar on each page. I intentionally didn't put the navigation in the header.php file because I don't need it on every page.

That bit of code is working fine in certain places, but failing in others.

It works in this scenario:

<?php get_header(); ?>


  <div class='main-content'>

  <?php include('header-bar.php'); ?>

    <div class='container'>

            <?php 

                if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

                    get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() );

                endwhile; endif; 
            ?>
    </div>
</div>


<?php get_footer(); ?>

but it mysteriously fails in this scenario:

<?php 



/*
Template Name: Contact
*/


?>

<?php get_header(); ?>


<div class='main-content'>

  <?php include('header-bar.php'); ?>

    <div class='container'>

            <?php 

                if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

                    get_template_part( 'content', get_post_format() );

                endwhile; endif; 
            ?>

    </div>
</div>


<?php get_footer(); ?>

In this second scenario, the page displays properly, except for a the 'header-bar.php' code which is nowhere to be found. The change that I am making that seemingly 'breaks' this line of code is by adding the template name. Can anyone offer some insight into why this may be? I'm baffled.

Thanks in advance! CPR

Answer 1

Hello CandyPaintedRIMS,

Please try get_template_part() function to include any file into your custom template.

Your code:

<?php include('header-bar.php'); ?>

It should be replaced with:

<?php get_template_part( 'header-bar' ); // include header-bar.php ?>

Hope this will helps you.

Thank you

Answer 2

For the header, you should use the get_header function.

Your code:

<?php include('header-bar.php'); ?>

Should be replace with:

<?php get_header( 'bar' ); ?>

The get_header function uses locate_template which:

Searches in the STYLESHEETPATH before TEMPLATEPATH and wp-includes/theme-compat so that themes which inherit from a parent theme can just overload one file.

and also has a fallback to use the default header.php file in any situation the specified header can't be found.