Unable to make shortcode, what is wrong?

Question

/home/<website>/public_html/wp-content/themes/basic/functions.php

At the very end of the file, I have included these 8 lines:

// Add Shortcode
function custom_shortcode() {

    return "Hello world.";

}
add_shortcode( 'test', 'custom_shortcode' );

Doesn't work and I can't figure out why.

I am self-hosted running the free Basic theme. I have the following plugins:

• Cache Enabler,
• Disable Emojis,
• Remove Google Fonts References,
• UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore,
• WP Fastest Cache,
• WP Statistics.

I've tried various different ways of doing this and have looked up several guides. They all say to do exactly what I'm doing and that it will work, but when I do it it does not work.

Answer 1

That simply is too late for a shortcode. Just try putting it in your themes functions.php file.

Aside from that, using shortcodes imo are not a good idea. When you decide to change it, it will still stay in the database. This means either going through all places in the DB to clean up the now abandoned shortcode, cluttering your content (and wherever else you enabled the use of shortcodes) with [test] or disabling it by replacing the shortcode with something like an empty string, which means a massive parsing overhead.

Answer 2

I was originally using the Basic theme with a few plugins. Disabled the plugins, issue persisted. Changed from Basic theme to twentyseventeen. Went in to the plugins.php file in the twentyseventeen theme and copy/pasted my exact code. Now it's working fine.

I don't know enough to know why the Basic theme did not allow me to make a shortcode, but that is the answer to this dilemma: Basic theme will not allow you to make a shortcode the typical way. Whether it's possible at all is for me to figure out in the future (unless someone else happens to know).