Question

I am creating new shortcodes for WordPress on my local version of a WordPress website.

In functions.php, I am adding for example:

function shortTest() {  
    return 'Test for shortcodes ';  
} 

add_shortcode('shortTestHTML', 'shortTest');  

Adding the function only is OK, but when I add the add_shortcode() portion, I get a major issue.

It breaks something somehow and I get 500 errors, meaning I can’t even load my website locally anymore.

Any thoughts???

Thanks so much!

EDIT:

From PHP Error Log:
[21-Jun-2011 19:02:37] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function add_shortcode() in /Users/jonas/Sites/jll/wp-includes/functions.php on line 4505

Answer 1

1) Make sure that you have included shortcodes.php file somewhere (for example, in wp-load.php or whatever other more appropriate place may be).

require_once( ABSPATH . '/wp-includes/shortcodes.php' );

2) Make sure that this file does exist on your installation (which I think you have otherwise we would see a different error).

3) Where do you call this function from (I see it is called from functions.php, but which place)? Possible problem here — functions.php is loaded prior to shortcodes.php, and if you do use that add_shortcode function before shortcodes.php is loaded you most likely will see this error. Double check your code in that place — maybe move the call to add_shortcode to another place.