Can't load my template file

Question

My human.tpl.php file is located in /tpl folder. Im trying to use hook_theme from the module:

    function human_theme($existing, $type, $theme, $path){
    return array(
        $item['human'] = array(
            'template' => 'human',
            'path' => drupal_get_path('module', 'human').'/tpl',
            'type' => 'theme',
            'variables' => array(),
        ),
    );
    return $item;
}

Why is this not working? I have some basic html code in my template file for testing purposes so it should show me something, but I get nothing back. If more information is needed, please let me know and I will add. Full code of a .module file can be found here.

Answer 1

You have two returns (the second will never be hit). You have declared your array twice. It should be this:

function human_theme($existing, $type, $theme, $path){
  return array(
    'human' => array(
      'template' => 'human',
      'path' => drupal_get_path('module', 'human').'/tpl',
      'type' => 'theme',
      'variables' => array(),
    ),
  );
}

Answer 2

In order for Drupal to find these new template files specified in hook_theme() you have to also clear the theme cache.

Also look into theme debugging for Drupal which will show you theme suggestions that show which template files are being used to generate sections of a page.

Answer 3

Thank you for all the answers, I used all of your suggestions, but the problem was with _page() function. After going through multiple examples I realized that I have to return $render_array, so now my human_page function looks like this:

function human_page(){
    //LOAD CUSTOM CONTENT TYPE FROM DB
    $result = entity_load('node', false, array('type' => 'human'));

    $render_array = array(
        '#theme' => 'human',
        '#items' => $result,
        '#title' =>t('ARGUMENT'),
    );
    return $render_array;
}

Lesson learned: Don't return simple variables in a page function because it will not work :)