path_to_theme() goes to parent theme not subtheme

Question

I'm using zen as my parent theme and for some reason path_to_theme() is suddenly printing /sites/all/themes/zen instead of the subtheme /sites/all/themes/<mytheme>. What's even more confusing is that it's only happening when node/12 is being displayed.

Could this code have something to do with it?

<?php
//template.php
if(isset($vars['node'])){
    if($vars['node']->nid == 12) {
        $vars['is_request_quote'] = true;
    }
}
?>

I use the variable $is_request_quote to change the layout in page.tpl.php. I do this through <?php elseif( $is_request_quote ) : ?> -New layout here- <?php endif; ?>. Could that be the one affecting it?

Answer 1

I had this problem too. Solution here, applied to node instead of page, worked for me: copy node.tpl.php to your custom theme templates directory. Once I did that, path_to_theme() behaved correctly.

Answer 2

I found the answer! It's probably not the best one so feel free to challenge. After several tests, I found out that path_to_theme() correctly points to the subtheme in page.tpl.php but when you use it in node.tpl.php it suddenly points to the parent theme (zen).

My answer is a 2 step process starting with creating the variable which stores the path I want:

function themename_preprocess(&$vars, $hook){
    $vars['THEMEPATH'] = base_path() . path_to_theme(); //points to subtheme
}

then to make sure it works in nodes, enable the following function to make it available in node.tpl.php. There doesn't need to be anything inside it, as long as the function gets declared in your template.php file.

function themename_preprocess_node(&$vars, $hook){
    // Put anything here or leave it blank
}

After doing so, voila! You can now use $THEMEPATH in both nodes and pages.