Loading JavaScript into WordPress Themes

Recently, I was working on a theme that was based on a modified version of TwentyTen, the default WP theme (www.corporate-chocolates.co.uk) and ran into an issue loading a jQuery file.

I had a .js file that ran a slideshow and some other functions and loaded it into my header.php file with this:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_url’); ?>/js/myfunctions.js”></script>

I noticed that the TwentyTen theme has an explicit note that wp_head() should always be placed just before the closing </head> tag or it will break many functions… Well, doing this means the javascript doesn’t load properly.

Solution? Put the call to the external file after the wp_head() line.

Incidentally, when loading jQuery into WordPress, it is better to use the full name rather than the $ alias as this prevents it conflicting with any other scripts that WP may be running.