Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › Do I edit a purchased child theme's files, or edit a child of that child theme?
- This topic has 14 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 4 months ago by bcoco.
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November 14, 2013 at 3:12 pm #73001slobizmanMember
I purchased and installed a child theme (Magazine Pro) and will be making some minor CSS and possibly functions changes to it. Being new to modifying purchased Genesis child themes, here's my question:
Do I make any edits to the style sheet and functions.php files in the child theme directory? If I do that wouldn't an update to the Magazine Pro child theme overwrite my edits? Or are there never updates to purchased child themes?
Or do I make a child theme of the child theme and make changes there?
Thanks!
November 14, 2013 at 3:20 pm #73002RobGMemberWhen you make any changes to your Child themes you need to access the Style.css file and Function.php file. You can do this right from your WordPress dashboard. You will not loose any of your changes if a theme is updated from StudioPress and nothing will be overwriten.
For example, StudioPress is in the process of converting their themes to HTML5 markup, it's totally up to you if you want to make the cross over because you will need to make the necessary changes to your CSS file and so on.
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http://www.robgoss.com / Follow me Twitter / https://twitter.com/robgossNovember 14, 2013 at 3:33 pm #73005SusanModeratorDo I make any edits to the style sheet and functions.php files in the child theme directory? If I do that wouldn’t an update to the Magazine Pro child theme overwrite my edits? Or are there never updates to purchased child themes? For the child themes, an update will overwrite your edits, but updates aren't automatically done, so you can chose not to update the theme.
Or do I make a child theme of the child theme and make changes there? - No
November 14, 2013 at 3:43 pm #73010RobGMember@Susan are you saying if I have let's say a theme from StudioPress and we'll call it Dream theme and StudioPress comes out with a more updated version it will overwrite my current edits? I know switching to HTML5 will do this because the markups change.
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RobGoss WordPress Developer
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http://www.robgoss.com / Follow me Twitter / https://twitter.com/robgossNovember 14, 2013 at 3:46 pm #73013slobizmanMemberThanks to both of you, but the two answers seem to conflict. RobG says I "will not loose any of [my] changes if a theme is updated from StudioPress and nothing will be overwriten" to Style.css file and Function.php. But Susan says "an update will overwrite your edits."
Which is correct? Thanks.
November 14, 2013 at 4:09 pm #73015RobGMember@Slobizman, If you update your theme from XHTML to HTML5, then yes your edits made need some tewaking to make things look as they were because the HTML5 markups most of the elements will changes.
As far as loosing edits for any other updates that StudioPress makes I never remember loosing anything, but then again I only member StudioPress introducing the Pro versions of their themes which makes a big difference.
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RobGoss WordPress Developer
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http://www.robgoss.com / Follow me Twitter / https://twitter.com/robgossNovember 14, 2013 at 5:40 pm #73026KeithAdvMemberI'll be the contrarian, I guess. I think it's a good practice to routinely make child-of-a-child themes, or grandchild themes, or whatever you'd like to call them--even if it's only a custom css file.
First, it's a trivial thing to do. Second, it may be Studiopress's unofficial practice but not a stated policy to rename its themes when they update them. There's no guarantee that they won't find a reason to correct a few things in, say, Magazine Pro from v3.0 to 3.1 tomorrow and push that out.
More important, StudioPress isn't the only company that makes Genesis themes. I recently build a site using Ayoshop, which updated while I was in development. No problem, though--all my changes were tucked into a grandchild theme folder.
Finally, it makes it easier for me to deal with an extensively-changed site knowing that 100% of my changes are in one place and that 100% of the code in a particular file are changes I've made. I just think it's faster and more efficient.
Or maybe I'm just really anal-retentive, One or the other.
November 14, 2013 at 7:27 pm #73042AnitaKeymasterI don't make child of a child if I am only making minimal changes to the style sheet only. Not worth all that aggravation in my opinion. Once I make those changes, I save a copy to my hard drive. But if you are going to change code in the functions.php file or your home.php files - say adding in more widget areas, I would then suggest making a child of a child. Just my process.
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November 14, 2013 at 7:40 pm #73044slobizmanMemberCan anyone explain how to do the grandchild method? Thanks!
November 14, 2013 at 8:53 pm #73063emasaiParticipantAs Andrea likes to explain it, a child theme is like the skin on a face with whatever fancy css make up you care to apply. The bone structure of the face is the Genesis framework. There is no need to update a child theme if you are happy with your site, just because Studiopress brought out a newer version, which sometimes has very little relation to the original. What does need updating, when available, is the Genesis framework version and the WordPress structure i.e. the bones, skeleton on which the skin and make up are applied.
When making a lot of css and function file modifications I often keep a copy of the original or latest working version of my changes, so that if I forget a ; } or a closing div, I can always go back to the last working version. Learned from the experience of seeing my whole site fall apart because I forgot a curly bracket somewhere in all the changes I made.
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Lynne emasai.comNovember 14, 2013 at 11:05 pm #73092SusanModerator@Susan are you saying if I have let’s say a theme from StudioPress and we’ll call it Dream theme and StudioPress comes out with a more updated version it will overwrite my current edits?
Yes, that's what I'm saying.
If an update to a theme is released, and you install it on your site, you will lose your edits to the theme that you have made. Keep that in mind when trying to decide whether to update a child theme.
November 15, 2013 at 10:56 am #73155decethMemberKeep in mind, when you get StudioPress updates, it's not always updating your child theme. Lots of the changes will be in the genesis framework so in that case none of your changes will be overwritten. That's why people are saying they have updated without losing their modifications.
If the update includes a new version of a file you have modified, you will lose the changes. So if an update does make changes to the child theme, and the update does include a new version for a file you have modified, your changes will be overwritten.
Anytime you modify a theme, the best practice is to make the changes in a child theme. If you're modifying a child theme, the same principle applies. That child theme can have a child. The point is, changes you don't want to lose have to be in an area that will not be modified.
Hopefully that made some sense...
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November 15, 2013 at 12:41 pm #73212slobizmanMemberThere seems to still be no clear answer. I'll simplify the questions:
1. On a Studiopress child theme I've purchased, if I make my changes to the child theme's stylesheet and functions.php file (as I believe is the promoted method of making changes), will those be overwritten on an upgrade of the said child theme (not a genesis parent theme upgrade, I understand that).
2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how to people handle this? Do they comment all the changes (and there can be alot) they have made, and then prior to a child theme upgrade, do they reapply all the changes to the new stylesheet and functions.php and hope they got them all?
3. If a grandchild theme is possible (and I've read on the web both it is and that it isn't with Genesis), then can someone give me a quickie set of steps to do this, from someone who has actually done it?
I'd think this would be addressed someone on the site, but I don't see anything.
November 15, 2013 at 2:40 pm #73258SusanModerator1. On a Studiopress child theme I’ve purchased, if I make my changes to the child theme’s stylesheet and functions.php file (as I believe is the promoted method of making changes), will those be overwritten on an upgrade of the said child theme (not a genesis parent theme upgrade, I understand that).
YESNovember 15, 2013 at 5:27 pm #73309bcocoParticipantI prefer to make it easy - I add a custom.css file to the child theme, and then use an mu-plugin (ala Bill Erickson) for my custom functions.
Keep those backed up, and then when it's time for the update, you just add your custom.css file back in, and you're good to go. (updates won't mess with your custom functions, since they're outside the theme structure.)
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