Child theme dos and don'ts

The other approach I’ve tried is make a clone of the entire theme and call it ‘XXX – child’ in my site content folder then go from there.

Don’t do that. ??

That’s not a child theme when you do that. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but you usually end up creating more work for yourself that way.

Child themes (once you get them) are the easiest thing to do. The starting point is just 2 files.

my-child-theme/style.css

/*
Theme Name: Some Theme's Child Theme
Author: Self-Help WordPress User
Template: theme-directory-name-here
*/

@import url("../theme-directory-name-here/style.css");

And a one line my-child-theme/functions.php like so

<?php

Which is just a place holder for any future additions. The child theme’s functions.php file is never a copy of the parent theme’s functions.php file.

Those 2 files are your starting point and depending on your parent theme and what you want to change you then proceed from there.

Which theme are you starting with? Almost all of the themes in the WordPress repo here can be child theme’ed.

Thanks for the reply ??

Ok, I’m obviously thinking this all wrong. My current project uses Responsive theme. As an example, I want my standard pages here to be pretty much like the ‘Full width page (no sidebar)’ template except I don’t want comments. So my inclination is to go to the full-width-page.php file and remove the comments code.

Are you saying I need to add this as a new page type in that second file? I guess my thinking was to just use what’s there and tweak it to be how I wanted it rather than start with a new file, what’s the problem with doing that?

I guess my thinking was to just use what’s there and tweak it to be how I wanted it rather than start with a new file…

Some files get copied into the Child Theme, then modified. But in a case like not having comments, there are some Dashboard settings for controlling certain things. In my own case, and since I am not a coder, I began learning about WordPress settings and theme-specific changes by doing a *lot* of “How to…?” searches both here in these forums and out on the ‘net.

just use what’s there and tweak it to be how I wanted it rather than start with a new file, what’s the problem with doing that?

The problem with modifying theme files directly is that they will be overwritten when the theme is updated – so you will lose all your changes (you really don’t want to go there ?? ). And you also don’t want to avoid updating because eventually (or sooner) you will very likely run into security and/or compatibility issues.

A Child Theme lets you make changes that won’t be lost upon updating the theme.

The problem with modifying theme files directly is that they will be overwritten when the theme is updated – so you will lose all your changes

I mean a copy of the file in the child theme folder, is there a problem with (in the example above) copying the page template into my child theme, and modifying it to get rid of the comments functionality, then using that?

Some files get copied into the Child Theme, then modified. But in a case like not having comments, there are some Dashboard settings for controlling certain things.

It’s probably not the best example but something I was looking at at the time ?? I’m not sure there are settings in this theme to disable them but in any case, there are modifications I want to make generally.

From your comment I assume what I’m doing IS ok? Creating a copy of the files and altering as I need?

In my own case, and since I am not a coder, I began learning about WordPress settings and theme-specific changes by doing a *lot* of “How to…?” searches both here in these forums and out on the ‘net.

I’ve done that too but still confused, even the comments here so far have confused me! But thanks, I’m hoping to get it eventually…

I mean a copy of the file in the child theme folder, is there a problem with (in the example above) copying the page template into my child theme, and modifying it to get rid of the comments functionality, then using that?

No, that is a correct procedure in a Child Theme.

I mean a copy of the file in the child theme folder, is there a problem with (in the example above) copying the page template into my child theme, and modifying it to get rid of the comments functionality, then using that?

No, that is a correct procedure in a Child Theme.

Ah right, ok. So I’m doing things the right way? Cloning the files I want to alter and altering them in the child theme folder? Just to be clear, I’m still very new to WordPress ??

It depends which files you’re cloning.

It depends which files you’re cloning.

Thanks. Which files shouldn’t I clone? functions.php I guess from the first comment. Are there any others I can’t modify?

style.css is another – I think thats it

WP have other css then style css

The files in WordPress (the core application) should never be edited or modified.

Your theme can have other CSS than style.css, correct.