Preserving customizations / THEME UPDATES. Help for choosing the best option.

Hi @enestorm that’s a great question. Just to check – have you used the plugin yet to create a new theme? Or you’ve just started customising the first site in the Multisite network?

If you haven’t yet created a theme – my suggestion would be to:

• Export the theme (which means you can use it across the multisite network).
• Network-activate the new theme – so all sites can use it.

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This would let all sites use the theme with the customizations you’ve made. But it is important to note – changing the first site further won’t make the changes to the exported theme. It will always be at the point where you exported it.

I hope that helps some – but feel free to reply and clarify (or provide further details if I’ve misunderstood what you’re hoping to do.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I am totally new to this plugin – and blockthemes in general.

Just to clarify: I am using the default WordPress Twenty Twenty-Three theme, and I have Network activated it.

After installing this plugin I started customising the first (the main) site in the Multisite network. I uploaded local, custom fonts, made a few changes to templates, made a few new templates, changed colours etc.

All sites in this multisite network are going to have the same basic customisations, local fonts etc. and I found out that I could probably use this plugin to achieve that – instead of adding the same changes manually several times on each and every site in the network.

I tried out some of the options in this plugin. I tried to EXPORT the theme with my customisations etc., tested it in the Network Admin Theme directory, and it seems to be working fine.

I discovered if I upload the exported theme with the exact same filename as the default theme, automatic theme updates are enabled in the Network Admin Theme directory. And of course, if I use some of the other options in this plugin, which includes creating a blank or NEW theme with a new/another name, the theme is NOT enabled for automatic updates after upload to the Network Theme directory.

So, my wish is of course to achieve the “automatic updates” for my customised Twenty Twenty-Three block theme, because I would like my theme to stay updated and secure for the future.

But I can′t figure out if this is possible to achieve this without losing my customisations.

I do hope this makes sense – if not, please feel free to ask further questions.

Thank you!

I have a similar question. I’m not building a multi-site set of themes, but I have a customer with two sites for related businesses he owns that I am transitioning from Elementor php themes to new FSE theme. I’m using the Greenshift Block Theme. I made a variety of adjustments to the header and footer of the theme for the first site. While the content of the header and footer will be different (different logo, phone #, address etc.) I want the look to be the same (same colors, heights, columns, text & link colors, etc.) in both.

I want the theme on both sites to be updatable going forward. So what is the best way to proceed from the first site to the second site? Using “Create Block Theme” do I: Export, make child theme, clone?

The idea being that I’ve already got the look I want via adjustments to the theme in Site 1; I don’t want to have to recreate them all in Site 2 I want to be able to activate the theme and have the adjustments already made. But I also want to be able to update the theme.

Thanks!

Hi @enestorm (and @vytaulla51)!

I understand that you want to add your user modifications to one of your sites (or subsites for multisite) to your theme, so you can bring the same design options to all sites.

Basically, you should create a child theme to do that.

The child theme would still use the parent theme as a reference for updates but with the option to extend what you want.

Also, when you export it using the Create Block Theme, the plugin already migrates your user settings and options to the child theme.

You can try that:

1. Go to your WordPress admin panel, then Tools > Create Block Theme.
2. Select to create a child to your theme with “Create child of Twenty Twenty-Three)”
3. This should create a zip file, so you can try to upload on Appearance > Themes > Add New, then you can do the same to all sites that you want (or even for the whole network in the case of multisite).

Please let me know if this works as expected for you.

One last thing:

For multisite specifically, if you have new changes in the future that you want to bring to all sites, you will be able to follow these steps:

1. Go to your WordPress admin panel, then Tools > Create Block Theme.
2. Select to apply the user settings to the theme with “Overwrite [name of your child theme]”

For individual installations (not multisite), you have to export to do the same thing, but you would need to export/import the child theme on other sites after the changes.

Thank you for your time and contribution.

Your answer leads to this question:

1. Concerning the main goal: preserving customisations after Theme Updates: What is the exact difference between “exporting” the theme and creating a child theme? (Keeping in mind that I have only edited, header, footer, colours and templates – NOT edited anything ind the core theme file editor). So why do I need to create a child theme?

I am a little confused here, because I read in the BLOCK THEME documentation, that:

1. you only need a CHILD theme, if you need to make “CORE” changes in the theme file editor,
2. and that everything customised in the FSE: templates, colour, header and footer, is NOT OVERWRITTEN when a block theme is updated. Is that correctly understood?

Hi there,

Concerning the main goal: preserving customisations after Theme Updates: What is the exact difference between “exporting” the theme and creating a child theme? (Keeping in mind that I have only edited, header, footer, colours and templates – NOT edited anything ind the core theme file editor). So why do I need to create a child theme?

That’s a good question. The reason for this is that when you export it using a child theme, the Create Block Theme will “hardcode” your changes (templates, styles, etc.) on the new exported child theme, so you can bring that to the other sites.

and that everything customised in the FSE: templates, colour, header and footer, is NOT OVERWRITTEN when a block theme is updated. Is that correctly understood?

All that you said is technically correct, but you won’t be able to bring it to the other sites in you keep it this way, as it is all stored in this specific site database.

Hope that it makes sense! ??

Thank you for your answer.

I have already tried to customise and use the EXPORT option – without a child theme, and I activated this theme with my new customisations in header, footer and templates for my multisite environment – and it works fine for all sites.

So, just to clarify and be sure I have understood your answer correctly:

When I use the EXPORT option only (not as a child theme)and install this theme and activate it for my multisite environment, then, after a theme update in the future, my customisations in the footer, header, and templates to this theme will dissappear all over my multisite enviroment on all the sites that use this theme – except the site I used for creating the customisations?

If so – I don′t quite understand this – are the customisations still only stored “in this specific site database” as you wrote, (which in my case is my main site) – even though the theme with the new customisations is now uploaded and activated in the Network admin dashboard/themes?

Hi again,

When I use the EXPORT option only (not as a child theme)and install this theme and activate it for my multisite environment, then, after a theme update in the future, my customisations in the footer, header, and templates to this theme will dissappear all over my multisite enviroment on all the sites that use this theme – except the site I used for creating the customisations?

Yes, that is precisely how it happens.

In this case, the site you used to create the customizations would still be there because it won’t delete the user options on the database after you export the parent theme.

For the other sites, it wouldn’t be saved on the user options on the database and would be as theme files only, so the files would be overridden on updates.

If so – I don′t quite understand this – are the customisations still only stored “in this specific site database” as you wrote, (which in my case is my main site) – even though the theme with the new customisations is now uploaded and activated in the Network admin dashboard/themes?

Basically, it would follow this pattern once you reupload the parent theme without using a child theme:

• Site where you created these customizations: The changes would be on the database and on the theme files at the same time, so it will apply the changes saved on the database if these changes are reverted after updates.
• Other sites where you didn’t manually added these settings: The changes would be only on the theme files, so it won’t apply the changes if these changes are reverted after updates.

That’s the reason that you would need to export as a child theme as I recommended initially. It is a similar experience, but with the child theme it won’t override your custom changes during updates (only the files you didn’t edit yourself).