Your Firstborn Child Theme – Child Themes 101+2

Speaker: Evan Mullins
Twitter: @circlecube
Speaker slides: circlecube.com/wordpress

Learn how to mod themes the right way. Using child themes you won’t lose your edits when there’s a theme update

Child Themes 101

  • your theme is your brand, design & identity
  • http://codex.wordpress.org/themes
  • Analogies: WordPress is the bones and muscles: the theme is the “skin”. Or if you think of your website as if you’re building a house: WordPress is the foundation and frame and the theme is the paint, curtains and flooring.
  • Fun stuff: TheUselessWeb.com & GenerateWP.com
  • Types of themes – just because you’re paying…doesn’t mean it’s better
    • custom
    • free
    • premium
    • customized
    • starter
    • framework
    • parent
    • child
  • Framework – the admin functionality such as support for sliders, custom posts, etc.
  • child themes – inherit characteristics of the parent theme
    • when the parent theme is updated your modifications are preserved
    • it’s a head start, for items that you use on a regular basis.
    • don’t edit core files!
    • parent theme styles aren’t automatically pulled into child
    • How to create a child theme?
      • install parent theme
      • make your child theme folder in the themes directory
      • add your style.css — wordpress requires in order to recognize the theme
      • copy parent functions.php (may not be necessary)
      • add your meta — use meta example “Template: twentytwelve”
    • plugin “Child Themify”

    Child Themes 102

    • reasons to child-theme
      • add widget areas
      • custom post types
      • custom taxonomies
      • responsive
      • rebrand
    • In the future, all themes may be required to facilitate a child theme
    • Popular Parent Themes
      • twenty somethings
      • thematic
      • genesis
      • hybrid
      • underscores
      • require foundation
      • starkers
      • Twentytwelve – responsive out of the box
      • Theme template hierarchy – which template file(s) will WordPress use when it displays a certain type of page? (lookup diagram)