[Resolved] Child theme plugin

[Pete]

Hi Tom, any chance in you recommending a plugin for making a child theme? There’s a few out there but I a was hoping you might be able to review them and recommend one that works best with GPS. Cheers .

[Tom]

Hi Pete,

Not sure a plugin is really needed – it’s super easy to create a child theme.

Here’s some instructions: http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

Basically, you need a new folder with a style.css file, which includes the information shown in the article above.

The only thing that you need to change is the “Template” name – which should be “generatepress”.

Then you’ll see your new theme appear in the Dashboard, and you can activate it.

[Pete]

Thanks. Here’s what I don’t get with child themes… I want to edit my single php so I make a new child theme with single.php copied and I edit it with my changes. You then update the GP parent theme and the single.php file. Wouldn’t I then have to update my child single.php file then to reflect your update?

[Pete]

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-themes-i-dont-get-why-i-should-use-them

This post on the WP support forum pretty much asks what I am. You see I heavily modify most of the template files and unless there are enough Hooks I suppose I’m wasting my time with a child theme?

[Tom]

That’s the one down-side to child themes – if I update a file (say single.php) and you have your own single.php file, then you won’t get the updates I added.

Of course, you can always check the changelog and see if I made any changes, and if I did, apply them yourself.

[Pete]

Where’s the changelog Tom?

What files would I need to update to get the updated menu?

[Dee Broughton]

There’s a changelog.txt in the gp-premium folder.

[Pete]

Any chance in publishing the change log at the WordPress repository?

[Tom]

They don’t allow that kind of stuff, but you can browse the SVN and find it: https://themes.svn.wordpress.org/generatepress/1.2.4/changelog.txt

The updated menu isn’t out yet – I’ll probably be releasing that version tomorrow.

[Pete]

Thanks,

Where can I find out which files have been updated?

[Tom]

Unfortunately you can’t through there – can just trust I added it to the changelog.

You can use a program called “DiffMerge” – it allows you to compare two folders, so you can have the old version and new version in folders on your Desktop, and then compare it with that program.

It will show you every change made to the code.

[Pete]

Do you not keep a list of files that get updated each version?

[Tom]

Not specifically, no. But I do try and add a note to the changelog every time I do something to any of the files.

[Pete]

Wanna? 🙂

[Pete]

Maybe run the new version past the last version with diffmerge and copy/paste the results of just which files were changed (not so much the actual code edits themselves)?

[Author]

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