How do I change my current customized theme to a Child theme? [resolved]

[kennykiernanParticipant]

Hey folks -I am a newcomer to the whole Parent/Child theme thing and need guidance here.

I understand the concept and the reason to use one;  I should make a Child theme from my current theme (FlatOn Pro from webulous). Because if I don’t, when nebulous makes an update to the theme and I update it in my dashboard, all my customizations will be lost. But somehow if I make a Child theme that includes my customizations, I will be able to update the Parent theme and the Child theme will update automatically and retain my customizations, correct?

I’ve seen some confusing directions out there regarding files and servers on this topic and all this new technical stuff is unfamiliar to me – so I figured since I’m using Symbiostock hosting, you guys can give me the definitive answer for my particular purposes. (Or is this strictly a WP thing and the Symbiostock is irrelevant here? See, I’m clueless about this stuff).

Please clarify exactly what I should do so that all of my current customizations will not be lost when the inevitable update comes.

thank you!

 

 

 

Kenny Kiernan
https://www.clipartman.com

[RobinKeymaster]

This has nothing to do with Symbiostock, but in my experience child themes are unnecessarily complicated. I would just use a custom CSS plugin and override your theme’s CSS with that, using the !important postfix to whatever classes you want to definitely override.

If this does not suffice, there are all kinds of guides on child themes out there, but I find that themes are so complex nowadays that creating a child theme is not an easy thing at times.

[kennykiernanParticipant]

Aha, I like where you’re coming from – this sounds much simpler. So this will keep all my custom CSS?

I only have a few lines in my Custom CSS plugin that I installed per your earlier recommendation.

I have a bunch more code that was put in by the Webulous tech support guy (who was very helpful, I must say) under Theme Options>General Settings>Custom CSS.

So my questions are:

1. How exactly and where do I put the !important postfix, for each entry in the code? I haven’t done this before and don’t know here that goes in relation to any given line of code on the Custom CSS plugin. Please explain and show examples?

2. Will the Custom CSS added under Theme Options be retained with a theme update? I will ask Webulous too, but thought I should see if you have any knowledge of this.

thanks Robin!

 

 

Kenny Kiernan
https://www.clipartman.com

[JesperParticipant]

I use this plugin, and it does the job:  Orbisius Child Theme Creator

[RobinKeymaster]

1) Postfix is put after any piece of CSS – but only use it if not using it doesn’t work. So for example:

font-size:12em;

becomes

font-size:12em!important;

That will make it override all other declarations of this for that class/id.

2) Yes, it should. That custom CSS is database driven and should not be altered. Nevertheless I would strongly recommend keeping a copy of it periodically somewhere else just in case. It should not make any difference whether you stick it in the custom CSS plugin installed earlier or the functionality provided by your theme. We may add something like this to Symbiostock as it is such a necessary and useful part of every website nowadays.

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