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Randall Zepeda
1,979 Pointsok so im confused on parent/child themes.
Ok so im trying to make my first blog website which I actually will want more advanced features in the future as it grows. All i have is the content for the website done. Am I suppose to make the child theme once I have completely edited and finished the website or am I suppose to do it before I even start or after every change i make? Im confused from what I understand is you make a child theme so you don't lose the website that you made or what is it? And would you recommend me buying the hosting service and domain now as I work on my site or can I finish my site first then put pay to put it live? keep in my this is my first site and I want it to be perfect. So it might take me longer then a month just to get a finished product. Does someone understand what I mean? I can elaborate more , I just didnt like the child theme explanation the video and I watched it like 5 times.
3 Answers
Rich Bagley
25,869 PointsHi,
The idea of a child theme is to use the styles of parent theme as a base and re-style it without affecting the original theme. You would set this up before you start with any style changes.
The Codex has more information on how to create a child theme.
With regards to hosting, you could work locally first and then migrate it to a live environment once you're ready.
Hope that helps.
-Rich
Randall Zepeda
1,979 Pointsso would I need to buy the hosting services first in order to work locally on it and im still confused, so why wouldnt 1.you pick a theme 2.customize it fully 3. then save it and anytime you make a change re-save it? where does restyling it so it doesnt affect the original theme come into play? you mean the original theme as in the default theme you bought and why would you care if it is affected or not , wouldnt you only care about your site which is the child theme . This is where im confused.
Rich Bagley
25,869 PointsHi,
The links in my answer above it will probably explain it better but basically you don't need to purchase anything to work locally, unless you're planning on using a premium theme (in which case you would need to pay for the theme). You simply need to have XAMPP (for PC) or MAMP (for Mac) installed.
- You would first choose a theme you want to base you child theme on.
- After following the steps from the Codex link I supplied above you will be able to set this up and activate it.
- You then customise this as much as required leaving the original theme intact should you wish to use it for another child theme in future.
-Rich
Jan BM
3,795 PointsIf you follow along the wordpress development tracks, you will realize that parent/child is just one of the options you have if you want to maintain and enhance the parent theme's design. Later in the tracks, you will also have an option that you can make your own theme from scratch by the help of using Bootstrap Framework. I'm just a newbie here, I hope that also helps.