Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
Brian Bustos
2,451 PointsTheme updates with new versions of wordpress
I'm wondering about the longevity of a theme built like this– when wordpress updates to a new version, is there anything that needs to be maintained or updated to keep up with the latest version?
3 Answers
Christopher Hall
9,052 PointsWhen you're building a theme, try not to use any deprecated methods or API calls. See the Wordpress Codex. Of course you have no control over what might change in the future, but this is a good start. Also look into plugin development. The trend recently is to move away from stuffing tons of functionality in themes and to develop plugins instead that can be used with multiple themes.
If you're purchasing a premium Wordpress theme, then you have to trust that the developer will stay on top of these updates. Also consider that developers who are selling Wordpress themes will focus most of their time on developing new themes, as that will bring in additional income for them. Only a smaller percentage of their time will be devoted to improving and updating their older themes. So realistically the older a premium theme is, the less likely it is to get updates unless the developer is very dedicated or it breaks significantly with a new WP version.
Brian Hinton
8,604 PointsYou are likely looking at years of life with a theme. However, I'd recommend reading release notes, and checking for anything related to theme changes. There are always chances of things breaking with updates, but usually it's not hard to track down any issues that may crop up. To safeguard yourself I'd recommend having a copy of your website, and a copy of a recent version of WordPress that runs your theme/website properly, and rollback if need be. One tool I use on client websites is the DropBox Backup tool. I'd also recommend disabling WordPress auto update: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-disable-automatic-updates-in-wordpress/ and just update it yourself. That way you are sure plugins won't break, themes will work, etc. prior to updating to a new version.
Brian Bustos
2,451 PointsThanks Brian. Appreciate the help. I've been using BackupBuddy for migrating wordpress sites and backing them up. Incredible plugin. Def. worth the investment.
Brian Bustos
2,451 PointsChristopher, this is great advice. Really appreciate you taking time to give some guidelines for this.