A quick talk on the basics of Child Themes - what they are, how you start with them, and the value they add to development projects big and small.

1. Child Themes
THEMECEPTION - THEME SANITY

2. Body Level One

7. http://www.webbeh.com

8. Let’s Consider a Story.
You’ve probably done this before…

18. *click*

24. Enter: Child Themes
It’s all about inheritance.

25. • Purpose
• Extend, customize, override an existing theme
(parent theme) without editing any of the theme’s
files.
• To modify a theme while leaving the parent
theme intact.
Child Themes

26. • Parent theme can be updated without worry.
• Goodbye, overwritten customizations!
• Reuse the parent theme options across multiple
sites!
• Customize in child themes for site-specific
tweaks.
• Override, extend, or replace hooks and calls.
Benefit?

27. Page Request
Parent Theme
Child Theme
[insert magic here]
Page Delivery

28. • 3 things needed to create a child theme.
How to Create?

29. 1. A Folder

30. 2. style.css

31. 2. style.css

32. 2. style.css

33. 3. functions.php *

34. You’re Done!

35. • You created a subfolder in /wp-content/themes for
your child theme.
• You created a styles.css and populated it with the
comment information for WordPress to identify it as
a theme (with a parent).
• You created a functions.php to store theme-specific
PHP.
What did you just do?

36. How does this help?

37. Page Request
Parent Theme
Child Theme
[insert magic here]
Page Delivery

38. Page Request
Parent Theme
Child Theme
[insert magic here]
Page Delivery
Hooks Added Here
Hooks Overridden Here

42. • You can write and include your own JS, CSS, and
theme files.
• You can write your own PHP functions.php settings
for:
• Customize the Customizer
• Customize the theme display
• Customize the widget areas
• etc.
• And you can write your own page templates!
Features

43. • This is especially helpful if you have consistency on
reusable components when building theme
products.
• Parent theme has all foundational components
(widget areas, media queries, etc.)
• Child theme(s) has the unique style and theme-
specific functionality.
Helpful for Frameworks

44. • This is especially helpful if you have consistency on
reusable components when building theme
products.
• Parent theme has all foundational components
(widget areas, media queries, etc.)
• Child theme(s) has the unique style and theme-
specific functionality.
Helpful for Frameworks

45. How does this help?

46. How does this help?

47. How does this help?

48. How does this help?

49. Page… Templates?