newbie mess up manipulating parent theme

[Margaret Sims]

I searched for parent theme issues but did not see here what i need to know.

Also, I am a newbie all together to using word press so my questions will be “no stupid questions” type, sorry…..

Beginner with ignorance, I made some small changes to the parent theme then learned why I should create a child theme and only change the child.

1. Is eliminating modules on the parent front page and adding text blocks and pictures a structural change? Is making new pages structural? Will the changes create a problem when I update?
Should I start over altogether?

If so what should I do?
I am not very far along in manipulating the site.

2. When I made changes on the parent theme like adding a menu, changing default settings, and when I activated the child theme, the changes did not show up?

I feel a bit overwhelmed that I took this on. I am looking for some kind of really good manual for theme forest and general wordpress if there are recommendations.

Also is there a forum for newbies?

Thanks and I appreciate the theme! Maggie

[sharmstr]

Hey Maggie. Its good that you figured out that you should use the child theme early on.

1 – Page have little to nothing to do with ‘structural’. Those pages will still exists no matter what theme you use. What may change is theme specific options within the page settings, but flipping from Kleo main to Kleo child shouldnt effect that.

2 – Theme options are set at the theme level. So changes to theme options made on Kleo main will NOT be reflected to Kleo child. What I would do is enable Kleo main, then export. Then enable Kleo child and import. That should move all your changes to the child them. wp admin -> theme options -> import / export.

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[Margaret Sims]

Thanks! Sharmstr.
I think this is what I needed to know. Maggie

[sharmstr]

Hey Maggie,

Let me know if that works. I just had the thought that it might not work due to some hard-coding of the theme name. Meaning that it would work for backup and recovery or for moving sites, but not copying from Kleo to Kleo Child. If it doesnt work, again, let me know and I’ll do some testing.

Hi there!!! Help others from the community and mark any reply as solution if it solved your question. Mark as a solution

This support site is not about custom work. If you need custom development please contact cornel@seventhqueen.com

[sharmstr]

I just looked and here is what I think you should do.

– enable kleo parent

– go to theme options -> import / export

– click on copy under export and copy the contents

– enable kleo child

– go to theme options -> import / export

– click on import from file and paste

– click on import

I tested going from kleo child to kleo parent and it worked.

Hi there!!! Help others from the community and mark any reply as solution if it solved your question. Mark as a solution

This support site is not about custom work. If you need custom development please contact cornel@seventhqueen.com

[Margaret Sims]

Sharmstr,
I did what you suggested. The child theme when activated was needing some settings changed but is looking solid.

Now I assume I just leave the main alone, and save my child before all updates.
Thanks for your help! Maggie

[sharmstr]

Yep. You’re all set. Its always a good idea to backup before updating. BUT…. The whole point of using a child theme is that its update safe. If you look at the files contained in the child theme there are only 2 to start with. That’s because wordpress really uses parent kleo even though you have the child active. So, when you update kleo, it updates the files in the parent kleo and none of the child files. Unless of course you make the mistake of copying the kleo child files located in the update over to your server. NEVER DO THAT 🙂 If you set up “Theme Update” in kleo child, it will update parent kleo for you. No uploading of files needed, except for updated plugins like VC and Rev Slider. Also, when you update Kleo, you’ll be asked if you want to activate it. DONT 🙂 Keep kleo child active.

While we are on the subject, here’s some other things to note. After you get the hang of things, you’ll probably want to start customizing the theme a bit. Those changes, as you know, go into kleo child. Some will be as simple as adding some custom css to style.css. Others will be copying over template pages. Like I said, you start with only 2 files in your child theme. My kleo child contains 68 files (not to mention the 1000+ lines of code in my functions.php file) 🙂 I hack everything. I can’t help it. While, this is not necessarily a bad thing, it can be a bit of a nightmare when you update. Remember, when you update kleo, its updating the parent theme, not the child. So if there is an update to a template page that I have copied over to my child theme, those updates will not take effect. Essentially what I have to do is compare those 68 pages to the corresponding 68 pages in the latest update to see if there is something I need to add or change.

My suggestion for you is to keep custom changes to a minimum and learn to live with the way kleo display things or be patient a wait for the kleo team to change something you want changed.

Hi there!!! Help others from the community and mark any reply as solution if it solved your question. Mark as a solution

This support site is not about custom work. If you need custom development please contact cornel@seventhqueen.com

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