Wordpress - build your own website - howto, tips & links - beginners to advanced - Page 9

driver8 · 02-10-2013, 10:03

Good news, Psycho

As for child themes - I put them off for a while, but it's v.simple and sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is; there are 2 methods -

MANUAL METHOD
Here's the official WP documentation - http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
WPtuts is very good - http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the...-in-wordpress/

PLUGIN METHOD
Child Themify - http://wordpress.org/plugins/child-themify/
with a tutorial here (hardly needed) - http://www.wpthemedetector.com/a-new...heme-creation/

Psycho · 02-10-2013, 15:31

I've managed to update the theme on the WordPress website with minor issues. I've just got to make some design changes that have been lost with the update. But apart from that, all seems okay!

This got me thinking about the theme I use on my design website and I've seen that I'm quite behind the latest version. The new version has a lot more features and is also responsive, which is something I'd like.

I've downloaded the latest version and will probably do the same name change process to test it out. But I noticed that the files include a child version of the theme as well. So there are two .ZIP files.

I'll try and get around to this when I have a free half day to have a play about... and then correct all the problems!

Cheers,

Psycho

P.S. I'm still holding off updating the NEXTGen Gallery plugin. It currently works and I don't feel ready to open that can of worms!

driver8 · 02-10-2013, 16:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psycho

P.S. I'm still holding off updating the NEXTGen Gallery plugin. It currently works and I don't feel ready to open that can of worms!

The older 1.9.x version of NextGEN has been forked for those that can't or don't want to upgrade to 2.x - be sure to read the full Description & FAQ -

NextCellent Gallery - NextGEN Legacy

I see that poor old NextGEN is now upto its 30th '.' revision since the ill-fated v2 release, and the support forum is still in meltdown with 1-2 pages of problems every day !

Although the're really not helping themselves - look at the full changelog for v.25 !

Quote:

V2.0.25 - 09.18.2013
Reverting to the 2.0.21 codebase, due to major performance issues in 2.0.23 and 2.0.24

Spooky_uk · 02-10-2013, 17:17

not had any issues with my nextgen since I upgraded. lucky I guess. Do like the look of that serene theme though....

Psycho · 03-10-2013, 13:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by driver8

The older 1.9.x version of NextGEN has been forked for those that can't or don't want to upgrade to 2.x - be sure to read the full Description & FAQ -

NextCellent Gallery - NextGEN Legacy

I see that poor old NextGEN is now upto its 30th '.' revision since the ill-fated v2 release, and the support forum is still in meltdown with 1-2 pages of problems every day !

Although the're really not helping themselves - look at the full changelog for v.25 !

Damn! I spoke too soon!

Client is saying that the Slideshow Lightbox isn't working any more. I was using prettyPhoto with the NEXTGen gallery.

Psycho

Wooglie · 03-10-2013, 13:15

I had to go back to v1.9. Couldn't get 2 to work how I wanted it. Might try that legacy version when I get the time.

Psycho · 03-10-2013, 14:28

Slight update. It wasn't the NEXTGen plugin stopping the slideshow. It was the theme but I couldn't remember having to remove some php code when I worked on the original version. I just made the changes to the new version and the slideshow is now working.

Psycho

driver8 · 05-10-2013, 08:16

Excellent theme search page here - ThemeShaker with thumbnails & filters, free/paid.

Through which I found these these 2, offering unusually good design & features for freebies -

BigFoot by THB

Goodly by Belllo

JonLaidlow · 06-10-2013, 16:29

I regularly tweak the css on some of my themes and always lose the changes when I update them....

driver8 · 06-10-2013, 19:20

Jon - you could try setting up a child theme as per the links at the top of this page (which makes both CSS and PHP edits easy) or for css-only try a plugin that stores the code separately, like Custom CSS Manager

JonLaidlow · 06-10-2013, 20:22

Actually maybe you can advise - I've always avoided child themes because the tweaks I usually end up making are silly little things, rather than extra css.

For example - the responsive theme on one of the sites I manage hides the headlines on the slider when viewed on an ipad, so I moved the line of code from the 1024px section of the css (responsive section) down to the 720px section. Child themes seemed to be blank css the one time I looked at them...

driver8 · 07-10-2013, 07:11

sure, Jon - that's the whole idea - it's like an extra empty 'layer' on top of your normal theme.

When you first setup/apply, you won't see any changes at all - you need to add your changes to the child's STYLE.CSS, and so they won't get over-written by a them update. Sometimes you'll need to add an '!important' to your css line. And if you get to the stage of editing the php files (like deleting a line) then you just copy over the original HEAD.PHP file (say) into the child folder, and make your edit there.

It really is v.simple, but one of those things that takes longer to explain than to actually do !

JonLaidlow · 07-10-2013, 09:36

Okay, so if I mirror the css headings for the various responsive bits, I can add my changed code ONLY (display: block on a style where the original says display: none) it should work?

driver8 · 07-10-2013, 11:12

yep - that's right - all the usual css is applied first, then anything in the child theme will be applied on top - you don't need to copy the whole original css file, just add the bits you want changing.

(Disclaimer ! : a small % of themes have been written in a non-standard way and are not child-compatible. Check your theme's documentation or support forum for a definitive yes/no, or make sure you have cPanel/FTP access to your files).

What theme is it ? I can help you look, if you wish.

JonLaidlow · 07-10-2013, 11:29

Okay I've taken advantage of 2 mins at work with dreamweaver and ftp-ed in to create the child theme folder and css (as per http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes for anyone else wanting to try it). The child theme currently has no customisation (it's in the master css) but I can now edit from the Wordpress dashboard, as it's active, nothing appears to be broken... Will update when I get another moment

Psycho · 07-10-2013, 20:39

Oh, balls!

Just screwed up my website while trying to create a duplicate on another domain name.

It duplicated across okay but then when I went back to my original site it wasn't working. It just kept me on the Contact page?!

I'm sure I did everything correctly but I'm not sure why duplicating it would mess up the original.

Just trying to get it back up myself before contact my host in the morning and hopefully rolling back a day or two.

Psycho

Psycho · 07-10-2013, 21:05

Nope. No luck!

I can log in to the WordPress dashboard, everything seems fine, all the files and settings are okay, but when you visit the actual page you just get taken to /contact/ and a Error 404 - Not Found.

Knew I shouldn't have touched it!

Psycho

EDIT: I've just noticed that it's only when you go to the Home page that is redirects you to the 404 error page. If you click the other page links they all work. Any ideas?

JonLaidlow · 07-10-2013, 21:20

What's the home page set to? Blog roll or static page?

Psycho · 07-10-2013, 21:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonLaidlow

What's the home page set to? Blog roll or static page?

It's just the static home page that came with the theme.

Should take you here: http://www.ph-design.co.uk
But takes you here: http://www.ph-design.co.uk/contact/

Psycho

Psycho · 08-10-2013, 07:57

Just an update to say that I rolled back a few days with my host provider and my website is now back up.

Not sure how I screwed it up so badly. I just wanted to duplicate the website to another domain name so that I could make a theme update and changes.

Psycho