WordPress Child Theme Basics
Syntax
- template –– is the name of the main WordPress theme, the parent.
- child-theme –– is the package which overrides the template.
Remarks
I've been advertising that the use of a child theme is always a good thing but there is always a But ...
In our Template overwriting example let's imagine that the author of a theme is adding his own improvements to the sidebar template and there will be a new one at
/themes/template/sidebar.php
<?php
/**
* The template for the sidebar containing the main widget area
*
* @link https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/template-files/#template-partials
*/
if ( is_active_sidebar( 'sidebar-1' ) ) : ?>
<aside id="secondary" class="sidebar widget-area" role="complementary">
<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar-1' ); ?>
</aside><!-- .sidebar .widget-area -->
<?php endif; ?>
Now our website won't benefit from the new role="complementary" spec because our child theme is still overwriting the template with its own file at
/themes/child-theme/sidebar.php
It is our duty as website maintainers to keep a track about what templates do we overwrite and, in the imminent case of an update, look carefully at the changelog so you update the child theme files if necessary.
