WordPress child theme allows you to apply custom code changes to your site. Using a child theme ensures that all your customizations will not be overwritten even when you update the parent theme. Continue reading below to learn how to set up your own child theme. While child themes are a great way to add custom changes to Osmond, there are generally used to customize core code from the parent theme. Because of this, please be aware that customizations of this nature fall outside our scope of support and we will be unable to assist you with issues that may arise from it.
What Is A Child Theme?
A child theme is a theme that has all the functionality and styling of another theme called the parent theme, which in our case, is Osmond. Child themes are the recommended way of modifying the code of an existing theme because a child theme preserves all custom code changes and modifications even after a theme update. If you modify the code directly from a parent theme, then update the parent theme, your changes will be lost. Always use a child theme if you are modifying core code. Child themes can also be used for a number of things, such as custom CSS applications, template file modifications, and custom PHP functions and/or hooks. There are a couple of methods to modify a child theme. Child themes don’t guarantee that an update of custom code on the parent theme will not require further maintenance. This is especially true if you copy files from the parent theme to your child theme.
Downloading and Installing Osmond Child Theme
Before anything else, you must first download and install the Osmond child theme to begin making your customizations. The Osmond child theme comes with downloading Osmond Full Package from ThemeForest, and the method of installing it is exactly the same as installing the Osmond theme. Please follow the detailed steps below on how to download and install the Osmond child theme.
How To Download Osmond Child Theme
Step 1 – Login to your ThemeForest account and go to your Downloads tab.
Step 2 – Locate your Osmond purchase, and click Download. Choose the ‘All Files & Documentation‘ option.
Step 3 – Once the .zip file is finished downloading, locate it on your computer and extract it. You will then have a folder called osmond.
Step 4 – Navigate to the osmond folder and you will see an osmond.zip file and an osmond-child.zip file.
Step 5 – You must first install the osmond.zip file because that is the parent theme. Once that’s done, you can then install the child theme which follows the exact process of installing the parent theme.
Methods Of Modifying A Child Theme
There are several methods you can use to modify a child theme, and we’ll be explaining the 2 methods below. These methods are copying files from a parent theme, pluggable functions, and actions and filters. To learn more about each one, please continue reading below.
Method 1: Copying Files From Parent Theme
Copying files from the parent theme to a child theme is a common method to make code customizations. This is the easiest method available, but there are limitations to it. Due to the limitations, we recommend only copying the files inside the template-parts folder from the parent theme into the child theme.
Method 2: Actions and Filters
The correct and safe way of updating or modifying theme functions within a child theme is using actions and filters. Apart from the actions and filters built-in within Osmond, you can use the default WordPress actions and filters to modify the theme’s functionality.
Useful Documentation On Child Themes
If you’d like to learn and read even more about child themes, please follow the links below.