Hello!
I jumped on the Pro bandwagon recently and I love it. The header and footer is unmatched!
However, I made a BIG mistake. I rushed into designing the site and forgot to install a Child theme. I have made significant changes already and I’m not sure how I can move to a child theme now, especially with Pro.
I would really appreciate your help in this regard!
Hey There,
If you’ve altered template files of Pro you will need to install and activate the child theme and manually move those changes over so they are reflected and won’t be overwritten with the next update. From a page layout point of view there won’t be any migration necessary.
Hey Rubin,
I wanted to jump in here and add a couple of things from my POV as someone that switched to Pro from X and wonders about the need for a child theme.
It would be nice if there was clarification on how much customization would necessitate a child theme. For those of us that are simply using Cornerstone to design pages, Customizer to change the layout/look and messing around with CSS it doesn’t seem like there should be much of an impact - but it’s hard to tell if core files are being altered in any way.
I understand that CSS doesn’t port over when you install the child theme, but is anything else lost from using the built-in features such as Cornerstone and Customizer? If so, how do you export them? The Add On’s feature that was on X is no longer on Pro.
While copying and pasting CSS is quite easy, if that’s all that seriously needs to be done then there’d be no reason to use a child theme, right?
I could have started a new thread, but his questions ties in directly to mine - the fear of upgrading to a child theme after beginning design work. He just didn’t clarify how much and what kind of work he did, but for those of us that spent a day or two tweaking things and thought “Damn, maybe I should use a Child Theme so I don’t lose all this work!” - it’d be nice to know.
1.) If it’s necessary when using built-in Pro theme features such as Cornerstone & Customizer.
2.) What needs to be exported & how.
Thanks!
Hello There,
Thanks for updating in!
If what you are trying to accomplish requires a template customization, we would highly to suggest that you use a child theme. This allows you to make code changes that won’t be overwritten when an X update is released. After your child theme is setup, please review how we recommend making template changes in Customization Best Practices.
And if you are using Pro, you will get the same advantage of using a child theme. You may not need it from the time being but as your site progress, it would be beneficial.
1.) It is not necessary to use a child theme. Cornerstone and customizer settings will always be there in the database. You can even import/export the customizer settings when using X. Regretfully this feature is no longer available in Pro. Any changes you made in Cornerstone will still work when moving from X to Pro. The customizer settings is different because Pro is another theme and it will have to have its own set of customizers. So after activating Pro theme, please check the customizer or theme options.
2.) When using X, you can make use of the customizer manager. You may download the XCS file which would serve as a backup. This XCS file will hold all the customizer settings. Even if the customizer manager is no longer available in Pro, having a backup is safe enough and you can easily open XCS file in notepad and could serve as you guide of what your settings were in using X.
Hope this helps.
Yes, this does help.
I’m glad I wasn’t just seeing things when I couldn’t find a way to download files like I used to with X and I couldn’t find a clear enough answer on adding a Child Theme after designing in Pro. Maybe because it’s so new!
One of the reasons I asked about this is because I did download, install & activate the Pro child theme after a little bit of customization on the Parent theme and the site didn’t look the same. I’m assuming this came down to the very tiny amount of CSS in the “Additional CSS” section I added in the customizer that likely didn’t transfer over.
This got me questioning how much of the “customizer” transfers over, and if the customizer tweaks didn’t transfer - would Cornerstone fail as well?!
Bottom Line: If the only “design work” I’m doing involves Cornerstone & Customizer & I’m making regular backups + copy the Additional CSS code, can I assume that I’d have everything in place to not only switch over to a child theme, if needed, but also migrate intact?
Hi @dtrapp,
That is correct. The only thing to add here is that we are moving from Customizer to launch. So it is better to get used to adding CSS stuff to Pro > Launch > Theme Options > CSS as we will phase out the Customizer in future releases.
Currently, both Customizer and Launch refer to the same place and adding one there will mirror the other one.
If you are using Moderate CSS and JS customization keep it to the Launch options, but if you want to override a PHP file of the theme you will need to have the Child Theme. In general having the Child Theme from the beginning is a very good idea.
Thank you.
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