Minutes after making my submission of version 3.5.1 I realized that there were some errors that had inadvertently crept in because I used the body_class() method. So I had to fix the errors and resubmit the theme, but as version 3.5.2. Now, I had already laid out plans for 3.5.3 before making these changes, so another feature found its way in. So here are the changes for 3.5.2:
- Support for Child Themes
This was another of those long-time to-do activities that I finally got around to delivering. This was surprisingly easy to incorporate and I just had to make a handful of changes. You can now define child themes for Suffusion. This is very easy for you as well. Let us assume that you will create a child theme called “Son of Suffusion”. Here is what you will do:- Create a folder called son-of-suffusion under wp-content/themes.
- Create a file called style.css in this folder. Put in these lines:
/* Theme Name: Son of Suffusion Theme URI: http://your-theme-url Description: Child Theme based on Suffusion Version: 1.0.0 Author: Your Name Author URI: http://your-url Template: suffusion */ @import url("../suffusion/style.css"); - The last line in comments, “
Template: suffusion” is critical. It tells WP that your theme is based on Suffusion. Make sure that what you put in there is the directory where Suffusion resides. - The first line after the comments is important if you want to use the Suffusion stylesheet. If you don’t have it, Suffusion’s styles will not be loaded.
- That’s all, really. You can add additional styles if you wish. This would be one way to not use the “Custom Styles” option. You can also add a functions.php and define your own PHP functions there. That would be one way to avoid using the “Custom PHP” functionality. Note the following:
- What you define in functions.php adds on to the existing functions in Suffusion’s functions.php file.
- Any other template file that you add overrides Suffusion’s templates. So if you create your own author.php file, that will take precedence over Suffusion’s author template. One very important use of child themes is if you want custom templates for custom purposes. E.g. You can create a file called category-16.php and define a special layout for your category with id 16. You can also create author-specific templates for WP 3.0. See WP’s template hierarchy for more details regarding how to add custom templates.
- Suffusion’s huge array of options will all be available to you using this method. Ensure that you keep the theme up-to-date.
- Bug fixes for some errors introduced by the
body_class()function, for static pages. Of course, after submitting 3.5.2 I caught another of these errors for author pages, but I am not going to bother with another release before WP approves my current release.
That’s it for now. I guess 3.5.2 will be a significant release for you users because it will come armed with both BuddyPress support and Child Theme support. So just keep waiting for WP to approve, while I figure out how to make some more WP 3.0 functionality available to you.
Thankyou! you’re working hard for the best theme.
THank you!! I’ll be following new updates closely. Child Theme functionality will be great!!!
Again Best regards from Argentina,
Francine 🙂
Wow. I used this theme a few months ago on a client’s site, and they just asked me to look into adding community features. So I was just about to look into BuddyPress and… Ta! Da! You announce BP compatability!
Beautiful. Great timing. Keep up the great work! (I will insist that my client buy you several coffees)
Thanks, Dubya!
Playing with BP and Suffusion (should you untag the Buddypress for the theme so BP installers don’t use Suffusion thinking BP will install smoothly, until it does?) — and want to now play with the child theme. This part of the instructions was unclear to bleary me:
How exactly would it look to “put in there the directory where Suffusion resides?
Sorry and looking forward to playing more. It’s an impressive project you’ve got going.
Please see the next post. I was forced to “untag” and decouple BP because of the excruciatingly long BP theme approval time (2 weeks and no response). So I am not sure what your comment is based on – the theme doesn’t have a BuddyPress tag. There is a full-fledged BP support pack for Suffusion distributed on this site, though, that you can install separately.
Regarding your question on child themes, if you haven’t tinkered with the defaults then
Template: suffusionis precisely what you will put in there. But you also have the option to install a theme in a different directory. E.g. I could rename the folder “wp-content/themes/suffusion” to “wp-content/themes/renamed-suffusion” and select that as my theme (the theme name will still be Suffusion, but the installation folder will be different). In that case you would sayTemplate: renamed-suffusion.Hi Sayontan, our team is new to your theme but we are already using it for a couple of clients. You will be pleased to know the site developers here are all business consultants with no prgramming skills!
We have a question for you. When the Suffusion theme is used in conjunction with Buddypress the sidebars get pushed underneath the Buddypress content but only on Buddypress Pages. However the sidebar reverts to its correct position when navigating back to non-Buddypress pages. Do you have a nice and easy solution to that problem please? Thanks and wow what a fantastic job Suffusion is. Think you will soon pass the other contenders with your ratings.
I’ve used other costly themes and to say the least, this is the best WordPress theme I’ve used so far.
Thank you.
I love this theme, just trying to get the child theme part working, does this look correct for it?
I am not having luck on this but that is my lack of experience with it. Please advise if you could, Thanks!
Rob
Your “Template” should show just the name of the folder in the “themes” directory, hence it should be “suffusion”. Your
@importdeclaration should show the relative path, not the absolute path. Hence you would have something like../suffusion/style.css, as shown in the example above. In addition see the “Import CSS” example in this post.Should all the well addresses be relative? So for instance with the theme you uri. and the author uri should they be relative (just the folders) and what should they be.
An example of a mock sites would be great. I would appreciate it thank you.
Not sure what your question is. See this site: http://mynethome.net/blog. It uses a child theme, whose CSS can be seen here: http://mynethome.net/blog/wp-content/themes/son-of-suffusion/style.css
I just looked just now at your Suffusion style sheet file and I think I understand better. The author address and the theme address don’t really matter to the functioning of the child theme. They just indicate websites for information?
That is correct. The links you put in there are used in your Appearance → Themes → Manage Themes screen. Apart from that they have no relevance.
Incredible work. I use Artisteer for general purpose theme development but Suffusion child themes seem to be a better choice for the end user because of all the options. Funny enough, I recently made available an adjusted version of the Buddypress Template Pack for use with Artisteer themes but Suffusion for Buddypress seems a far better choice because you can test out ideas from the backend instead of constantly exporting test themes.
Hello Sayontan!
First, great job on the suffusion theme, I love it. I do have some questions though: I am an absolute beginner when it comes to HTML and things of that nature so I have absolutely no idea what any of it means. So, I’m trying to make my site Buddypress compatible and I went to your URL about doing so but I didn’t understand. I don’t know what you mean when referring to creating a folder and the instructions that follow. Could you make a video or explain to me in more detail exactly what to do and on what page/where to click and what to type? I’m lost and I need help, thank you
I am using a web translator I do not know if I’ll understand.
I installed the theme suffusion in a friend’s blog and on the side of the menu appears the word “tags” and could not figured out how to get that word.
To understand better take a look at her blog.
http://alemdaruaa.dominiotemporario.com/
I’m waiting for a response.
Thank you.
Margaret,
Check under Appearance → Widgets. See what you have for Right Header Widgets. You probably have a “Tag Cloud” widget there. If you remove it you should be fine.
Hello. I am not certain exactly as I understand this process correctly. Do I insert that following text exactly as it says or do I need to add some different directory names. Then I get lost when you talk about function.php and the other PHP file. Am I supposed to do something with these files or you just saying things I could do. As I could do then great. It is something I have to do I’m not sure what to do next. I really need to use the buddy press with your theme. My whole site is based on your theme.
See this article, point #2 for BuddyPress. Also read up on child themes in general.
Interesting information, but I just want to be able to use buddy press with the Suffusion theme. I’m assuming the body pack makes it possible. Because currently and buddy press says Suffusion isn’t a compatible theme.
I need to have a child theme of Suffusion for buddy press to work?
And I accomplish this by following the directions above on this page steps 1.1 through 1.2. Do I just includes that text as it is?
On step 1.3 it makes me believe that I am supposed to suppose to change that line
to some directory on my server other than what is indicated on your code in black screen.
I just need the quickest way to be able to use buddy press with the Suffusion theme.
If steps one and two are all I have to do for the child theme and then install the buddy press pack into my word press site , then great. Otherwise please help me to understand this. The links above you sent me seemed to me just in case I want to add things into my own theme that is a child of yours.
Is the son of Suffusion supposed to show up in my themes to activate??
If you have created the child theme then it will show up for activation. Otherwise it is not bundled with Suffusion’s distribution.
[…] というディレクトリを wp-content/theme/配下 に作成。style.css をこちらを参考に設定。 wp-content/theme/suffusion-child/translate […]
Thanks a lot for theme and child definition explanation !!
Great job!!
[…] support i Suffusion måste man sätta upp temat som ett child theme till sig själv. Det beskrivs här. Frågan är bara vad det gör för laddningstider och eventuella uppdateringar. Bygger jag in mig […]
Using WP 3.12, just installed BuddyPress now and think I will like it, but it’s obvious that BuddyPress is growing up, so going outside the BP pack(s) to find themes “compatible” with BP which fall far short of what I’m seeing so far in Suffusion. It took a very long time tho, trying to find the way of making a “child theme”, but finally found this page. Having almost no experience with php and/or css makes this rather scary, but I think I have my style.css written now, so we’ll see! Wish me luck!
Native BP support was pulled from Suffusion long back. However Suffusion has its own variant of the BP Pack, which has bundled the templates for quite a few plugins.
I had/have the linked “Suffusion BuddyPress Pack” installed, but BP’s messages about compatible themes remained. I expect that this page will solve the problem, and can see how much great work you’ve done on Suffusion. It has been a bit glitchy but seems apparent that building the child theme will smooth it all out. You are remarkable!
When I make a child theme it has an ugly grey back ground instead of the white one in the suffusion theme. I only made the changes you suggested in the style.css What am I doing wrong?
Without a URL I cannot say much, but my guess is that you will need to add the sheet for your skin as well.
Or you could remove the @import statement you have included, then go to Suffusion Options → Back-End Settings → Child Themes → Inherit styles?, then make sure that you are inheriting the stylesheets.
[…] sure to set it up appropriately following different tutorials on the […]
thanks a mil, i am excited to see what i can come up with. This is the best theme ever.