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Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 06 Jul 2011, 12:51
by patrickgraham
Hi,
I have started using this very fine theme on my website and have contributed to your coffee fund. Big thanks for developing it.
I have made most of my edits to the Custom Includes section of the suffusion options, as well as other changes to the settings in the options menus. I assume all this is safe from updating?
The issue will be how I incorporated my header and menu from the rest of my site. I edited these directly into the actions.php file. I know I could have put the header in with the options menu, but I couldn't work out how to edit in my main site menu and exclude the Suffusion top navigation menu and search bar, which is why I went down this route.
What would I need to do in order to future proof my edits – is there a way to do this?
Thanks again.
http://patrickgrahamphotography.co.uk/blog/
Re: Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 06 Jul 2011, 12:57
by Dark_Fox28
You could download a backup of actions.php file and just copy and paste the changes whenever a new release comes out.
You are right about the custom includes, all safe.
Re: Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 06 Jul 2011, 13:34
by patrickgraham
OK. I take it there's no way to do this that's easier to maintain?
Just to be extra cautious, I thought I'd try it on a backup. So I downloaded the theme from my site, renamed it in style.css and re-uploaded. For some reason it's killed all the formatting, even on the Suffusion options page. Are there any dependent files outside the theme directory?
Re: Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 06 Jul 2011, 15:47
by sayontan
Well, there is absolutely an easier way to do this - a child theme. This will take a little bit of work, but you could essentially have your own header.php file for your child theme. E.g. Take a look at
http://mynethome.net. Now take a look at
http://mynethome.net/blog. Both are on the same WP installation, yet the title and sub-title for both the pages are different. This happens to use a child theme.
When you upgrade, you will be upgrading Suffusion only - the child theme will be safe from any upgrades whatsoever, so your edits will stay fine.
Re: Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 07 Jul 2011, 03:32
by patrickgraham
OK, cool.
I tried making a child theme. I included the following files:
style.css
header.php
/functions/actions.php
Then I updated the parent. It lost the header, so I manually updated the parent's actions.php and now it looks as before. Are there some other files that I need in the child theme to tell it to 'get' the actions.php from the child?
Re: Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 07 Jul 2011, 06:14
by sayontan
style.css
header.php
/functions/actions.php
That won't work. You need style.css and header.php. If you are creating your own hooks, do them in functions.php (as opposed to a copy of actions.php - that will have no effect)
It lost the header, so I manually updated the parent's actions.php and now it looks as before.
Then you are at the same spot as before. Your changes will be lost in an upgrade.
Re: Future-Proofing Edits
Posted: 07 Jul 2011, 06:35
by patrickgraham
Yes, of course. I don't know why I mentioned that – I just did it to stop my website appearing broken while I waited for your response.
In terms of editing the functions.php with the info I pasted into actions.php, where do I put that? I originally started using actions.php because a document search threw up the header-container div.
This is what I want to add to the header, I just don't know where to put it in functions.php:
Code: Select all
<!-- Beginning of HTML Header -->
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Patrick Graham Photography</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="banner"><a href="http://www.patrickgrahamphotography.co.uk" title="Patrick Graham Photography" target="_self"><img src="../../../../../images/logo2.png" alt="Patrick Graham Photography"></a></div>
<div id="menu" align=center>
<table width="1020px" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" height="100%">
<tr>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a href="../../../../../about/index.html" style="display: block;">About</a></td>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a href="http://patrickgrahamphotography.co.uk/blog/" style="display: block;">Blog</a></td>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a href="../../../../../galleries/index.html" style="display: block;">Galleries</a><a href="../../../../../contact/index.html"></a></td>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a href="../../../../../cv/index.html" style="display: block;">CV</a></td>
<td width="20%" align="center"><a href="../../../../../contact/index.html" style="display: block;">Contact Details</a><a href="../../../../../cv/index.html"></a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<!-- End of HTML Header -->