General Theme Upgrade Questions

  • orangjul

    (@orangjul)


    12 years, 11 months ago

    I’m reposting this here because I do not want biased answers from people who love the particular theme I’ve been using.

    I’ve had quite a few problems crop up since I upgraded my Responsive theme from 1.9.3 to 1.9.3.3. I’m reading this article: http://cyberchimps.com/forum-topic/how-to-upgrade/ and I am a little confused.

    I have a child theme. I really thought if I had a child theme with a full style sheet, problems like layout, responsive behavior, etc. would not crop up if I upgraded the parent theme. I thought this was true of any framework. The notes in the article above say “In the short-term you will lose most if not all of your customizations upon upgrading (however, please note that the previous versions theme folder will not be overwritten – however, you should absolutely back it and your database up before upgrading as always anyways). Even if you’re using a child theme, this is simply unavoidable. It’s the nature of progress.”

    I have never heard of this being the case and thought this was exactly the opposite of what is supposed to happen when you have a child theme. I have used the Genesis Framework on many of my sites. I’ve been using Genesis for a few years. I just started using “Responsive” about 6 months ago. I have NEVER encountered such major problems with a theme update before (on Responsive or Genesis).

    I simply do not have time (or probably the skills) to diagnose and fix all of the problems that have occurred with my site now that I have upgraded. I am going to have to revert to the previous version of the theme. This scares me because I know it’s not a best practice to have an older version of a theme, and I worry about future security risks.

    I guess I am just asking…is what the Responsive theme developers claim about needing to make adjustments EVEN TO YOUR CHILD THEME legit in the grand scheme of things? Or is this a buck of hogwash? Obviously this theme has gotten good reviews, but I am super frustrated!!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • WPyogi

    (@wpyogi)

    12 years, 11 months ago

    That article you linked to was from Oct. 2011! Have you asked on the Responsive forums on CyberChimps site about any current issues?

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    12 years, 11 months ago

    It’s not hogwash and you really should not post in multiple places like that. Duplicate topics are really frowned upon and I’ve deleted your first post.

    There is no guarantee that later on parent theme changes will be compatibile with your child theme.

    The best case for a child theme will always be making simple CSS modifications. When you begin to modify copies of the PHP files then you do risk that the original author may make changes that do not work with your modifications. This also applies to CSS.

    Most of the time it is not a problem but if the theme developer decides to make changes such as using different CSS class/ID names or moving or removing code then that’s their decision and it’s perfectly fine. The majority of the time that does not happen but if it does then you may want to consider forking the theme you are using and avoiding the updates all together.

    Or work to make your child theme work with the new version. Personally I like that option but as you’re frustrated already you may not like that idea.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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