Title: How to edit plugin php file
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# How to edit plugin php file

 *  [Montesqq](https://wordpress.org/support/users/montesqq/)
 * (@montesqq)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-edit-plugin-php-file/)
 * Hello, i need edit php file of 1 plugin. Im using child theme for editing css,
   header etc. But when i go to plugins > edit plugin and than i update. I lost 
   my recoded plugin. How can i edit plugin files and than update?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [Janrudge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/janrudge/)
 * (@janrudge)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-edit-plugin-php-file/#post-6567132)
 * Hello
    I have been trying to edit a php file and every time I make the changes
   the plugin becomes “inactive”. I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it again
   but this did not help. All I am changing is a colour within one php file of the
   plugin. Any suggestions how I am best to make the colour change? Or how to fix
   the inactive to active status?
 *  [Jason King](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasoncharlesstuartking/)
 * (@jasoncharlesstuartking)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-edit-plugin-php-file/#post-6567134)
 * Apparently there’s no such thing as a child plugin.
 * Maybe this article will be useful – [http://wptavern.com/how-to-extend-a-wordpress-plugin-without-losing-your-changes](http://wptavern.com/how-to-extend-a-wordpress-plugin-without-losing-your-changes)
 *  [Janrudge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/janrudge/)
 * (@janrudge)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-edit-plugin-php-file/#post-6567156)
 * The plugin I installed is PDF Product Catalogue. At one point it was working 
   and I had changed the button colour to one I liked, but the PDF download was 
   not displaying correctly from the options I had chosen. Specifically, it was 
   not using the short description for each product nor displaying the SKU. To change
   the button colour I did change the HEX colour in the button php file – just a
   couple of numbers. It turns out that by doing this is made all the files inactive.
   When you go to the editor, there will be an (active) or (inactive) next to the
   file name.
 * I’ve tried deactivating the plugin, but it didn’t fix the problem. I’ve deleted
   and reinstalled to new download of PDF Product Catalogue and it managed to keep
   all my settings as I had previously set it up.
    I’m not a developer so writing
   code from scratch is not in my abilities. Please, any advice how I can use this
   plugin or is it now useless?
 *  [Jason King](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasoncharlesstuartking/)
 * (@jasoncharlesstuartking)
 * [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-edit-plugin-php-file/#post-6567219)
 * If you just want to change the colour of something, you can probably do that 
   by adding one or more CSS styles to the stylesheet in your child theme, in which
   case there’s no need to edit the plugin.
 * If you have queries about that specific plugin, find out whether there’s a support
   forum for it and ask this question there.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘How to edit plugin php file’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [edit](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/edit/)
 * [file](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/file/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jason King](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasoncharlesstuartking/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-edit-plugin-php-file/#post-6567219)
 * Status: not resolved

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