Process Diary

Lynda week 4

Dear Diary,

This chapter made my brain want to explode from information overload! But I got through it and hopefully retained at least 10% of the information. Here is some of what I learned:

1. Explain in your own words what a child theme is. A child theme takes a parent theme and then makes changes to it. Whatever is written in the child theme overrides the parent theme.
2. What is the difference between “overwriting” and “overriding”? Overwriting – is taking the styling from the parent theme and placing/copying it in the child theme and then making changes to it. This gives you complete control but if the parent update has style changes it could cause problems.Overriding – is referencing the parent style then making changes to it in the child style sheet. That way the two styles work in tandem. You can override and style you want to change.
3. How do you make a change in your child theme to a parent template file? You copy the parent template file, paste it into the child theme and then make your changes in the child theme template file.
4. How do you create a custom page template? You can make a new php file, take the top of any other file, the comment at the top and paste it into the top of your new page. This connects them. Then write your code.Explain what the header, footer and sidebar templates are for?They are for the header/footer and sidebar areas to hold different content. Where the sidebar placed is up to you, but this is where they hold the content.
5. What is the purpose of functions.php? It is to pull content or perform actions. You use it to set up features of the theme like featured image sizes, post formats, configuration of custom menus, style sheets, javascript etc. It also holds custom functions like custom menus and sidebars.
6. What is a widgetized area and how to you add functionality to it in the admin? Its an area that performs a specific function. It can be located in the sidebar or footer. It could be something like a map of where you’re located, a search button or a calendar of upcoming events and things like that. You go to the dashboard and under appearance there are widgets. You can add some with plugins as well.
7. How do you add a new featured image size? You would add it to your function.php file in the child theme folder.
8. If I had a custom sidebar for my blog pages, what could I name the template and how would I call it up? (Please write the filename and the code to call it in a template.) You could name it custom_sidebar_blog.php<?php /* Template Name: custom_sidebar_blog */ ?>
9. What happens to your child theme when you update your parent theme? Hopefully nothing! But you should always check it after an update in case something may have changed that shouldn’t have.

I’m getting there. I’m working on setting up my child theme and bringing some PHP into my HTML, sounds right…right?

Hope you learned something new with me.

Over and out,

Karen