Child Themes Helper

The Child Themes Helper is a tool….
…developed for those child theme developers who write or modify PHP code in the development of their child themes. Previous versions of the Child Themes Helper required the child theme being modified be the activated theme. That is no longer the case. However, you will still need to set a child theme to be an “Active Theme” on the Options tab, but it does not have to be the activated theme.

Copy files from Parent Theme to Child Theme
The primary purpose of the Child Themes Helper plugin is to copy files from a parent theme (also called the template theme) to a child theme. The folder path in the parent theme is duplicated in the child theme during the copy.

Edit Child Theme Files
Starting with the Child Themes Helper version 2.1, you can now edit your child theme files and save the changes. You can also “edit” your parent theme files, but they are marked read-only and you will not be able to save any changes that you make.
This is not meant to be the primary method of editing your files, but rather a way to make a quick change or to peer inside of a file without having to go elsewhere to make a quick change.

Remove files from the Child Theme
The Child Themes Helper plugin will also remove any files that you no longer want in the child theme. Any folders that are made empty by the removal of a file or folder, will also be removed.

Prompt before removal
The Child Themes Helper plugin will detect when a child theme file is different from its parent theme counterpart. If the files are not identical, the user will be prompted before allowing a parent theme file to be copied over an existing child theme file, or before allowing a child theme file to be removed.

Create a child theme
The primary functionality of the Child Themes Helper plugin requires the existence of a child theme. If a child theme has not already been created, this plugin will help you to create a child theme of any of the currently installed themes (not other child themes) on the website.

Generate a temporary graphic for the Themes page
Creating a child theme does not create a graphic for your new theme on the WordPress themes page. The Child Themes Helper plugin can create a graphic for your child theme. You’re free to select the foreground and background colors for that graphic and choose from up to a couple of dozen Google Fonts. If you would like a different font, you only need to copy the .ttf file into the Child Themes Helper plugin’s assets/fonts folder. The next time you open the Options page, the newly downloaded font will be displayed with a sample string.

Notes

• Troubleshooting Installation Issues
  If you are upgrading the Child Themes Helper from a version prior to version 2.0, you might have problems installing the upgrade.
  The most frequent problem is that the upgrade fails and displays a nasty message at the top of the plugins page. WordPress then politely deactivates the Child Themes Helper plugin.
  If you experience this problem, the solution is to: deactivate the plugin if it isn’t already deactivated. Delete the plugin. And then reinstall the Child Themes Helper directly from the WordPress plugins repository.

  New with Child Themes Helper v2.0, the primary folder name (“~/plugins/pasChildThemes) and the primary file name (pasChildThemes.php) were changed to (~/plugins/child-themes-helper) and (child-themes-helper.php) to make the plugin match the WordPress assigned slug.
  Under certain circumstances, probably due to either browser caching or website caching, this causes the upgrade to fail.

• PHP Developer Tool
  The Child Themes Helper is meant as a PHP developer’s tool to help the WordPress PHP developer make direct changes to a child theme’s PHP code. It is NOT a GUI, drag -n- drop tool to help non-developers build a child theme.

• Child Themes Helper on GitHub
  The GitHub repository for this plugin can be found here. Stable versions are usually found on the WordPress SVN repository. Intermediate versions are often found on GitHub.

• Child Themes Helper access
  The Child Themes Helper is accessed from the WordPress dashboard under the heading “Child Themes Helper”. The menu item may be found immediately below the Appearance Dashboard menu item.

• Platform Support
  The Child Themes Helper was developed on Microsoft IIS 10 and tested on both Windows’ and Linux -based web servers.

• If you like the Child Themes Helper plugin, please consider writing a review here. Thank you.

• Development versions
  Versions 2.2.1, 2.1, 1.2 are available for download and install.

• Screenshot
  The temporary graphic is referred to as the ScreenShot because the filename is “screenshot.png” and is located in the root folder of your theme. The filename and the location are defined by the WordPress core and cannot be changed by this (or any) plugin.

  Your browser will cache the screenshot file whenever possible. If you modify the ScreenShot graphic and you do not see any changes when you generate a new one, then you will need to clear your browser’s image and file cache.

  If you generate a screenshot graphic and you only see the background (i.e., no words), just generate the screenshot again. This happens when the selected font does not exist in the assets/fonts folder of the Child Themes Helper plugin. If you are updating from version 1.0, you will see this happen the first time that you generate a screenshot since the original fonts were deleted and replaced by Google Fonts.

  Most developers will replace this generated screenshot file with a graphic of their own. This feature is meant to provide a temporary graphic that quickly and easily identifies the child theme name and its parent theme.

  In a future release, there will be a lock feature on the options page to prevent accidental overwrites of the screenshot file. Also, in a future release, there will be the ability to select an existing graphic and crop it as necessary, instead of generating one.

• Known Bug
  Although the Child Themes Helper plugin is mostly responsive, the Edit File functionality doesn’t work very well on small screens. But does anybody actually modify themes on smartphones and tablets? (Please say ‘No’).