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Safely Customize Genesis Child Themes with WP Clips

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Original article – http://wpclips.net/safely-customizing-genesis-child-themes-wp-clips/

CUSTOMIZING GENESIS – A QUESTION OF ‘BEST PRACTICE’

Some time ago, I stumbled upon on a YouTube video entitled “How to Safely Customize Your Genesis Child Theme”, in which Katrinah (katrinah.com) explained how to customize Genesis child themes using secondary custom files to protect customizations from theme updates.

As a fellow Genesis user and third-party developer, I saw Katrinah’s tutorial as a helpful resource for the Genesis community. However, I recently happened upon the video again to find the original content removed and several comments taking issue with adding secondary files over editing theme files directly. StudioPress support also weighed in, stating that Best Practice is to edit theme files directly because Genesis child themes do not get updated.

Well, this might be true of StudioPress themes. However, many Genesis child themes DO get updated, in particular themes from third-party developers which integrate frequently-updated plugins (e.g. WooCommerce). And, plugin updates often necessitate theme updates.
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Envy Pro Version 1.1 Released (Major Update)

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ENVY PRO Version 1.1 has been released (update from v1.0.3), and although classified as a major update, there are only a handful of changes; including modified top padding on subpages when using a custom header-image, and an adjustment to positioning of the sales flash to prevent a horizontal scrollbar on smaller screens.

So, why call it a Major Update?  Well, the main.js file, which regulates the header and full-window slider functions, has been completely reworked. Some ENVY PRO users had noted a ‘jump’ delay in loading sub-pages. This was because the entire page required loading (including images) before setting the page displacement to allow for the fixed header. The ‘jump’ can never be totally removed, however it is now accelerated and less noticeable as the displacement is set well before the full page is loaded. Add a page caching plugin for further efficiency. Read More ➝

Envy Version 1.2 Released

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Envy Version 1.2 has just been released and is regarded as a major update from 1.1.4. Major updates require a high level of care when updating existing sites, particularly where customisations have been made to your theme. Update-safety is markedly improved if using ENVY’s ‘user-‘ files. Click here for more info.
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Update-Safe Genesis Theme Customisation

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Please note that this tutorial and Krolyn’s Update-Safe ‘User’ files are now deprecated and replaced by WP CLIPS. Update-safe Genesis theme customisation is now as easy as downloading WP CLIPS, installing the plugin, and adding your custom code via WordPress’s editor, FTP or file manager. It’s fast, free, flexible and feather-weight. And your custom code is completely safe from theme and plugin updates.

Visit http://wpclips.net for more information and to download your free Clip!

 

 

]One issue with Genesis child themes is that style and script customisations are generally made direct to the theme files. This means that updating your theme to a newer version will overwrite your customisations.

Thankfully, there is a way to make theme customisation both simple and safe. Create independent ‘user-‘ files to handle your customised code, which can be removed from the theme folder before updating and subsequently replaced. These files generally include:

1)  a user-functions.php file to store any custom PHP functions;
2)  a user-jquery.js file to store any custom jQuery scripts; and
3)  a user-style.css file to store any custom CSS styles.

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Replace Envy’s Genesis Blog Template with WordPress

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Bill Erickson writes about the merits of an alternative blog template in his article “Don’t Use the Genesis Blog Template”. This could be a custom blog page or the default WordPress blog page.

For those who are not PHP code-savvy and want some level of management over the blog output, this is perhaps not desirable given that it disables all Genesis settings for the ‘Blog Page Template’. However, for others looking to customise code or introduce plugins which interact with the blog page, there are definitely some benefits. So, here’s how to apply Bill’s solution to the ENVY theme.

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