Frameworks And Child Themes

[ArrowsDawdle]

I had an update wipe out a lot of changes that caused a whole lot of extra work. But I don't want to rush into a child theme. I even lost complete pages in that update, pages that were not in the nav links because I only let select people see them by sending them a link, such as in the case of a resume that I did not want public.

 

So far I have only used Weaver II, and the 20xx themes. Are these good ones with which to use child themes?

 

I need to establish child themes for sites and it must be a free framework. Tentatively looking at Pagelines DMS and Whiteboard. What about Gantry, and Carrington. Would like other suggestions and pros/cons please. Not doing e-commerce sites.

 

When making a child theme is it okay to just copy the existing style.css and functions.php files from the parent to the child theme folder or is it necessary to create fresh files? And, since most of my design to date is done in the parent main options where you can specify and modify the header and other areas, if I use a child theme will I still be able to use and preserve main options styling or will I have to do that only in the style.css in the child theme to preserve the styling? This is the most important issue because setting the styling this way is so easy and it takes me forever to try to figure out another way, mostly because I am never sure where the code should be put. It is not so difficult to find the code samples by using Google.

 

Also, I have always used the theme > settings > general, reading, writing to specify thing; and I use the theme advanced options to drop in CSS code quickly since I don't have to look for where to place it. When using a child theme will I still be able to use these parent theme features or will it all have to be done in the child theme?

 

What about plugins and widgets, how are those saved from updates wiping them out?

 

Thanks for any help!

Edited August 26, 2013 by ArrowsDawdle

[kralcx]

One of the main purposes of a child theme is so that when the base theme is updated it will not affect your child theme in a negative way. The exact instructions for your child theme will depend on which CMS you decide to use (e.g. drupal or wordpress).

 

Plugins, widgets, or modules being updated should not have a negative impact on your child theme.

[webdesignphilippines]

What about plugins and widgets, how are those saved from updates wiping them out?

 

Backup your files and database before you make any updates for plugins, themes or core wp files. If it's a really important site I make a clone and test it there first.