Minutes after making my submission of version 3.5.1 I realized that there were some errors that had inadvertently crept in because I used the body_class() method. So I had to fix the errors and resubmit the theme, but as version 3.5.2. Now, I had already laid out plans for 3.5.3 before making these changes, so another feature found its way in. So here are the changes for 3.5.2:
- Support for Child Themes
This was another of those long-time to-do activities that I finally got around to delivering. This was surprisingly easy to incorporate and I just had to make a handful of changes. You can now define child themes for Suffusion. This is very easy for you as well. Let us assume that you will create a child theme called “Son of Suffusion”. Here is what you will do:- Create a folder called son-of-suffusion under wp-content/themes.
- Create a file called style.css in this folder. Put in these lines:
/* Theme Name: Son of Suffusion Theme URI: http://your-theme-url Description: Child Theme based on Suffusion Version: 1.0.0 Author: Your Name Author URI: http://your-url Template: suffusion */ @import url("../suffusion/style.css"); - The last line in comments, “
Template: suffusion” is critical. It tells WP that your theme is based on Suffusion. Make sure that what you put in there is the directory where Suffusion resides. - The first line after the comments is important if you want to use the Suffusion stylesheet. If you don’t have it, Suffusion’s styles will not be loaded.
- That’s all, really. You can add additional styles if you wish. This would be one way to not use the “Custom Styles” option. You can also add a functions.php and define your own PHP functions there. That would be one way to avoid using the “Custom PHP” functionality. Note the following:
- What you define in functions.php adds on to the existing functions in Suffusion’s functions.php file.
- Any other template file that you add overrides Suffusion’s templates. So if you create your own author.php file, that will take precedence over Suffusion’s author template. One very important use of child themes is if you want custom templates for custom purposes. E.g. You can create a file called category-16.php and define a special layout for your category with id 16. You can also create author-specific templates for WP 3.0. See WP’s template hierarchy for more details regarding how to add custom templates.
- Suffusion’s huge array of options will all be available to you using this method. Ensure that you keep the theme up-to-date.
- Bug fixes for some errors introduced by the
body_class()function, for static pages. Of course, after submitting 3.5.2 I caught another of these errors for author pages, but I am not going to bother with another release before WP approves my current release.
That’s it for now. I guess 3.5.2 will be a significant release for you users because it will come armed with both BuddyPress support and Child Theme support. So just keep waiting for WP to approve, while I figure out how to make some more WP 3.0 functionality available to you.
7 Responses to “Suffusion Version 3.5.2 and Child Themes”
Comments (7)
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Thankyou! you’re working hard for the best theme.
THank you!! I’ll be following new updates closely. Child Theme functionality will be great!!!
Again Best regards from Argentina,
Francine
Wow. I used this theme a few months ago on a client’s site, and they just asked me to look into adding community features. So I was just about to look into BuddyPress and… Ta! Da! You announce BP compatability!
Beautiful. Great timing. Keep up the great work! (I will insist that my client buy you several coffees)
Thanks, Dubya!
Playing with BP and Suffusion (should you untag the Buddypress for the theme so BP installers don’t use Suffusion thinking BP will install smoothly, until it does?) — and want to now play with the child theme. This part of the instructions was unclear to bleary me:
How exactly would it look to “put in there the directory where Suffusion resides?
Sorry and looking forward to playing more. It’s an impressive project you’ve got going.
Please see the next post. I was forced to “untag” and decouple BP because of the excruciatingly long BP theme approval time (2 weeks and no response). So I am not sure what your comment is based on – the theme doesn’t have a BuddyPress tag. There is a full-fledged BP support pack for Suffusion distributed on this site, though, that you can install separately.
Regarding your question on child themes, if you haven’t tinkered with the defaults then
Template: suffusionis precisely what you will put in there. But you also have the option to install a theme in a different directory. E.g. I could rename the folder “wp-content/themes/suffusion” to “wp-content/themes/renamed-suffusion” and select that as my theme (the theme name will still be Suffusion, but the installation folder will be different). In that case you would sayTemplate: renamed-suffusion.Hi Sayontan, our team is new to your theme but we are already using it for a couple of clients. You will be pleased to know the site developers here are all business consultants with no prgramming skills!
We have a question for you. When the Suffusion theme is used in conjunction with Buddypress the sidebars get pushed underneath the Buddypress content but only on Buddypress Pages. However the sidebar reverts to its correct position when navigating back to non-Buddypress pages. Do you have a nice and easy solution to that problem please? Thanks and wow what a fantastic job Suffusion is. Think you will soon pass the other contenders with your ratings.