Child Themes in WordPress: What Are They? Why Are They Important? And How to Create and Use Them Step-by-Step?

When it comes to customizing your WordPress site and making radical changes to its design and functionality, you might think of modifying the core files of the theme you are using. But here lies the problem: if you make changes to the Parent Theme and later update it to get fixes or new features, you will lose all those modifications you worked hard on. For this reason, WordPress created the Child Themes system, which allows you to customize whatever you want while preserving the ability to update the parent theme without losing anything.

What is a Child Theme?

A child theme is like an “offspring” of the parent theme. Imagine that the parent theme provides you with the general structure, design, and functionality, while the child theme allows you to add or modify anything you want without touching the original theme’s files. And once the parent theme is updated, the child theme’s modifications remain in effect, saving you the trouble of restoring the modifications every time.
More clearly, the child theme loads all the parent theme’s files, but it allows you to replace or override any file you need to modify. If you don’t modify a specific file in the child theme, WordPress continues to load it from the parent theme automatically.

Why Do You Need a Child Theme?

1. Protect Your Customizations: Once you create a child theme and make modifications to it, your work will remain safe regardless of any updates to the parent theme.
2. Better Organization and Structure: You can concentrate all your code and customizations in the child theme, making site management and understanding modifications much easier.
3. Avoid Sudden Errors: When directly modifying parent theme files, a simple error can break the site. In a child theme, modifications are made safely, and you can always remove the problematic file or instruction to restore the site to its previous state.
4. Learning and Development Experience: If you are a beginner in WordPress development, a child theme will provide an ideal environment to experiment with code and gain experience without tampering with the original theme.

Concept of the Parent Theme

The parent theme is the main theme that your site relies on for its design and functionality. It is often developed by a third party (an individual or a company), such as Twenty Twenty-One, Astra, or GeneratePress. Parent themes may include many options and settings in the WordPress dashboard, along with PHP, CSS, and JavaScript files responsible for the site’s overall appearance and behavior.

Step-by-Step: How to Create a Child Theme

1. Create a New Folder for the Child Theme

Start by creating an empty folder in your site’s wp-content/themes path. It’s preferable to choose a name that reflects the parent theme with the addition of the word child or child-theme. For example, if the parent theme is named mytheme, create a folder named mytheme-child.

2. Add a Basic style.css File

Create a file named style.css inside the child theme folder. In this file, you will place the child theme’s identification information in the opening comment section, like this:

 /* Theme Name: MyTheme Child Template: mytheme Description: This is the child theme for the MyTheme theme Author: Your Name or Company Name Version: 1.0 */ 

• Theme Name: The name that will appear for the child theme in the WordPress dashboard.
• Template: Write the exact folder name of the parent theme here. If the folder name is mytheme, you must not make mistakes in capitalization.
• Description, Author, and Version: Additional information you can use for documentation.

Tip: Make sure the style.css file is your primary place for adding any CSS modifications to the design.

3. Create a functions.php File for the Child Theme

The functions.php file is where you place the custom code functions for your child theme, or enqueue additional CSS and JS files. Create a new file in the child theme called functions.php, then add the following code:

 <?php function mytheme_child_enqueue_styles() { // Enqueue the parent theme's CSS file wp_enqueue_style( 'mytheme-parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
TEXT
// Enqueue the child theme's CSS file
wp_enqueue_style(
    'mytheme-child-style',
    get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
    array('mytheme-parent-style')
);
}
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'mytheme_child_enqueue_styles');

This code does the following:

• Loads the parent theme’s style.css file: So you don’t lose any formatting or styling provided by the original theme.
• Loads the child theme’s style.css file: It will be loaded after the parent theme’s, giving it priority to override any CSS rules.

4. Upload the Folder and Activate the Child Theme

1. After creating and saving the style.css and functions.php files, you can upload the child theme folder to wp-content/themes via an FTP program or through the file manager in your hosting control panel.
2. Go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard.
3. You will find your child theme named MyTheme Child or whatever name you used.
4. Click Activate to use the child theme.

How to Use the Child Theme

1. Replace Only the Files You Want to Modify

If you want to modify a specific file in the parent theme, such as header.php, you just need to copy it from the parent theme’s folder to the same folder in the child theme (create a subfolder with the same name if necessary). After that, make your modifications to the copy of the file within the child theme. WordPress will automatically load the modified file instead of the original one.

2. Add New CSS Codes

It is always preferable to add new codes and styles inside the style.css file in the child theme. For example:

 /* Change header background color */ .site-header { background-color: #fafafa; border-bottom: 2px solid #ccc; }
/* Customize post title style */
.entry-title {
color: #004080;
font-weight: bold;
margin-bottom: 20px;
}

WordPress will apply these styles after finishing the parent theme’s styles, thus ensuring your styles have priority.

3. Add or Remove Functions via functions.php

The functions.php file is the appropriate place to add functions or Hooks to add new features or disable existing features in the parent theme. If you want to unregister a widget, for example, or add a custom field in the dashboard, you can do that within the child theme’s functions.php file.

Advanced Tips for Child Theme Development

• Don’t duplicate files you don’t need: Don’t randomly copy all parent theme files to the child theme. Only copy the files you intend to modify.
• Maintain file and folder names: The path and name of the file in the child theme must exactly match its counterpart in the parent theme for WordPress to recognize the modification.
• Keep your CSS organized: Use comments /*…*/ to clarify what each part of the modifications pertains to. This will make it easier for you and any other developer to understand what’s happening.
• Use additional files: You can create style-rtl.css files for Arabic, or custom.js for custom script functions, and enqueue them via the functions.php file.
• Test before applying: If you’re worried about errors, create a staging site or try the modifications on a local site before transferring them to your live site.

How Do I Verify the Child Theme is Working?

1. After activating the child theme, open your site and observe if the customizations you made are appearing.
2. Try updating the parent theme to see if your modifications remain and are unaffected.
3. If you encounter problems, check the file and folder names and their correspondence with the parent theme, and check for any typos in the functions.php file.

Why do you need a professional website with ITQAN?

The concept of a child theme is just a small part of the overall advanced processes we apply to build high-quality WordPress sites. ITQAN has a specialized team in developing professional Arabic websites that ensure security, speed, and high performance, in addition to attractive design and search engine compatibility.
When you collaborate with ITQAN, you will get:

• Eye-catching design: We take your business identity and blend it with best practices to deliver a comfortable and wonderful user interface.
• Custom development: Through child themes, we ensure the application of modifications that suit your needs without affecting the original theme.
• Performance and speed: We are committed to applying the latest performance optimization standards to make your site’s speed one of our priorities.
• Consulting and technical support: Whatever your problem or inquiry, we are here to respond and provide appropriate solutions.

Contact Us Now!

If you aspire to build a distinguished WordPress site in Arabic, or seek to customize your current theme in a professional way that preserves your efforts in the long run, do not hesitate to contact ITQAN. We are ready to help you at every stage, from planning and design to launch and maintenance.
Contact ITQAN

Don’t let the competition get ahead of you in the digital arena. Invest in a secure and advanced child theme, and let the ITQAN team help you achieve the best results in your next digital project!