custom child theme with pre-installed plugins, child theme, child theme plugin,

Sorry @fish, I’m not clear on what your problem is?

The Child Theme is independent of plugins. It helps you customize the Theme, not Plugins. No such thing as pre-installed Plugins. After installing WP and then a Theme, you then download any Plugins you want to use.

What are you and your daughter trying to achieve?

Hello rdellconsulting.

Thank you for responding I apologise for the late response I was way from my computer for the holidays. I’ll try to explain in detail what I’m hoping to accomplish.

I would like to customize a copy of the customizer child theme style.css, header.php, footer.php functions.php etc. So that I can send a pre-edited copy of child theme do my daughter so that all she should have to do is install the customizer parent theme as well as the child theme and activate it then her site should be pretty much pre-styled for her.

My only real problem is I was hoping I could add a few plugins to the child themes files so that when she installs the child theme the plugins would also install and all she would have to do is activate them.

If it’s not possible to include the plugins with a copy of the child theme is there away that when she activates the child theme it would then suggest she use the following plugins, page builder by siteorigin, W3 total Cache, WordPress SEO by yoast and a few more. I see themes occasionally suggest the use of certain plguins after the theme is activated, I was hoping to do something similar but using the child theme.

Thank you for your time
Fish

OK, I think the solution lies in understanding the folder structure. WP sets up the standard WP installation with a folder /wp-content which contains the main customisable assets.

/wp-content/themes contains the themes, so in your case you’d want both the customizr and customizr-child (or whatever you call it) folders.

/wp-content/plugins contains the plugins

So if you create a zip file containing :
– wp-content/themes/customizr
– wp-content/themes/customizr-child
– wp-content/plugins + all the subfolders

Then your daughter can unpack that zip file and FTP/Copy&Paste those folders into her site and she should then have:
– Customizr
– Customizr-Child
– Plugins
which she can Activate.

Might I suggest using TEAMVIEWER.com. With that you have a secure connection and you can be on your daughters computer remotely. It has a file transfer utility. I have used this many times helping people with their computers and/or websites.
Best of all it is FREE!

Thanks redellconsulting for taking the time to help me out, You made it very clear as to what I’m after even more so then I did. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of using wp-content instead of focusing on the child-theme directly. It’s makes complete sense now.

I got this idea from Lara Schenck a guest speaker at NYC WordPress meet-up. “crash course in child themes”

@ questas_admin, thanks for the suggestion that was my last resort the reason being I would like for my daughter to get familiar with the basic functions of wp-admin panel, but if she’s unable to complete the task after I send her the zip file of wp-content I guess I’ll be forced to use teamviewer to get her site up and running.

I’ll mark this resolved.

Thanks again
Fish

Make sure you take backups before you change anything!

Redellconsulting I would like to update you on the success I had following your directions to the T. I’m so glad people such as yourself are apart of this community and willing to help if and when your allowed the time around your normally busy schedules.

Thanks to you my daughter was able to get her site up and running including 100% customized in under 5 minutes thanks to your knowledge, and willingness to help. That’s what makes wordpress stand out above the rest it offers a community such as this with members like yourself and questas_admin willing to help!

I did end up using teamviewer just to double check out how she was organizing her files on her PC but it all looked tip top and well organized so all and all I’ve had a great day / night.

I just hope I have the chance to repay the favor to someone in need of assistance in the future to keep the wheels spinning.

P.S. to make backups was my first move as well as having my daughter do the same once her site was 100% operable. Great advice I’ve lost many of site because I failed to make a simple backup before editing my files.

Again Redellconsulting, I thank you and my daughter thanks you and questas_admin for your help.

Fish

That’s really great to hear, and thanks for letting me know.

For backups, I’d recommend you look at Duplicator. It’s superb and free (at the moment) and great for moving websites around. May have been an option above, but you’ll have learnt more with the manual approach.