Should a child theme inherit the parents theme options?

  • Resolved Paul

    (@paulgaudet)


    9 years, 9 months ago

    Hi, first… thanks for helping a newcomer.

    I successfully created a child theme in a new folder containing nothing but style.css that references a purchased parent theme. I understand this to be the safest way to make changes to a theme while avoiding future overwrite issues during updates.

    The problem (or not, that’s why I’m here) is that on the child’s ‘Live Preview’ only some of the parents Theme Options have been inherited: ie. the Site Title & Tagline carried over but Header Image and Navigation settings didn’t.

    I realize it is quick and easy to re-Customize the child theme, however my question is more about what one should expect when creating a child theme.

    – Should all the Theme Options be inherited or is it normal for only some?

    – Are there any other settings or options that don’t get inherited by a child theme?

    I did read the documentation and have a grasp on how functions.php is inherited, and how css cascades… I guess I didn’t read enough because I was surprised to see the child theme showing the default Theme Options in some places (ie the theme logo in the header instead of mine, no main menu). I assumed the child, with nothing other than style.css file @importing the blank parent theme style.css (which, as a sidenote, seems like an odd first step… but that’s what the tutorial said)… I assumed the child would be a mirror copy of the parent theme and that any Theme Options set on /wp-admin/customize.php in the parent would be saved in the database and used in the child.

    If anyone can shed light on what I’m plainly missing that would be great!

    Thanks!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Child themes don’t inherit parent theme options, so you do need to redo those.

    Thread Starter Paul

    (@paulgaudet)

    Ok, that’s good to know. Although it makes me wonder how the “Site Title & Tagline” carried over to the child but “Header Image” and “Navigation” settings didn’t. Curious!

    Those are saved on a site basis, the theme options and settings per theme.

    Thread Starter Paul

    (@paulgaudet)

    Ah, so some Theme Options have a ‘site’ scope (site title, tagline)… while others are specific to the theme. I think that’s the difference I wasn’t putting together… a site’s title and tagline apply regardless of the theme in use, while things like header image and navigation are theme-specific like you said… and in that case it doesn’t make sense for a child theme to inherit them. I now understand why some theme options carried over to the child while others didn’t, and shouldn’t. Got it!

    Cheers man.

    Yep, you got it now :)!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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