Hello,
I’ve saw you made a major change in the theme. We have sites using Newspaper that most of them have a child theme with many template overrides on modules and shortcodes (blocks). What happens now? What are we going to do with all those changes?
Hello,
Most of the theme files were moved into the tagdiv composer plugin as per the requirements of envato: https://help.author.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000472383-WordPress-Theme-Requirements.
We wrote an article on the subject here: https://tagdiv.com/updating-the-core-of-tagdiv-themes/
Moving forward with such requirements, a child theme will only work with functions.php, style.css and the few files left in the main theme folder as envato requires all functionality to be added through plugins.
Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding.
There is abolutely no useful information in the article you mention when it comes to modified template files. How can we now do this mods update-safe?
Hi MKJ,
Please notice that for each up theme update you need to make a full backup to your database to avoid losing all of your data. Regarding on child theme, please notice that’s the consequence of moving the theme core files.
Most of the theme files were moved into the TagDiv composer plugin as per the requirements of Envato: https://help.author.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000472383-WordPress-Theme-Requirements. We wrote an article on the subject here: https://tagdiv.com/updating-the-core-of-tagdiv-themes/
Moving forward with such requirements, a child theme will only work with functions.php, and style.css, as there are very few files left in the main theme as Envato, requires all functionality to be added through plugins.
Thank you for understanding!
I don’t have the time to dive into the Envato requirements. But this is the first time in 10 years working with WordPress that I have to deal with such a problem. Theme template files should be located in the theme folder. If they really have to be moved into a plugin, provide a solution for overwriting them. However, I’ve never seen this before. So, maybe you should revise the theme structure. Anyway, it is a kick in the teeth for all paying customers. What about customers who spent a lot of money for customization? Everything is lost or has to be moved to the plugin folder which is not update-safe. So, maintenance costs will increase significantly.
Well, maybe envato’s terms have these requirements. But these requirements are absolutely opposite to what WordPress says for changes in theme files using a child theme. This is absurd in my opinion. Even so, you could create a function so we’re able to create overrides for the tagdiv composer plugin. There are plenty of plugins to offer that.
Edit: Reading more carefully in Envato’s requirements they don’t say anywhere to remove every override capability https://help.author.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000480723#h_5966589781211522283728890. Unless I’m mistaken. They say:
If a child theme is provided with the theme, it must:
- Load the parent stylesheet using wp_enqueue_style() instead of @import.
- Consist of style.css, functions.php and screenshot.png files at a minimum.
- Append “Child” to the theme name so it can be identified as a child theme.
- Include files within the child theme directory using get_stylesheet_directory().
- Reference the parent theme via Template: parameter in the style.css header
- The child theme will be held to the same standards and best practices as the parent theme. For more information on Child Theme development, refer to WordPress Codex article.
