Aany WordPress site owners find that a file called ( Child Theme ) appears when they obtain some templates. Indeed, most modern templates provide a Child theme version of their templates, which is considered an exact copy of the basic template that is installed on the site.
So you ask yourself: What is the benefit of having an exact copy of the WordPress template on your site? How can you benefit from it? Does the Child theme help protect and secure the site from programming errors resulting from modifying the basic template design?
In our article today, we will answer all these questions, and highlight all the details you need to know about the so-called “child theme” or the most famous term, child theme.
What is Child theme
The child theme, or so-called child theme, is a template similar to the original template that you are using, and it has all the features and working method that the original template works with. It is installed on your WordPress website by default with some popular templates, and you can also create it yourself.
Now you may be wondering : Since there is a template installed on my site, why is there another template that has the same characteristics as the applied template and is an exact copy of it? In fact, the goal of installing the Child theme template is to make it possible to conduct experiments on the template, such as changing the design or the internal elements it contains that form the front end of your site.
It is worth noting that modifying the original template directly may result in major programming errors on your site, and your entire site may crash as a result of incorrect modifications.
Here comes the role of the Child theme, as its main benefit is to simulate the changes to be implemented on the original template before applying them. You can modify it as you wish and experience various changes you desire, including the appearance, design, and performance of your site, without the original template being affected by those changes. After ensuring that the changes are correct and that they match the desired result, you can then confidently apply them to the original template.
Read also: What are WordPress templates, how do they work, and what is their best use?
What are the uses of Child theme?
The most important benefit of using the Child theme template is that it allows the website owner to make different formats on his template by modifying the Child theme itself, and thus when a new version of the basic template is released, he will not lose those modifications and formatting that they made to the template for his site.
In other words, if a new version of the template you are using on your site is available, before installing these updates, you can emulate it on the Child theme template and ensure the safety and effectiveness of the modifications before fully adopting them on your site.
WordPress users often do not want to make or install the latest updates to the theme used on their site, for fear of losing all the formatting or code modifications they made to the theme before the update. However, with the Child theme template , it is possible to update the website template every time a new version is available without fear of losing any previous formats.
Benefits of using Child theme:
- If your site contains a Child theme template, and you accidentally delete or modify some code on some pages of the original template, your site will not be affected; Because the child theme contains another copy of these codes and formats, you can experiment with modifications to the website template with complete safety.
- When you update the template for your site, you will not lose the modifications and formatting that you previously made before installing the new template update.
- You can work on modifying the original template while being reassured that there is another template (the child template) that contains a copy of all the files that you are trying to modify. In other words, there is a backup copy in case anything goes wrong with the primary template after you make the modifications.
- When you hire someone to edit your site, you can direct them to work on the child template instead of the parent template, so that it will be possible to restore the original template if something goes wrong as a result of the modifications.
- You can make a lot of modifications to the original template formats with just a few codes.
WordPress templates that provide Child theme
Most of the famous templates provide the Child theme template with them, and you can also download it from the official website of the template. There are some of these templates that provide the Child theme template for free, and some companies provide it for a sum of money.
Even if the basic template does not include a Child theme, you can create it yourself or hire a WordPress developer to create it for you so that you can benefit from the features it provides.
For example, the famous Storefront template for online stores provides some Child theme templates that you can purchase and install on your site alongside the original template, such as the proshop template.
When do you need to use Child theme?
Not all WordPress website owners need to use the Child theme template. The main need for this template is if you are about to make a lot of modifications to your site’s template or you are about to implement major modifications or updates to the site, such as modifications to the style.css file, or what is known. In the template formats file, or if you want to modify the source code of the template so as to change its properties and formats, in this case you must take into account the use of the Child theme template, as it will serve as a warranty card in the event that anything unexpected occurs on the site.
We can say that: Using the Child theme template is especially useful for users who have sufficient background and knowledge on how to modify the code of WordPress templates, and want to test the effect of changing some of the template code and the results it will lead to without disrupting the site or causing problems in its performance.
However, if the template for your site is sufficient for the purpose and you do not need to make any programming modifications to the source code, or you do not plan to make many or large modifications to the source code for the site template, then in this case there is no need to use the Child theme template on your site.
Therefore, we can say that the child theme is a guarantee paper to secure your site when making any modifications to the original template, as if you were placing a wall paper to write and draw on it. If you remove that paper, the wall itself will not be affected by these writings and will not appear on it, but rather they will appear on the paper. Pasted only.
As we mentioned, you can use the Child theme template if you plan to make a lot of code-related changes to the original template of your site and want this to be done without negatively affecting the original template, in addition to the possibility of preserving the modifications you make even after installing new updates to the template.
