Not sure its the right place to ask this question,
I have a website that we use mainly for marketing our services, online service bookings and selling bit of products. the site hasn’t been updated since 2017, both the Avada parent and child theme need an update to version 6.2, remove products/WooCommerce and replace the booking system to a new app.
I would like to start managed/update/customise my site but I have no knowledge in coding such as CSS, functions...Etc however I prefer at this point to start with Avada fusion builder as I can easily learn quickly and get results to get my website up and running and then learn coding as I go.
I have installed wordpress on my local ubuntu server using 5.4.1 wordpress/php7.4/apache docker image and MariaDB database Image. i have imported the live site database, content and updates all the plugins and fixed all the small issues.
the site is now up and running on my local server however few things are broken due to the customisation, theme and wordpress version updates. i’m just trying to have a plan what is the best way for me and how to do it.
Before I start update the website, I would like plan how to structure it so it will be easier for me to manage the site in the future. I did some research and it seems that now days for most customisation, you don’t need a child theme as it can do most of CSS customisation and functions by using the WordPress/Avada parent theme and plugin. as explain above the website will have standard pages for the services with style customisation and an online booking system.
The Avada Theme/fusion builder and wordpress has a section to do the custom CSS locally on the page and globally. for the functions codes you can use snippets or similar plugin. if i understand, the customisation are store in the database when you move to a new version of wordpress/theme as well as the plugin store in the content files, meaning when you do your backup you don’t loose it.
if all the customisation are backed up and i don’t need the child theme any more is there a way to copy or use migration plugin to move the customisation from the child theme back to the parent theme? it looks like child theme is not necessary for most websites at it use to be.
My questions are:
Per above scope, future update/upgrades and easy management do I need a child theme or better use parent theme/plugin to do the customisation?
How do I move the child theme configuration back to latest version parent theme?
If keeping the child theme structure, how do I update/migrate/move the old child theme to the new version child theme?
Can i use the old child theme with the new parent theme? or its better/recommended to use the new child theme version.
please check this video, that explain the above, about not using child theme https://youtu.be/30JdAarTAFU
Thank you for your help in advance.
glad to see you actually make an effort to understand this. I will try to answer your questions best I can. I have been working with Avada for last 3 years.
Per above scope, future update/upgrades and easy management do I need a child theme or better use parent theme/plugin to do the customisation?
I will always have a child theme. The reason for this is very simple - every site needs to be customised in some way. Yes, page builders help but don't have every option for everything. I use Elementor these days and I believe this is the best builder on the market today, yet I still find myself writing small bits of code to change things that are not supplied with it.
Since you are looking to update your site. You should not remove the child theme because there might be some functions or templates that are used.
How do I move the child theme configuration back to latest version parent theme?
If there were any custom css you will need to copy it and paste it into the theme 'Custom CSS' option page in the backend of your website. Any template or functions.php file will need to be moved back to parent theme. However, if you have these files and you moved it back to parent you will overwrite these with any updates to the theme. I really don't recommend removing child-theme.
If keeping the child theme structure, how do I update/migrate/move the old child theme to the new version child theme?
You need to update the parent and not the child theme. The whole idea is to never update child theme so none of your files will be overwritten. Also, the core child theme will consist (in most cases) of functions.php and style.css - and both are empty. So if you update the child theme you will be basically removing whats there already.
Can i use the old child theme with the new parent theme? or its better/recommended to use the new child theme version.
Yes, this is the main reason for having child themes.
Updating Avada
I will assume the version of Avada is 4.0.3 and the newest one is 6.*. The process is very easy: 1. Update WordPress (5.4.1 is the newest today). 2. Download new files from the theme website. 3. Upload the files to parent theme. 4. Login to your admin account on your website. There you should see the installation. 5. Once completed, check all the pages (especially where the builder is present) for any errors.
There might need to make some small changes to the header.php and footer.php
Let me know how it went.