Genesis child theme loses multi-column layout

[MJ Grant]

Hello,

I am building (what was meant to be) a simple child theme for the Genesis framework, but when my child theme is active, my site loses its multi-column layout and I can't figure out how to restore it. It looks a lot like it's inappropriately trying to use the mobile styling. (I tried cutting the mobile styling out of the css and it persists).

My child theme's style.css file contains the copied contents of Genesis's style.css plus a few modifications of my own, and my child theme's functions.php contains this code:

<?php
/** Start the engine */
require_once( get_template_directory() . '/lib/init.php');
/** Child theme (do not remove) */
define( ‘CHILD_THEME_NAME’, 'Standing Desk Geek Theme' );
define( ‘CHILD_THEME_URL’, 'http://standingdeskgeek.com/' );

Here's what the site looks like with just the Genesis framework active: http://standingdeskgeek.com/help/framework_active.png

Here's what it looks like with my child theme active:http://standingdeskgeek.com/help/child_theme_active.png

Please ignore all the logo overlaps and other ugliness, I've been hesitant to put any work into styling the site until this columns problem is resolved. The live site is at http://standingdeskgeek.com

Thank you for any assistance!
MJ Grant

http://standingdeskgeek.com

[AnitaC]

You apostrophes are incorrect on the two define lines in your code. It should look like this:

<?php
/** Start the engine */
require_once( get_template_directory() . '/lib/init.php');
/** Child theme (do not remove) */
define( 'CHILD_THEME_NAME', 'Standing Desk Geek Theme' );
define( 'CHILD_THEME_URL', 'http://standingdeskgeek.com/' );

---

Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[MJ Grant]

Good catch, thank you - I fixed the apostrophes.

Alas, the layout problem has survived that fix.

[MJ Grant]

I downloaded another child theme for Genesis and compared it with mine. This line of code appears to add support for the "structure" I'm trying to achieve:

add_theme_support( 'genesis-structural-wraps', array( 'header', 'nav', 'subnav', 'inner', 'footer-widgets', 'footer' ) );

Adding this line to my functions.php fixed the wide-as-the-screen problem, but I'm still working on bringing the additional columns back into their proper locations (they're still showing underneath the content instead of to the right of it).

I thought my theme would be an extension of the framework, and would therefore not need to have support that's already present "re-added". Clearly, there is something I don't yet understand about how Genesis works.

[AnitaC]

Are you building a new child theme? You would only have that add theme support if you "added it" into the code yourself. Are you building from scratch or using the sample child theme as you base?

---

Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[MJ Grant]

I started from empty files, thinking all I needed to add to the .css and functions.php files were the differences between my child theme and the Genesis framework's default appearance. I think it's safe to say that's not the case!

Where is this sample child theme? Is that its name?

[AnitaC]

You can download it from here.

---

Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[MJ Grant]

I found the sample child theme, replaced my child theme's .css file with the sample child theme's .css, and there's the columns! Hooray!

It seems my mistake was in taking Genesis's .css file instead of the sample child theme's .css file. I'll build from the sample child theme, thanks!

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

[AnitaC]

You're welcome.

---

Need help with customization or troubleshooting? Reach out to me.

[Author]

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