How does the Genesis Parent Load?

[brettatkin]

How does the Genesis parent theme load? When I look at the index.php page for theme, all I see is a call to the main genesis function 'genesis();' There isn't a call to the functions.php file which calls the init.php file.

[nunotmp]

The genesis() function can be found by navigating to genesis>lib>framework.php

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Genesis Child Themes – Follow Me

[brettatkin]

Yes, but how does the index.php know where to look to find that? The only code on the index.php page is:

genesis();

Thanks

[nunotmp]

This is the reason you have to "start the engine". When you start the engine you call in the init.php which requres the framework.php files which has the genesis() function. If you do not call the init.php file you will not have access to this function.

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Genesis Child Themes – Follow Me

[brettatkin]

I understand that, but how/where is that file called in the theme's index.php?

[Summer]

The init call is not in index.php, it's in functions.php, at the very top:

//* Start the engine
include_once( get_template_directory() . '/lib/init.php' );

That's what gets the framework engine connected to the child theme. All Genesis child themes need to have this call first, else they wouldn't be able to use Genesis functions and features.

In your themes folder, you'd have a folder called "genesis" which is the framework, and then your child theme, for example "enterprise-pro". That's how the "start the engine" call finds Genesis and lets the child theme do its magic.

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WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After Dark

[brettatkin]

I was finally able to find an answer - I wasn't really asking the question correctly. I found this post on Stack Exchange.

http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/71406/is-there-a-flowchart-for-wordpress-loading-sequence

Which leads to this post:

http://theme.fm/2011/09/wordpress-internals-how-wordpress-boots-up-part-2-2437/

For item 24, he says WP autoloads the primary and child theme's functions.php file. This is what I was missing. WP triggers the loading of the functions.php file which enables everything else to work.

Thanks for sticking with me on this.

[Author]

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