Updating Child Themes

[moorezilla]

I know there are a lot of posts about not needing to necessarily update genesis child themes, but if you have child themes that do not have a great deal of customization, is there a best-practice way to do so and maintain the widget/page layouts already set up? For example, if you have a child theme that you have customized with widget and menu settings, but which you have not changed very much in terms of adding/editing to the custom css or functions.php, is there an easy way to update the child theme to a new version without losing the widget and menu settings (I realize any custom css or function.php edits would presumably be lost)?

Should I just ftp the new child theme files over the existing child theme files?
Should I instead switch to the genesis theme temporarily, delete the child theme, and then reinstall the new version of the child theme through the wordpress interface? (This seems like it might get rid of widget/color/menu customizations, but I'm not sure).
Any different methodology that I'm missing? I'm just a little confused that the child themes don't announce the existence of a new version and at least give you the option to update them with the caveat that any manually edited files would be lost.

If an answer to this particular question already exists, I apologize for asking it again, but I didn't find an answer to this in the forums or the studiopress info.

Thanks.

[Andykev]

I use "Notepad ++" to copy any custom .css or .php I've made for a theme. "Updating" a theme generally is not done...depending on what the developer is changing. In my experience, sometimes an "upgrade" is almost a new theme altogether (like a new header, footer, customizer for color options, etc.). So IF I do decide to install the "new" Child Theme, I treat it as a completely new one. Then I can just replace the widgets content. This assumes the new Child Theme has the same home page layout. You might find that the differences are only that a "portfolio" or "landing" page is being added.

You can use a nifty tool, DIFFCHECKER to compare side-by-side the old and then new and then decide if you need to save anything. And, you can always TEMPORARILY rename the old theme, and then install the new.

I am sure there are other ways to do it, but for me, it's faster to just have saved copies of Text widgets (and all my pages for that matter) saved. Sometimes I use a page from one website for another..and simply edit the content as needed. Saves me a LOT of time constructing the full page style.

[moorezilla]

Thanks for the reply!

Almost seems like WordPress needs children of child themes, instead of just child themes!

I'm tempted just to ignore the child theme updates, but recently it seems like some good/essential updates are being made, things like better compatibility with Woocommerce and for some third-party child themes, better compatibility with Chrome. Plus, knowing I'm not running the latest version of something always bothers me, so having older child themes just bugs me in general.

Thanks again.

[Andrea Rennick]

because the updates to child themes are not meant to be ported back to existing sites, that's why.

Generally speaking (the WooCommerce updates is an exception) any updates to child themes are minor. They are almost always tiny css fixes or tweaks.

There are NO security fixes in child themes. That is handled in the framework.

So the updates are for new installs.
Generally speaking - official support is do not update the child theme unless you absolutely need to.

All child themes have a changelog in the readme.txt file.

p.s - and sometimes we get asked why the child theme is "too old" and hasn't had any updates so we have to explain things either way.

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