[Buyers] Editing WordPress Themes the Right Way

Yep! definitely child themes is the way to go. I’ve been using them for quite sometime now and it works really good.

Of course don’t forget to “educate” your buyers by providing enough documentation of practical “How to’s” examples that they can use as a basis for their own modifications. There’s no need to go overboard because support is one thing and custom work is another.

I aim to provide enough (basic) information for those that have some average ability with code. Those that know their way around with development anyway don’t need me and those that don’t, well… that would be custom work right? (who does the work in the end is a different matter.)

I think that also a well documented changelog file would be very usefull… in case of bug fixes, instead of replacing the whole theme folder, buyers could just make the fixes by themselves (many times we edit few lines here and there, so upgrading the whole folder isn’t really necessary)... and so they wouldn’t lose the changes they made before.

Parker

ParkerAndKent said
I think that also a well documented changelog file would be very usefull… in case of bug fixes, instead of replacing the whole theme folder, buyers could just make the fixes by themselves (many times we edit few lines here and there, so upgrading the whole folder isn’t really necessary)... and so they wouldn’t lose the changes they made before. Parker

That’s up to the buyer. I prefer this method because is more effective. Just think in all the possibilities for them. Let’s face it, a changelog is tedious either for us or them.

Good video, but it may not work for user who do not know much about html/css or coding. For example, I have a buyer who is an insurance agent. I can’t expect him to edit the theme follow the instruction, especially when create folder/files, ftp to server involved.

I still believe that better files structure and changlog file can already do the job, for both parties.

I thought at first it would be helpful to create the child theme and include it in the bundle, but you’d have the same problem when the theme gets updated…there would be a virgin child theme included in the update. Maybe you could check for the existence of the child theme folder and if it doesn’t exist, create it dynamically from the admin, but then the user would have to activate the parent theme first, then the child theme.