Here at TommusRhodus Themes, we are always looking for ways to improve our Themes, and although our setup process has always proven to be a winner with our users, we have always wanted to streamline the process to make things as simple as possible for everyone and we are proud to announce that starting with our upcoming theme “Flagrant”, our on-boarding experience will be second to none thanks so an all-new auto-importer.
The new importer tool we have implements takes care of everything, from installing and activating any plugins that are bundled, importing the demo content and even create and setting up a child theme for you – all in one sleek step-by-step wizard.
So, Whats a Child Theme and Why Do I Need One?
If your unfamiliar with WordPress, the term “child theme” is hardly self-explanatory and initially it may not seem like something you would need, however in reality a child theme is a great way to allow you to make changes to your design beyond what the theme options offer, without modifying the main theme’s files which would normally make updating your theme a pain.
A child theme is basically an extra layer between the main theme (in this case, our theme) and the design the user see’s when browsing your site. By default a child theme wont do anything and you would never know one is present, however where its true power becomes apparent is when you wish to make changes, either via CSS – where your custom code can be placed within your child theme so its not lost when updating themes – or for more drastic changes such as adding your own PHP functions, replacing templates files and much more.
Even if you feel you will have no need for such a thing, its always wise to have a child theme in place – especially as our new auto-import feature takes care of creating, installing and activating a child theme for you, it could not be easier!
Great, So What Else Does the Auto-Importer Do?
Once we have setup and installed a child theme for you, we will then go ahead and offer to install any plugins which are provided with your theme. These plugins will change depending on your theme and typically are only provided to give extra features and functions which do not belong within the core theme.
The process of installing is as simple as can be, simply hit “Install”, sit back and relax and watch as we grab each plugin and install it for you once by one.
Once the process is complete, you can continue to the 3rd and final step outlined below.
What About the Demo Data?
Ok so now everything is in place in the form of a freshly-baked child theme and suite of plugins, we can go ahead and import the demo content for you. This will include all of the pages, images and even widgets from our demo so you have a direct duplicate which you can study and edit any what you want, neat!
In keeping with the rest of things, this process is also incredibly simple as we take care of everything under the hood for you. All you need to do is hit “Import” and wait. The process can take a few moments depending on the volume of data being imported as well as the speed of your connection/host, but dont worry, you will be notified on screen once everything is complete.
What If Something Goes Wrong?
Whilst we have fully tested the process, its inevitably that some may go wrong every now and then, so if you happen to run into an issue along the way we are more than happy to help. Simply contact us and we will be more than happy to assist and get you up and running in no time.
We would like to take a moment here and offer many thanks to Rich Tabor and the Merlin WP team for the fantastic theme setup wizard functionality you see here. For more check our the MerlinWP repository.
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