Themes

Themes in WPtouch Pro 4

WPtouch Pro allows you to fully customize the look and functionality of your mobile theme. Each theme may be used as-is, customized using the options offered in the WPtouch Pro admin area, or more fully customized using WPtouch Pro's child theme capabilities.

The Basics
Customizing Themes
Creating New Child Themes
Theme Updates

The Basics

WPtouch Pro builds upon the native WordPress parent-child theme relationship to offer its mobile themes ( http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes ). The “Foundation” theme is the parent theme of all WPtouch Pro mobile themes and, as the parent, enjoys protected status: It is unavailable for activation in the Themes admin area.

CAUTION: While WPtouch Pro is designed for maximum flexibility, altering its core theme ("Foundation") could easily compromise your WPtouch Pro installation. To customize your mobile theme, always follow the recommended procedure which relies upon child themes, below.

Each of the other themes available for purchase with WPtouch Pro ("CMS", "Classic Redux", "Simple" etc.) is a child theme of Foundation. If you would like to create your own custom theme, duplicate one of these child themes by following the instructions in " Creating New Child Themes".

Customizing Themes

Each WPtouch Pro child theme comes with its own set of theme and menu options. Not every theme's options are the same. When a child theme is activated, it will appear at the top of the selection of available themes along with its "active" indicator.

Once active, options for the selected theme will be available through the "Go to the Customizer" button in the "Customize Theme" area in the WPtouch Pro admin panel.

In addition to the "Customizer", additional customizations may be made to each default child theme by modifying its files. The location of each child theme's files are noted with its screenshot in the WPtouch Pro Themes area. The location will be specific to your WordPress installation and server setup.

Depending upon the customization you'd like to make, you may need to modify:

the child theme's style.css file for styling changes,
the functions.php file for functionality changes,
the single.php file for post template changes,
the page.php file for page template changes,
or any of the other files for less common modifications.

You may also add new files, such as custom page templates based on those from your desktop theme, just as you would for any other WordPress theme.

Creating New Child Themes

The set of default mobile themes bundled with each release of WPtouch Pro may be used as starting points for building custom mobile themes. Choose a starter theme based upon how well its default set of options meets the needs of your vision for your mobile theme. To create a new custom child theme of your own, begin by creating a folder with any name in /wp-content/wptouch-data/themes

After creating the folder, create a readme.txt file and a folder named "default". The default folder must contain a style.css file at a minimum. The style.css can be from the parent theme's default directory. Or, you can add an empty style.css file to the copied theme's default directory. The readme.txt file should contain a Theme Name and must define a Parent theme, as follows:

Theme Name: My Child Theme
Parent: Bauhaus

Additional tags the readme.txt file may contain are:

Description: My child theme's description
Version: 1.0
Stable tag: 1.0
Depends on: 3.7.3
Author: Your name
Tags: smartphone

When you refresh your Themes area in the WPtouch Pro admin panel, your child child theme should display. Click on its name and click the Activate button to activate your child theme.

Using this method of copying child themes allows you to customize your own copied theme as much as you like and be confident that the default child theme (the original "Bauhaus" theme, for example) will remain intact through future updates to the core code.

You may also choose to update your new theme's screenshot by replacing the screenshot.png file with your own. Screenshot dimensions should be 256 by 256px for best results.

Theme Updates

Copied (child) themes will survive updates. Changes/customizations that have been made to its files will remain after the plugin or the parent theme is updated. To update a child theme, update the parent theme, create a new copy of it and activate it. Re-apply any customizations to the updated copy.

Themes in WPtouch Pro 3.x

WPtouch Pro allows you to fully customize the look and functionality of your mobile theme. One theme is bundled with WPtouch Pro. Additional mobile themes are available for download from the BraveNewCloud. Each theme may be used as-is, customized using the options offered in the WPtouch Pro admin area, or more fully customized using WPtouch Pro's child theme capabilities.

The Basics
Customizing Themes
Creating New Child Themes
Theme Updates

The Basics

Each of the default themes bundled with WPtouch Pro ("CMS", "Classic Redux", "Simple") is a child theme. If you would like to create your own custom theme, duplicate one of these child themes by following the instructions in " Creating New Child Themes".

Customizing Themes

Once active, options for the selected theme will be available through the "Setup" button in the Themes area and through the "Theme Settings" and "Menus" items in the WPtouch Pro main menu.

In addition to the "Theme Settings", additional customizations may be made to each default child theme by modifying its files. The location of each child theme's files are noted with its screenshot in the WPtouch Pro Themes area. The location will be specific to your WordPress installation and server setup.

Depending upon the customization you'd like to make, you may need to modify:

the child theme's style.css file for styling changes,
the functions.php file for functionality changes,
the single.php file for post template changes,
the page.php file for page template changes,
or any of the other files for less common modifications.

You may also add new files, such as custom page templates based on those from your desktop theme, just as you would for any other WordPress theme.

Creating New Child Themes

Copy a WPtouch Pro Theme

After copying the child theme using the COPY button under the theme you want to duplicate, you may then navigate to it on your server and rename it by modifying the Theme Name in its readme.txt file.

The location of your copied child theme on your server will depend upon whether you have a single-site WordPress installation or a WordPress network. You will find your copied child theme at:

/wp-content/wptouch-data/themes/ if you have a single-site WordPress installation, or
/wp-content/wptouch-data/YOUR_SUBSITE_ID/themes/ if you have a WordPress network installation.

In WPtouch Pro 3.0 and earlier versions, copied themes will be created in /wp-content/UPLOADS/wptouch-data...

When you refresh your Themes area in WPtouch Pro, your copied child theme should display its new name.

You may also choose to update your new theme's screenshot by replacing the screenshot.png file with your own. Screenshot dimensions should be 215px by 150px.

Theme Updates

Copied (child) themes will survive updates. Changes/customizations that have been made to its files will remain after the plugin or the parent theme is updated. To use an updated child theme, update the parent theme, create a new copy of it and activate it. Re-apply any customizations to the updated copy.