These free tutorials—complete with cool tools and tricks-of-the-trade—can help bring your creative vision to life.
How to do a File Diff to Create a WP Child Theme
- Create a folder on your Desktop called “wp-theme-folders”
- From your site’s server, download a copy of your site’s current berkeley_brand theme folder located in wp-content/themes/
- Save this folder on your computer at Desktop/wp-theme-folders as berkeley_brand-fromOldSite
- Aquire an un-modified/vanilla copy of the brand_theme in the version you are using. Please feel free to email ucbweb@berkeley.edu and we can send you a version if you don’t have it
- Unzip this folder on your Desktop/wp-theme-folders
- On your desktop your “wp-theme-folders” directory will have two child directories: berkeley_brand-fromOldSite and berkeley_brand
- Open Terminal (on Mac) or Command Prompt (on PC)
- Type the command CD Desktop/wp-them-folders and hit ENTER. This will move you into the Desktop of your computer, where the files are saved
- Type in one of two commands to see differences in the directories (Note: these commands do not make any changes to your computer/files on your computer. They just compare directories)
- To see file names only. Going this route means you can c/p both files (fromOldSite version and Vanilla version) into a website like https://www.diffchecker.com/ to highlight differences in the code
- diff -qr berkeley_brand-fromOldSite berkeley_brand
- diff -qr berkeley_brand-fromOldSite berkeley_brand
- To see files names with differences. Going this route will show the differences in terminal/command prompt. Recommended only if you have a few changes or are used to using terminal
- diff -r berkeley_brand-fromOldSite berkeley_brand
- diff -r berkeley_brand-fromOldSite berkeley_brand
- To see file names only. Going this route means you can c/p both files (fromOldSite version and Vanilla version) into a website like https://www.diffchecker.com/ to highlight differences in the code
In general you can save the differences you find in the same file in your child theme.
For instance, if you have changes in functions.php, copy them and save them in the functions.php file in your child theme.
If you have changes in /templates/parts/menu-main.php, in your child theme they will also go in /templates/parts/menu-main.php
