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Child theme

Waseem
Updated on November 4, 2026

2 min read

0:00 2:04

Do you need one?

Usually not. Changes you make in the Site Editor (styles, templates, headers, footers) are saved in your site’s database, so theme updates don’t overwrite them.

A child theme is worth it when you want to keep custom CSS, templates, patterns or PHP in files, for example under version control or to reuse on several sites.

Install Formafern Child

  1. Download formafern-child.zip from your WPRuby account, next to the Formafern download.
  2. Keep Formafern installed: the child theme needs it.
  3. Go to Appearance → Themes → Add New Theme → Upload Theme, upload formafern-child.zip and activate Formafern Child.

Your licence and updates stay with Formafern. Activate the licence on Appearance → Formafern as usual; Formafern keeps getting updates while the child theme is active, and updates never touch the child theme’s files.

Activate the child theme before you customize in the Site Editor. Styles, templates and parts you change there are saved for the active theme, so changes made while Formafern itself was active don’t carry over to the child theme.

What’s inside

File What it does
style.css Your CSS. It loads after Formafern’s styles, on the site and in the editor
functions.php Loads style.css. Add your own PHP here, with function names that start with formafern_child_
theme.json Empty to start. Anything you add is merged with Formafern’s: list only what you change

What the child theme can change

To change Add to the child theme
Colors, fonts, spacing theme.json
A template templates/<name>.html, with the same name as Formafern’s (for example single-product.html)
A header or footer parts/<name>.html
A pattern patterns/<name>.php, with the same file name as Formafern’s
Behavior PHP in functions.php, using the hooks and filters

Files you add replace Formafern’s files of the same name. To start from Formafern’s version, copy the file from the theme and change the copy.

Site Editor changes still win. A template or part you’ve edited and saved in the Site Editor is stored in the database and is used instead of both themes’ files. Reset it (⋮ → Reset) to use the file.