Frumph.NET

In ComicPress 2.9 we’re introducing another way of designing your site. In 2.8 we introduced an over-ride plugin called Companion which allows you to modify your site design without editing any of the original code. We’ve made another leap forward with 2.9 and have created a way for the end user to design their sites as theme’s which will utilize the core code components of ComicPress with the theme design which you create.

Let’s take a look first and understand how the flow of information gets sent to the visiting user without a child theme.   The visitor uses their browser and contacts the  WordPress CMS to request the page they want to view, WordPress then talks to the theme.   The theme grabs the comic image necessary and it all then is compiled out to the visitor.

With ComicPress 2.9  we have introduced another step in the process called a “Child Theme”  a child theme is pretty much just like a regular theme but the core code execution on how the theme behaves is handled by the parent theme, in this case the ComicPress theme.    The visitor uses their browser and contacts the WordPress CMS to request the page they want to view, wordpress them talks to the Child Theme which utilizes the code from the parent theme which grabs the comic image and then outputs the design style of what the child theme has out to the visitor.

This allows the site designer to create their own theme which uses the ComicPress core functions without modifying or editing the original ComicPress theme.   Yes, like Companion, however with the added bonus that whatever files you have in the child theme will override any from the original theme.

This also allows us to provide distributable theme designs that utilize the ComicPress core functions without the core, allowing us to provide the users of ComicPress with a variety of different layouts and designs that can be utilized as base designs to start from.