Are Child Themes Dead?

Child themes have always been an important part of the WordPress theme developer’s workflow. With the dawning of FSE (Full Site Editing) and block-based themes, developers are finding that old approaches don’t work anymore, and asking important questions: Where should customization take place? What is this theme.json thing? And, do we even need child themes anymore?
In this talk, I’ll address these questions and propose best practices for how to handle child themes and site customization.

Ben Dunkle

By Ben Dunkle

Ben Dunkle is a professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY where he serves as Chair of the Department of Communication and teaches digital media courses. Ben is a practicing consultant, offering web design and development, illustration, and training services to business, non-profits, and anyone who needs them. As an artist, he creates prints, paintings, drawings and 3D work; as a designer he makes icons, fonts and custom lettering. Ben has organized and spoken at numerous WordCamps and runs a monthly WordPress users meetup group in Buffalo, NY.

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