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#1 2024-12-29 22:25:13
- hug
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- Registered: 2024-12-02
- Posts: 11
Txp 4.8 and theme development - developing on a live theme
I read the blog post on the end of the staging server and how working on different themes can be tested via logged-in versus non-logged in users, and that’s pretty cool!
What is the best practice if I want to iterate my currently in-use theme? For example, I’m currently using the minimum theme and duplicated it to a new name for my own site changes. So now I’m running a minimum-hanna theme. Once it’s live, how do I start using the developer mode to work on the next iteration? That really wasn’t spelled out in the blog post. Do I need to duplicate the theme to minimum-hanna-v2 and edit that? In other words, is it possible to have the same theme both live on the site and also in development for making changes? My intiution says no but wanted to hear from those with more experience. Thanks!!
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Re: Txp 4.8 and theme development - developing on a live theme
Hi. Glad you’re finding this feature useful. I use it all the time and it’s incredibly powerful. My workflow is usually:
- Duplicate the current theme.
- Use Change theme/page/style to assign some/all sections to the new theme for development, which opens up the dev lane for those sections.
- Make changes to the development version of pages/forms/stylesheets.
- Test until happy.
- On the Sections panel, select the sections with the dev lanes and use multi-edit -> Developer Preview -> Deploy to Live. Your Dev theme is now Live for all site visitors.
- Back on the Themes panel, use the multi-edit tool to Export the old theme to disk if you want to make a backup of it. Then delete it (assuming none of its assets are still in use anywhere).
- Go back to step 1: duplicate current theme, assign to sections as a dev lane, edit, test, deploy, delete old theme. And so on.
There are nuances to this and ways you can just duplicate part of a theme or just iterate a page/stylesheet for quick edits, but the most straightforward process is the one above.
Hope that helps.
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#3 2024-12-30 19:16:46
- hug
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- Registered: 2024-12-02
- Posts: 11
Re: Txp 4.8 and theme development - developing on a live theme
Yes, thank you for elaborating on the work flow!
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