Title: Child theme and functions.php
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Child theme and functions.php

 *  Resolved [ThorHammer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thorhammer/)
 * (@thorhammer)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/)
 * Ok. I am using twentytwelve and I have made a child theme from it. In order to
   keep some settings when upgrading the “mother” theme, I want some of the special
   functions to stay in a functions.php in the child theme folder.
    In twentytwelve
   there are two sidebars. But, on a special page template I have made in my child
   theme, I have two extra sidebars. Right now they are registered in twentytwelves
   functions.php, and these settings will go when I upgrade it. So… can i just add
   these into my empty functions.php in my vhild theme in order to keep the sidebars(
   and then remove these settings from twentytwelves (mother) function.php):
 *     ```
       function lbs-forside_widgets_init() {
   
       	register_sidebar( array(
       			'name' => __( 'Left Sidebar', 'lbs-forside' ),
       			'id' => 'sidebar-4',
       			'description' => __( 'Appears on posts and pages except the optional Front Page template, which has its own widgets', 'lbs-forside' ),
       			'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
       			'after_widget' => '</aside>',
       			'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
       			'after_title' => '</h3>',
       	) );
       	register_sidebar( array(
       			'name' => __( 'Right Sidebar', 'lbs-forside' ),
       			'id' => 'sidebar-5',
       			'description' => __( 'Appears on posts and pages except the optional Front Page template, which has its own widgets', 'lbs-forside' ),
       			'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
       			'after_widget' => '</aside>',
       			'before_title' => '<h3 class="widget-title">',
       			'after_title' => '</h3>',
       	) );
   
       }
       ```
   
 * Right now I have deleted the functions.php in my child theme since my last effort
   was with the exact same functions.php as in the mother theme, which gave me a
   fatal error.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Thread Starter [ThorHammer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thorhammer/)
 * (@thorhammer)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/#post-3262007)
 * Oh… I forgot, **above** the code above:
    `if ( ! function_exists( 'lbs-forside_widgets_init')):`
   And **after** the code above:
 *     ```
       endif;
       add_action( 'widgets_init', 'lbs-forside_widgets_init' );
       ```
   
 * Since these sidebar will be removed from the mother theme they will exist only
   in my child theme. I am a bit anxious to put this into the empty functions in
   my child theme due to the near death experience I got when I got a fatal error
   when the child theme had the same functions.php as the mother. Is this safe to
   use now? Will the child accept both these sidebars and the default sidebars in
   the mother with this code?
 *  [Rev. Voodoo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rvoodoo/)
 * (@rvoodoo)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/#post-3262009)
 * Yes, that is fine.
 * You must not have the same named functions in parent and child (unless the function
   in the parent is pluggable and meant to be overridden by child, in which case
   the function is wrapped in if ( !function_exists )
 * You prefix your functions – which is a good way to ensure there is no conflict
 * And yes, the parent and child sidebars will function. I do it all the time from
   child themes and plugins
 * Just remove from the parent theme first and all is well.
 * Just make sure to properly open your child theme functions.php of course!
 *     ```
       <?php
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [ThorHammer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thorhammer/)
 * (@thorhammer)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/#post-3262010)
 * Thanks you for your reply!
    Then I will finally take the giant leap … 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [ThorHammer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thorhammer/)
 * (@thorhammer)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/#post-3262014)
 * It worked! Just one thing…
    In this code: `if ( ! function_exists( 'lbs-forside_widgets_init')):`
   I had to get rid of the – So I ended with: `if ( ! function_exists( 'lbsforside_widgets_init')):`
 *  [Rev. Voodoo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rvoodoo/)
 * (@rvoodoo)
 * [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/#post-3262017)
 * Yeah… I usually don’t use hyphens, capital letters, and definitely no spaces 
   in a function… lowercase and underscores only
 * You really shouldn’t need to wrap your child theme functions in a function_exists
   wrapper anyway.
 * That is done in the parent theme to make functions pluggable by a child theme.
   The child theme functions.php loads before the parent, so when it checks the 
   function wouldn’t exist.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Child theme and functions.php’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [child theme](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/child-theme/)
 * [functions](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/functions/)
 * [register](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/register/)

 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Rev. Voodoo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rvoodoo/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/child-theme-and-functionsphp/#post-3262017)
 * Status: resolved

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