Theme/Plugins updates and stylesheets etc [a couple general questions]

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hakonzen February 19, 2015 at 1:52 am

Heads up! this post was created when Microthemer was at version 3. The current version is 7. Some references to the interface may be out of date.

Just downloaded microthemer demo to try it out and a couple of questions comes to mind:
1: What happends to the styles added with microthemer when I update my mother theme?
2: If I disable or remove the mocrothemer plugin after styling a site, will the added styles disappear?
3: Can I export the stylesheet from one installation to another?

Thanks for a really exciting service, looking foreward to try it out 🙂

Sebastian February 19, 2015 at 5:24 am

Hi there,

These are good questions. We’ll add them to our FAQs shortly.

  1. Your Microthemer styles are completely safe when you update your parent or child theme. That’s the beauty of controlling styling via a plugin – they’re not affected by theme updates. Microthemer restyles your WordPress site in a non-destructive way. It simply creates an alternative stylesheet:

    /wp-content/micro-themes/active-styles.css

    which has style rules that the browser applies instead of the styles in your theme because they have higher CSS specificity. Microthemer doesn’t delete or modify any files in your theme. Therefore when you update the theme, nothing is lost.

  2. You can deactivate or completely uninstall Microthemer and still make use of the styles it creates by manually calling the active-styles.css stylesheet I referenced above. You simply need to add a small chunk of code to your theme’s function.php file. I can help you with this if you don’t know where to find it/how to update it.
  3. Yes, you can export your work (folders, selectors, styles, hand-coded CSS) in Microthemer using the “Export” option in the left toolbar. Then you can go to the “Manage design packs” page and download the export as a zip file. You can then install this zip file on a different WordPress install via the “Manage design packs” page of the new install. Finally, you can import the design pack into the Microthemer interface via the “Import” option in the left toolbar.
  4. By the way, you can also view the CSS Microthemer generates any time from another a “View CSS” in the left toolbar. You can always copy and paste the CSS code too when it’s convenient. I sometimes just use Microthemer in the same way others might use an online CSS generator.

I hope that helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.

Sebastian

hakonzen February 19, 2015 at 6:20 pm

Hi Sebastian and tanks for a very reassuring answer. The reason why i ask is partly that I am a little afraid to let the Microthemer plugin be available for others to cluther with after designing a site. Many siteowners demand to have full admin control without a clue of what they are doing so I like to minimize the damage they can do 😉

Now it´s time go try out the plugin on a couple of dev.sites 🙂


Sebastian February 20, 2015 at 4:50 am

I know what you mean. Depending on the end user, Microthemer could either be an extra selling point or a safety hazard. Allowing the styles Microthemer creates to be easily used even when uninstalled is something we will always bear in mind as we add new features.

Cheers,

Sebastian

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