You probably know by now that the new WordPress 4.9 release brings some news about the Customizer. Besides the cool new features such as design drafts, locking, scheduling or preview links, some Customizer controls have also been improved in WordPress 4.9.
Since a few of these changes affect Customizer controls used in child themes created by Divi Children, I´ve prepared a new plugin update that takes care of them: Divi Children version 3.0.7.
For example, back in September Divi Children 3.0 introduced the Live Custom CSS section in the Customizer, which used the nice CodeMirror code editor by means of the Kirki toolkit. But CodeMirror has just been included in WordPress 4.9 core in order to provide code Syntax Highlighting and Error Checking, so we don´t need it in Divi Children anymore (the Live Custom CSS editor will be displayed as a textarea if a WordPress version older than 4.9 is used).
Other Customizer controls used by Divi Children had to be made compatible with WordPress 4.9 as well, such as those that use sliders or colorpickers.
By the way, the slider controls used by Divi Children have also been improved with a new feature and are now more Divi-like: the ability to manually enter numeric values in slider controls has just been added.
I´ve also taken the opportunity of this new 3.0.7 release to include the fix for a bug that was detected by a Divi Children user last week. See the Divi Children Changelog for the complete list of changes.
The Divi theme itself has also been updated by Elegant Themes: Version 3.0.88 addressing WordPress 4.9 compatibility issues was released just a few hours ago.
The new Divi Children 3.0.7 update is already available for download, so go ahead and get it to update your existing Divi child theme (or to create a new one), and enjoy WordPress 4.9!
- New Divi Children 3.0.10 update released - April 7, 2022
- New Divi Children 3.0.7 version for WordPress 4.9 - November 15, 2017
- Understanding Divi Children Output Mode - October 11, 2017
Thanks so much Luis.
Once we have created our child theme, how do we use what we have created on further sites?
A child theme created by Divi Children is intended to be customized for one particular site. You can always copy your child theme once you finish customizing it (the whole thing inside the child theme folder, particularly if you added any custom code) and export your customizer settings by means of a plugin.
Hi Luis – nice to see you are on top of this!
Should we go ahead and update now or wait for WP 4.9 is this version still compatible with the current version of WP so we can go ahead and update straight away.
What is the best way of updating your child theme – only just started using this and never had to update until now.
Thanks for everything you do!
You´re only going to need the new version once you´ve updated WordPress to 4.9 and you want to use the WP Customizer for your child theme (you´ll neeed to update Divi to 3.0.88 too, by the way), so there´s no real hurry.
Updating your child theme created by any earlier version of Divi Children 3 is as easy as going to Appearance > Divi Children > Update Child Theme, selecting the child theme to update (in case you have more than one) and hitting the button.
Hi Mate, if you have used the plugin and already created a child theme and done changes would we still need to update to the latest version?
also would un-installing the current version and installing the new version do the trick?
sorry new WP
Hi, Heloish.
What you first need to do, as you suggested, is to replace Divi Children with its newest version. Then, use it to update your child theme (just go to Appearance > Divi Children > Update Child Theme).
Hi Luis Alejandre, My apologies for the extremely basic level of my questions, but I’m completely confused. I know what a child theme is (conceptually) but have never created one. I’m now working on a Divi website with some customizations and in googling “Divi children theme” I came across your plugin. Something in the description said that the plugin automagically takes your customizations and puts them in the child theme for you. GREAT, because I have no clue how to do that myself. 🙂 I installed Divi Children, created a child theme, and have been customizing the site ever since. I also had a contractor do some customizations and I told him to put them in the Child theme. He says he did. But now I’m confused because I read somewhere else on this site that once the plugin generates a Child theme, you can uninstall it because it doesn’t do anything. Now I have TWO child themes, I don’t know which is the most recent. I also don’t know what to do about future customizations (the advice is simply “add it to your child theme” but I don’t know if I should be doing this with the theme editor or magically with Divi Children. And if I activate a Child theme, then Divi is de-activated. Totally confused and hoping you can help.
If you´re happy with the customizations you already had in your child theme, there´s no reason to create a new one with Divi Children (unless you want to further customize your site taking advantages of Divi Children features, which does not seem to be your case).
Hi Luis, My apologies for not being clear. Here are my questions:
1. Moving forward, as I update Divi or any of my current plugins with customizations (PHP, CSS, whatever), do I need to generate a new Child theme or does your plugin automatically add new customizations to the existing Child theme as I make the customizations?
2. Let’s say, for example, that I have someone customize my Woocommerce CSS. Should I generate a Child theme called Woocommerce CSS or do ALL customizations belong in one Child theme?
3. In Appearance>Themes, Divi is shown as my active theme. The two Child themes are not shown as the active theme. Is this correct? Is there ever a time that I need to activate a Child theme?
4. What should I do with the older Child theme, if anything?
I got an error when loading this: Unpacking the package…
Installing the theme…
The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet.
Theme install failed.
You´re trying to install the plugin as a theme, Christina. Please install it as a plugin.
Hello! I’m having a problem adding a new social icon through the EZ builder. It automatically adds it as FB and I’d like to choose a different one. Do you know why it’s doing that?
Hi, Monica.
It always adds it as Facebook as the default value, but you can always change it via the Social Network select field. Can´t you?
I’ve upgradedto WordPress version 4.9.2. When I try to install your most recent Divi-Children plugin, I get the following error message:
“Installing Plugin from uploaded file: Divi_Children_3.0.7.zip
Unpacking the package…
Could not create directory. divi-children/sources/divi-children-engine-dir/divi-children-engine/dce-customizer/dce-kirki/kirki/assets/vendor/fontawesome/css”
I am also running the most current version of Divi 3.0.98.
Your help will be most appreciated
Nice plugin, thanks for your great work!
I wonder how can I translate footer credits that I created? “Bla Bla Foundation” to “Yayasan Bla Bla” in Malay Language. I’m also using WPML for translation.
You can completely customize your footer credits in the Footer Credits section created by Divi Children in your Customizer.
Yup, I know about that. What I mean is how can I translate the text & link in Footer Credits. I already found the solution using String Translation in WPML.
For those who want to know:
WPML > String Translation > Translate texts in admin screens (at the bottom of the screen) > theme_mods_(your domain) > Choose the fields you’d like to translate and click on the ‘Apply’ button
Then, use WPML’s String translation to translate them.
Ah, ok. Sorry. I´m glad you´ve already figured it out.
Hi Luis: Your plugin is amazing. I would like to see a video tutorial that makes a children’s theme with some modifications, maybe adding CSS and generating the whole process to appreciate it as a complete children’s theme.
This would help more possibilities of use.
I have another question: did I think I was reading or hearing that you are creating a supplement for sale (Premium)? If so, I’m waiting for your release!
Thank you for your kind words, Noriaki.
To tell you the truth, preparing a good video tutorial takes a lot of time, and I´m quite dissapointed lately about the results of all my work on Divi Children. Hundreds and hundreds of hours had gone into its development and, after nearly 50,000 downloads, it doesn´t look like my plugin is too appreciated (not a word about it has been said in the Elegant Themes blog during the years Divi Children has been around, for instance). It seems to me like people tend to think that Divi plugins should not be free, or otherwise they don´t care too much about them. Believe or not, there was somebody who actually complained on Facebook when I released Divi Children 3.0, because I was giving away a lot of work for free!
So I kind of learned the lesson and, yes, I´m working on a premium plugin now. It´s not a “supplement” or paid extension of Divi Children, though. Almost 3 years ago I promised that Divi Children would always be free. As opossed to the way Divi Children works (a plugin that creates child themes with all the customization features residing in the child theme, and without the need for the plugin to remain activated), the new plugin will need to be active on the site it is customizing, and it will not necessarily require a child theme.
Hi Luis Alejandre, I installed the plugin and created a new child theme, activated it. But now when I try to go to the WordPress Customizer, I get an error 500
Hi Luis, I really appreciate your Children plugin and for me is the best!
I have a question, I’m using the plugin in few sites, and now I would like to update it to the new version. How can I do that in a safe way (so replace old version in use for the new version3?
I tried appearance > Divi Child > Update but does not install version 3
thank you very much
Hi, forgive my nonsense question, I just figured out I have to install version 3 as a new plugin and create a new child theme from there
thanks
It was not a nonsense question, Pau, although it´s true that as I explained in the version 3.0 release post there is no automated way to update legacy child themes.
But after version 3.0 any new version of the plugin allows you to automatically update your existing child themes to get the newest customization features, as long as they were created by version 3.0 at least.
Great, many thanks again, Luis!
Wow, i’ve been using Divi for a few years now, and using my own basic Child Theme. I’ve also read every Divi blog post and all their tutorials etc and NEVER has this been mentioned.
I found this plugin only now via a comment in the latest Divi 3.2 release post on Divis’ blog.
I watched the customise a blog video and am amazed at the amount of work you’ve done. Well done.
After reading about your proposed Premium plugin on the horizon, i’m thinking I’ll hold off donating to you and instead happily purchase whatever it is you release. Unless it’s gonna be a while, then I’ll just donate.
I’m off to play with this now,
Thanks a lot for your kind words, Shane.
I do appreciate them because, as I said in my answer to Noriaki, I´m quite dissapointed lately about the results of all my work on Divi Children. I think that, ater a very nice start, the Divi ecosystem got a bit weird too. Anyway, the premium plugin I mentioned above may or may not be finally released but, if it does, it won´t be too soon. I may even merge it with some other product I was developing more than a year ago and that I finally decided to put on hold until the 3.1 “developer” version of Divi, along with the dev API and documentation was finally available.
Hello, Divi Children 3.0 does not work because a file is missing : style.css
Hi, Patrick.
Divi Children is not a theme but a plugin, so you should install it as such. You were trying to install it as a theme, that´s why you got the missing stylesheet error.
Does this child-creator supports translations?
As far as I know DIVI uses 3 textdomains and we need a special folderstructure to add “our” translated files in a safe way to protect the form bein overwritten
Divi uses three text domains:
– Divi domain loading from lang/ directoiry
– et-core domain loading from /core/languages direcrtory
– et_builder domain loading from includes/builder/languages/ directory
does your creator creates these folders?
This is one of the big problems of DIVI and ALL child-theme-creators which I found until now totally ignore this structure…
please tell me how to keep translation files safely in a childtheme
Hi Luis Alejandre! First of all, thank you so much for this plugin, it’s a great help!
I’d like to know if the last version does work with WordPress 4.9.6 and Divi 3.4.1?
Thanks a lot!
Thank you, Carola. As far as I know, it works alright with the latests versions of WP and Divi. Nobody has reported any problem since I released Divi Children 3.0.9 back in April.
Thanks for your reply. It was totally my fault! It works perfectly. Thanks again.
Hey Luis,
I’m wondering if the Divi Theme fully supports the WordPress update 4.9.7?
I don’t see why it wouldn’t, but you can never be too careful.
Yes, it does; and there shouldn´t be any problem with the 4.9.8 update also. Please let me know otherwise.
Hi Luis Alejandre!
I really like your plugin–it’s just great! I just had one question: Is it possible to change the logo size through the plugin? Usually, you can adjust the logo in the Header menu, but I can’t seem to find it.
Sorry for asking such a basic question–and thanks!
The logo size can be changed by means of the native Divi control within the Customizer.
Hi Luis,
Any new update for Divi Children plugin, especially for “the Post Meta EZ-Builder” — since in the latest update of Divi 3.11.1 – the layout is change. Thanks
Hi, Viking.
I´ve just tested the Post Meta EZ-Builder with Divi 3.11.1 and WordPress 4.9.8 and it worked alright for me. Did you have any issue with it?
Hi Luis, I need to delete two “mistake” themes I created. How do I do that?
Also, the custom screenshot isn’t working. I am trying to upload/choose a 23 KB
298 × 197 .jpg. I get the error “No valid image file found in the URL you provided for your new screenshot
The screenshot was not changed.”
Thank you
Hi,
I really like the Divi Children Plugin I’ve found it to be the best child theme generator for Divi.
However I’ve noticed a small issue on 3.0.9.
In Divi I have the site background colour set to #d6d6d6.
When I activate the Child theme my background changes to white.
The Child theme customiser doesn’t give me the option to change the background color.
How do I fix this?
Cheers
Bill
It seems the Child Theme changes the background colour to white. I found that reapplying the background colour through Divi allows it to change the Child Theme.
awesome plugin, thank you so much for this masterpiece plugin, i hope you keep working on it and dont abandon it, any page where i can see the update log? i dont know if i have the latest version, all posts and info about the plugin i see are from 2017
Hello, i am using “divi children” v3.0.9
When the child theme is enabled wordpress can not update including plugins.
Get this error:
————————————————————————————-
Notice: Trying to get property ‘locale’ of non-object in /home/public_html/wp-admin/update-core.php on line 40
Notice: Trying to get property ‘locale’ of non-object in /home/public_html/wp-admin/update-core.php on line 43
Notice: Trying to get property ‘current’ of non-object in /home/public_html/wp-admin/update-core.php on line 46
Notice: Trying to get property ‘locale’ of non-object in /home/f/public_html/wp-admin/update-core.php on line 46
Notice: Trying to get property ‘response’ of non-object in /home/public_html/wp-admin/update-core.php on line 56
Hi Luis
I am having a problem with my divi child theme (installed with divi children plugin). I have used it a few times and have never had a problem. I am now trying to customize a site I am building and everytime I try and change something I get the message “Looks like something’s gone wrong. Wait a couple seconds, and then try again”. I have disabled all my plugins. When I activate the parent Divi Theme and try customize the same thing there, there is no problem? Any ideas suggestions would be greatly appreciate
Hi Luis,
Can you use Divi Children with any theme from Elegant Themes or does it have to be specifically the main DIVI them?
Hi, Mary. As its name implies, Divi Children is intended to work just with Divi as parent theme.
HI, i installed your divi children plugin an i wanna know how will i get the hero image in fullwidth? i do it in the same way like your video, but it’s just only 100% of the blog post container. may you can help me?
Does this software plugin still work because I can get it to do very little using WP 5.03.
It looks as if it would be a brilliant plugin if it would work.
Hi, is tehere any known bug with latest WP? I can´t open Divi theme customizer with Divi Children activated.
Hi Luis
I hope you are well. Divi Children is great. I am using the latest version of Divi and tried to export a page using portability. The json created is 0 kb. Inspecting the console shows that the process is looking for “divi-children-engine” as a subfolder of Divi, but it isn’t, it is a sub folder of my child theme and so the process fails. What is the correct way to fix this please?
When changing the theme preview image I get a message that no file with that name is listed. I know it’s there as the URL to my wp media folder works fine in browser.
Is there a trick I’m missing. Image file is .jpg 1200×900 pix as suggested.
it’s an abandoned plugin, it only causes problems with the latest php version, stay away if you want to avoid headaches!!
No it is not adandoned, Alex. If it was, I wouldn´t waste me time replying to your unhelpful and unconstructive comment.
Besides that, it is also not true that my plugin “only” causes problems with the latest php version. It does many things that people appreciate. So if it´s causing you problems with any php version, I would appreciate if you told me what exactly are those problems, and what particular php version is that. That way it would be easier for me to help by fixing those issues, and you´d be helping others better than you´re doing now just warning about headaches. Thanks.
well there hasnt been updated in a while, i havent seen any post recently about it so i thought it was abandoned, sorry. With Php 7.3 7.4 there are conflicts, blog layouts dont show, some times white screen, i had to downgrade the php version so i dont remember other issues i encountered
Ok. Thanks anyway, Alex. I haven´t found any new issues with 7.3, and I´m currently addressing the only one issue I´ve found with 7.4.4 so far. But I´ll keep investigating and looking for other possible conflicts.
By the way, what do you mean by “blog layouts don´t show”?
Hi Luis
Hope you are keeping safe and well.
I’m having an issue when I export a json (for example a page layout). Every time the file downloads as 0kb. I can import OK. This is only happening on sites where I’ve used Divi Children. Could this be coincidence or might there be some change in recent Divi versions that is causing such behaviour? An example site is romanbritons.com and I can supply more if it would help. Many Thanks
Hi, Martin.
I´ve just made some tests on one of my test sites using the latest versions of WP and Divi, and a new child theme created with Divi Children. I was able to export and import layouts without any problem, and the downloaded json files were OK.
So your problem must be caused by something else, not related to Divi Children. Have you tried to see what happens if you deactivate your (Divi Children created) child theme on any of the sites where you are experiencing this issue, leaving just Divi as the active theme?
Please let me know if I can be of any further help.
Luis, thanks very much for testing. Your results are good news indeed. I’m going to set up a specific test site to see if I can further isolate the issue. I’ll let you know what happens.
Hi Luis,
I am testing your plugin and I have a problem on my site.
The theme-editor menu disappeared from my admin and when I force the loading of the php page, I have an error telling me that I don’t have the necessary rights!
While the child theme works very well and I have all the functions that work everywhere else!
an idea ?
I saw that I can edit additional CSS in the interface of the child theme but I would like to add PHP code and I no longer have access from the site admin.
Many thanks,
Cesar
WordPress 5.4, Divi 4.4.3, Divi-children 3.0.9
Hello Luis,
Thank you for your work on Divi Children. It’s a nice plugin.
I’m having an issue with the latest php version 7.4.9 and Divi Children 3.0.9 :
“Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in …/wp-content/themes/adolescence-positive/divi-children-engine/functions/divi-mod-functions.php on line 75”
I work on MAMP server with the last Divi theme.
Please, let me know if you could help me.
Thanks,
David
Hi, David.
The newest PHP versions are causing some notices and errors, and that´s why I´m currently preparing an update for Divi Children (and, therefore, for child themes created by Divi Children). The notice you´re reporting is one of those, and it will disappear with the update.
While the new version of Divi Children is being prepared, you can get rid of that error by yourself, it is very easy to avoid just by completely deleting all the code in the divi-mod-functions.php file of your child theme (this file can be found in wp-content/themes/YOUR-CHILD-THEME-SLUG/divi-children-engine/functions/). The explanation for this is simple: the divi-mod-functions.php file includes a custom function needed to create a 5th footer column that was necessary when older versions of Divi only allowed 4 footer columns. That function is not longer needed since Divi currently allows for 6 footer columns. So, instead of updating the function for PHP changes, we can just get rid of it.
So all you need to do is just leave the divi-mod-functions.php file there with the opening php tag (and probably the commented header for reference), but delete all the functional code underneath.
Hi Luis Alejandre, I’m having an issue and I hope you could help me…
I’m using your plugin with WordPress 5.5.3 and the full width slider is not displaying.
I went to WP-Admin >Divi > Support Center > Safe Mode and Enabled it and then my site worked ok. So I disabled every plugin and the one that was causong the problem was divi Children 3.0.9
Any idea of what could be happening?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi, Carola.
I don´t know, it looks like a js compatibility issue. But anyway, you don´t need the Divi Children plugin to be active in your site, except in the moment when you´re creating a new child theme with it (or updating an existing one after a new Divi Children release). In fact, you don´t even need to have Divi Children installed at all. Once you´ve created your child theme with it, you can completely delete the plugin.
In case you need to update your child theme later, once a new version of Divi Children has been released, you will just need to install and update the newest version of Divi Children, then update your child theme with it, and then just deactivate and delete Divi Children again.
Hi Luis, since Divi came out with performance improvements, when I go to enable the visual builder it comes up with this error.
Oops, it looks like the Divi Builder failed to load. Performing the following actions may help solve the problem.
1. You are using third party plugins. Try disabling each plugin to see if one is causing a conflict.
The actual issue is the Divi Child Theme that I used Divi Children to build it with. If I revert back to the main Divi theme, it works fine. I can get the site with Divi Child Theme working, by disabling Dynamic Css and Critical Css in Divi performance settings, but would like to find a solution to the issue.
Apart from creating a new child theme and copying over CSS changes and creating a new functions.php, do you have any solutions for this issue. It is happening on all sites built with Divi children and the only way I can fix this is to disable the CSS has mentioned before.
You mention an update. Do you think that will fix it? Would the solution with deleting everything out of divi-mod-functions.php that you mention on your blog work?
Appreciate your thoughts. Using WP 5.9, Divi 4.14.7 PHP 7.4.27
Hi, Grace.
I´m sorry to know you´re having those problems.
I can´t reproduce your issue, though. I´ve been looking at it this morning on a test site and I don´t have any problem in using the Visual Builder, even while keeping both Dynamic CSS and Critial CSS Divi settings enabled.
I know you say you can get it to work if you don´t use your child theme and activate Divi directly instead, but you might be experiencing some plugin conflict issue. I´m not saying that the Divi Children code created in your child theme is not to blame, just that there could be a plugin involved in the issue as well.
In any case, that issue is not showing up for me. I have everything updated with the same configuration used by you (WP 5.9 and Divi 4.14.7), and I also have the PHP version set to 7.4.27 for that particular test site.
It is an online test site not a local dev site, so if you want to try it for yourself I can create an administrator user for you and you can give it a spin. Maybe you don´t want to deactivate your plugins on your production site, but you can install them one by one on my test site and see if you´re able to reproduce your issue.
Just let me know.
Hi Luis
Thank you for testing. I believe it is because I have an old version of Divi children that can’t be updated on all the sites affected. How do I check the version, as I have removed the original plug-in. I did find that clearing divi-mod-functions.php did fix the issue. When you refer to just leaving the opening, do you mean leaving <?php in the file.
Hi again, Grace.
Yes, I meant just leaving the opening php tag. I´m glad you were able to fix the issue.
You can check the version of the Divi Children Engine created by the Divi Children plugin in your child themes by installing the newest version of the plugin and activating it. Then go to Appearance > Divi Children > Update Child Theme. You can just deactivate and delete the Divi Children plugin afterwards.