Migrating from Theme Core

Introduction

This guide will walk you through the process of migrating from the theme core repository to the new framework.

Upgrade Steps

1: Ensure you have all composer packages updated

Run the following command to ensure you have all the latest packages installed.

composer update

2: Install the Creode WordPress Theme Framework

Follow the installation guide to install the Creode WordPress Theme Framework.

3: Remove the theme core from your project

Using composer, remove the theme core from your project.

composer remove creode/wordpress-theme-core

4: Remove the installer path for theme core

In your composer.json file remove the following line:

{
	// ... other composer.json code ...
	"extra": { 
		"installer-paths": { 
			"wp-content/themes/gibraltar-international-bank/core/": ["type:wordpress-themecore"] 
		} 
	} 
	// ... other composer.json code ...
}

5: Add the new theme framework to your project

Require the new theme framework into your project.

composer require creode/wordpress-theme

6: Add the new mu-plugin to your .gitignore file

Add the following line to your .gitignore file:

/wp-content/mu-plugins/wordpress-theme*

7: Remove the requirement of the theme-core boot file

Remove the following line from your functions.php file.

require_once get_template_directory() . '/core/boot.php'; 

8: Replace class of register_vite_script function

The assets class from theme core has been removed and instead is now replaced with a function from the new theme framework.

You will need to replace all occurrences and function calls:

use Creode_Theme\Asset_Enqueue; 

function [[THEME_NAME]]_enqueue_script() {
	Assets::register_vite_script( 'header', 'src/components/header.js', array( 'jquery' ), true );   

	$asset_enqueue = Asset_Enqueue::get_instance(); 
	$asset_enqueue->register_vite_script( 'header', 'src/components/header.js', array( 'jquery' ), true );  
	
	// ... other required code ...
};
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', '[[THEME_NAME]]_enqueue_script' );

This will now ensure that all JS is loaded from Vite correctly.

9: Remove hot reloading from your vite config file.

Hot reloading was a feature that was a little buggy on the theme core. It is therefore no longer supported in the new theme framework. There may be plans in future to reintroduce this feature.

In order to remove hot reloading, you will need to remove the following line from your vite config file.

import { manageHotReloadFile } from './core/js/hot-reload.js'; 

export default defineConfig(
	(command) => {
		manageHotReloadFile(command.mode, DDEV_HOSTNAME, HOT_RELOAD_PORT); 

		// ... other vite config code ...
	}
);

10: Move your SCSS folder up a level

In the previous version of the theme core framework, the SCSS folder was located within the src folder. As part of this migration, you will need to move the SCSS folder up a level to the root of the project. The SCSS folder should now be located in the root of the theme.

For example if you had a src/scss folder in the theme, it should now be moved to the root of the theme to scss/.

11: Migrate the component specific CSS files up to the component directory

As part of the changes to how blocks are handled, the SCSS files for each block should now be moved to their relevant block folder.

For example a header.scss component file will now be located in the following folder based on the theme root: /blocks/header-block/assets/header.scss.

Each of these components should be moved to their relevant block folder.

This is a change that will need to be done manually and can be quite tedious however it will ensure that all themes and blocks are kept consistent in the future.

12: Remove individual components imports from the admin.scss and main.scss files

As part of the changes to how blocks are handled, the individual components @use and @include from the admin.scss and main.scss files are no longer required. These are now handled by the theme framework and will be automatically added to the theme in a new blocks/_all.scss file.

This is a change that will need to be done manually and can be quite tedious however it will ensure that all themes and blocks are kept consistent in the future.

13: Clean up scss import paths

After moving the SCSS files to their relevant block folder, you will need to clean up the @use paths for each of the SCSS files. Paths to scss files in vite can be absolute based on where the vite.config.js file is located. In this case it will be in the theme.

An example of this is demonstrated below with pulling the global file into the header.scss file:

@use "../globals"; 
@use "/scss/globals"; 

This change can be quite tedious to do manually however we want to ensure that all themes keep the same structure and paths so a change like this will help our projects stay consistent in the future.

14: Run the script to install any framework files and compile assets

As part of the theme framework, there is a WordPress CLI command that will install any missing files and compile the assets. This ensures that the structure of the theme is kept consistent and that new files as part of the boilerplate can be added automatically to themes without having to keep track of them manually.

wp creode-theme:install

You should now be able to see some new files in your theme alongside a new vite-entry-points folder with the new admin.js and main.js files. You should copy the contents of the src/main.js and src/admin.js files into the corresponding new vite-entry-points folder, apart from the import lines for scss as these should be updated to the new new /scss/ folder.

Once this has been done, you can remove the old src/main.js and src/admin.js files from your theme.

15: Update the vite config file to switch these entrypoints over

The vite.config.js file will need to be updated to switch these entrypoints over to the new vite-entry-points folder.

export default defineConfig(
	(command) => {
		return {
			// ... other vite config code ...
			build: {
				rollupOptions: {
					// overwrite default .html entry
					input: {
						main: resolve(__dirname, 'src/main.js'), 
						admin: resolve(__dirname, 'src/admin.js'), 
						main: resolve(__dirname, 'vite-entry-points/main.js'), 
						admin: resolve(__dirname, 'vite-entry-points/admin.js'), 
						// ... other vite config code ...
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
);

15: Import the new blocks/_all.scss file into the main.scss file

Add the following to the top of the main.scss file:

// Use base elements
@use 'base';

// Use blocks
@use '/blocks/all' as blocks; 

// ...other scss code...

// Render base elements
@include base.render;

// Render blocks
@include blocks.render; 

This will ensure that all blocks are loaded into the theme.

17: Import the new blocks/_all.scss file into the admin.scss file

This process is very similar to the main.scss file however you will need to ensure that any admin specific mixins are handled manually using the new folder location. The new blocks all file only handle the render mixin and admin ones will need to be handled manually. See the below example for how this has changed:

@use 'components/header'; 
@use '/blocks/header-block/assets/_header' as header; 

// ...other scss code...

@include header.render; 
@include header.admin; 

Add the following to the admin.scss file:

// Use base elements
@use 'base';

// Use blocks
@use '/blocks/all' as blocks; 

// ...other scss code...

// Render base elements
@include base.render;

// Render blocks
@include blocks.render; 

18: Recompile the assets

Once these steps have been completed, you will need to recompile the assets. This can be done by running the following WP CLI command:

wp creode-theme:build