Ashford is a CMS theme framework. Ashford can be used as a stand alone theme as happens if you download and try the free version. However this is not the best way to customize Ashford for your site.
The recommended way to customize Ashford is to create a child theme. It is not as hard as you might think. Even if you do not think of yourself as a developer, meaning you have limited HTML, CSS, JavaScript or PHP skills, you STILL ought to create a child theme.
What is a framework?
A framework is a buzz word used by developers to describe themes like Ashford. As Justin Tadlock points out, themes like Ashford are not “frameworks” in the strictest sense. Ashford is NOT to WordPress like Zend is to PHP, Rails is to Ruby, jQuery is to JavaScript or 960 Grid System is to CSS. Those frameworks give developers reusable code libraries, but are not deliverable products themselves.
For whatever reason, WordPress community calls themes like Ashford “frameworks”. But really Ashford is an advanced parent theme.
What is a parent theme?
As a parent theme, Ashford extends WordPress through the addition of code libraries and “hooks”. Advanced parent themese, like Ashford, further build a default experience and as such, can be used without child themes.
The free version of Ashford is the parent theme, however, a significant amount of code is unused by the free version. Ashford Pro and Premium child themes (like Axis or Aeon) fully enable and implement all framework’s code. For instance, mobile is only enabled on Ashford Pro, but the code for mobile is contained in the code libraries shipped with the free version of Ashford.
What is a child theme?
A child theme, like Pro or Axis or Aeon, enables and implements Ashford code libraries to produce a custom theme. So child theme does not have to reinvent code, it just implement the parent theme code in various ways.
- The most basic type of child theme is a new folder/directory with a properly formatted style.css. You can then modify the look and feel parent theme is modified using CSS.
- A more advanced child theme will add or overide existing parent theme templates. Like the style.css file, template files in a child theme override there namesakes from the parent. For example, if you want your Ashford search.php file to be one rather than two columns. You can place a different search.php file in your child theme folder. WordPress will then ignore the parent search.php file and use the code in the child theme. This technique works for any template file found in the parent like header.php or single.php. This makes child themes powerful. They give you the power and stability of the parent theme (Ashford), while allow you to customize the experience.
- The most advanced child themes will add or change the parent theme using hooks. WordPress has many hooks (and filters). Ashford adds 19 hooks. Hooks are used by developers to “hook” into the theme at different points. Actionsconnect custom PHP scripts to hooks.For example, there is a hook called “ashford_head_close”. When WordPress sees this hook, Ashford adds an action that runs the code to display the favicon. If the action is removed, no favicon would display. If you modify the parent’s favicon code, like to add a iPhone icon, you would simply remove that action, create a new action and run it instead. So to achieve this change, the parent theme, Ashford, was not modified. Only the child theme was modified. This is why child themes are powerful. They allow you to reuse, repurpose and reorganize the parent themes code to create a custom theme and experience.
How does Ashford use child themes?
With v2.0, all code is distributed in the Ashford parent theme. The free version of Ashford does not utilize all the code.
Ashford Pro is a child theme that fully enables all the features distributed in the parent theme (e.g. mega menus, mobile, web fonts and color styles). Pro is the starting point for all Premium or custom themes. First, you should learn how to create a child theme.
Axis is a Premium theme with all the features of Pro, but also adds beautiful visual design. It starts as a clone of Pro, but was modified through visual design. Many custom themes start as clones of Pro, then are modified to suite the requirements of the project.