Prudence 2018 was a theme released in January 2018 as a part of Aurora Update 11. Similar to Hale 2015, Prudence 2018 adapted the Prudence design and kept the powerful features of Sherman. A child of the Cornerstone theme, Prudence 2018 will continue to benefit from all new features added to Aurora for years to come.
For those of you that have been using WordPress elsewhere, there are a few key distinctions you need know about the Aurora server.
Aurora is a multisite installation of WordPress, modeled after WordPress.com. Each site has it’s own tables, but they are in one database, and share the same library of plugins and themes.
Plugins are controlled at the Network level in Aurora. The addition of any new plugins to the network is decided on by the Aurora Governance Committee.
Similar to plugins, Themes are also controlled at the network level. Custom themes are permitted, but must pass a Code Audit process before being allowed on production.
Cornerstone is a bare-bones theme created to be developed upon. It is possible to create your own theme built upon cornerstones structure. We welcome you to play with the sources files.
The Cornerstone Child Theme Starter Kit is available to help developers get a new project running quickly. You can access it on GitHub.
The SASS variables available to you come from three possible documents. Cornerstone registers a large number of new variables mostly pertaining to navigation and widgets.
In order to make changes, you will have to edit style.scss using the SASS variables. You will also need a SASS compiler. A common one is PREPROS.
Once you have a general understanding of the variables and the file structure you can start editing variables.scss. This file contains listed default variables from both Bootstrap and Cornerstone. A change is simple: search for your target tag and change the attribute to whatever you would like it to be.
To change the default link color for the navigation bar you would have to scroll down to the “$navbar” variables and make the changes you would like.
In order to edit the style of your theme you will need to edit it using SASS in style.scss. Variables do not go in style.scss.
Below is an example of how you can change the style of your theme’s master header.
Cornerstone was built with SASS, but you can still develop with normal CSS.
Instead, add this to your functions.php file:
<?php
function link_parent_theme_style() {
wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css' );
wp_enqueue_style( 'child-style', get_stylesheet_uri() );
}
add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'link_parent_theme_style');
?>
Typically, a child theme will @import the css of the parent theme. Bootstrap 3, the framework which Cornerstone is based on, offers very limited support for Internet Explorer 8. By default, a Bootstrap 3 site in IE8 will render the mobile view. One column of content, and the collapse mobile navigation.
Being that IE8 accounts for a sizable (~7%) of traffic on Aurora, Cornerstone makes use of respond.js, which uses javascript to mimic media queries for IE8. However, respond.js will not work on anything loaded via @import. So this alternate method is required.
Child themes are a way to take an existing theme, such as Sherman, and change a couple of things about it. For developers looking to create something custom, we highly recommend looking into child themes first.
Hale 2015 was a theme released in August 2015 as a part of Aurora Update 9. The bold blue Sherman theme was released in the summer of 2014, and its advanced features and customization options proved very popular. However, a number of customers requested a theme with all the functionality of Sherman but with the softer tones of the original Hale theme that was released in 2013. Hale 2015 addresses this issue, adapting the popular Hale design and keeping the powerful features of Sherman. A child of the Cornerstone theme, Hale 2015 will continue to benefit from all new features added to Aurora for years to come.