per the directions, you create a child them, lets call it mychild…  the folder in forum-themes would be called mychild…  in that directory, you need an spTheme.txt file which has the required header info as detailed…

you need a subdir called styles…  in the subdir would be a file call mychild.css

is that what you have?

the error indicates it could read the parent file specified… remember the child file must point to the parent css as detailed in that article…

a screenshot of your directory structure and files might help… and the spTheme.txt file…

are you using the combined css and js caching?

My file structure is:

wp-content/sp-resources/forum-themes/unified-child/styles/mychild.css

wp-content/sp-resources/forum-themes/unified-child/spTheme.jpg

wp-content/sp-resources/forum-themes/unified-child/spTheme.txt

Here’s my txt file contents:

Simple:Press Theme Title: Unified Child Dark

Parent: unified

Version: 1.0.0

Theme URI: https://simple-press.com, http://problem-with-post-edit-buttonalodiehards.net

Description: The Simple:Press responsive Unified theme for desktop and mobile with skins

Author: Andy Staines, Steve Klasen and Brandon C. Child by CHa0s.

Author URI: https://simple-press.com, http://problem-with-post-edit-buttonalodiehards.net

Stylesheet: unified-child.css

Screenshot: spTheme.jpg

Simple:Press Versions: 5.5 and above

I took a peek at my settings, and I’m not sure what combined css and js caching are, but I think you are referring to this, and I have both unchecked by default:

In the text file, you have this:

Stylesheet: unified-child.css

but you called the file mychild.css… they must match… the text file is supposed to point to the actual css file…

Mr Papa said
In the text file, you have this:

Stylesheet: unified-child.css

but you called the file mychild.css… they must match… the text file is supposed to point to the actual css file…

Oh yeah, no I didn’t call it mychild; I started the post using the name you chose, then went back and edited it, changing all the “mychild”‘s into my true filename when I realized I was going to just paste the txt file anyway and I wanted to save confusion. I just failed miserably in the “not causing confusion” department by forgotting to change that last “mychild” into “unified-child”. It is indeed named unified-child.css

Was that the only thing wrong? Because if it was, then I’m doing it right and we need to look somewhere else to figure out what the problem is.

Hey Halo,

I know it sounds strange, but try removing all the hyphens from the file names..

So instead of unified-child.php, try unifiedchild.php.. Also make sure you update everything, so the folder name, the stylesheet itself, the name of the stylesheet in spTheme.txt

I’ve just spent quite a bit of time on this, and it turns out I’d had some css I added to my WP theme to play with the SP Default colors while I was waiting for a reply when I’d first posted here. The css was ONLY for colors but for some reason it was completely destroying the layout of Unified. I don’t get it, but it’s all cleaned up and it appears that the child themes are going to work.

Just to verify, though:

In WordPress we have info that goes at the top of our .css file, for SP we just add the CSS? We don’t have to import the parent .css or anything?

Also, I’m not sure if I missed some code or if this is how things are, but the responsive Unified SP theme isn’t showing the skins on all mobile devices, even though it appears to on websites that test responsiveness. Some of my members and myself still see the default colors on the forum sections on our phones. I tested this both with my SP child theme and with the default SP Unified skins. (Pretty sure I tested it with the Default theme skins too)

correct… you do not have to import the parent – its auto done for you…

did you select the child theme on the phone and tablet theme selection panels?

Nope, I did not set the mobile themes, didn’t know you could/problem-with-post-edit-buttonad to. Thanks for the heads up; all looks good now.

you are welcome! glad to help as always…