What are the theme frameworks?
The foundation of a theme can be seen as the framework of one. Usually, this foundation would contain the core code and basic features and designs and provide the ability for customization.
They can be categorised in child-parent themes and plugin types, depending on the framework.
The reason why theme frameworks are so popular is because it would give developers a head start with their projects - by giving them the core code and letting them customize the rest. Let's see the top 5 frameworks for 2018:
Enfold
Enfold is a premium framework with great support, could be used as a standalone theme as well and is great for advanced users.
Cherry
Cherry is a free framework which includes automatic updates, backup and restore function, responsive design, and plenty of customization options. Designed to be used with a child theme. Oh and let's not forget it supports Bootstrap which is very useful for a lot of people out there.
Genesis
A premium framework which is designed to always be used with a child theme just like the Cherry framework, but has a very good documentation and framework support. It is however a bit harder to work with if you are a beginner. The biggest advantage of the Genesis framework however, is security as this is one of the most secure WordPress frameworks out there.
Divi
Divi includes the Divi drag and drop builder as well as pre-designed layouts and many many functions to give you a head start when building your site. It has a very good official documentation and support and it is great for beginners, although it is not as good as the Genesis Developer Documentation.
Tesla Themes
For this framework, you cannot use a child theme and you might end up having many other limitations, however, the framework is still great for lots of types of projects. The biggest pro is the ability to upload ready to go demos and make custom posts.
Okay, let's see the most common problems when dealing with frameworks:
Migrating a framework
Usually when migrating a framework from one server to another, many things could go wrong because of any paths in the files, or simply because of caching settings. For instance, the cherry framework caches old paths in the less directory in "style.less.cache" file - which needs to be removed in order to regenerate after a change in environment. And this is different for every framework.
Bloat issues
Depending on your setup, your site may experience bloating issues which can cause various problems along the way.
Child themes setup
Setting a child theme can be hard and issues can occur along the way. You can check out how to set one in our knowledge base, but if not set properly, many problems can come up.
Conclusion
While a framework is not a must-have theme, it provides you with the ability to fully customize and change the design of a functional theme and more (depending on the framework).
However, having a theme framework could be a hassle and many things could go wrong. So if you are in a need of assistance or have troubles migrating your framework, we at Fixed are ready to help. Check out our wordpress support service for more information.
