Is it necessary to use a child theme?

Question

I'm using Magento 2.3.1 and Porto theme, that theme is a hassle to install. Just got it done.

This is a Porto child theme

Is it necessary to install it?

is there an easy way to install it without having to reinstall Porto? Because I forgot to install it before.

Answer 1

in any development you have two options:

1 - using child theme. full separate development to add or rewrite some functions.

2 - using template and css overrides. partial css changes within core theme.

child theme is the easiest way. if your development takes too long, during this time master theme can be upgraded many times to fix security and design bugs, you can safely overwrite any file in master theme.

you will keep any changes in child theme.

option 2 is only for little changes, like custom css file to move some design.

Answer 2

Child themes go alongside a base theme.

If you are happy with the base theme then no need to install the child theme. However if the child theme contains something additional that you require then you need to install both the base theme and the child. And then from the admin apply the child theme as per dev docs

https://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.3/frontend-dev-guide/themes/theme-apply.html

The child theme will include all it's own customisations plus inherit all the base theme functionality.

If you need to make your own modifications I would recommend creating your own child theme and making changes within this.

But again this is optional. You may find you only need to make minor changes to the base theme.

Whatever workflow works for you. Plus if you are using version control theme inhertience is less important as you can easily rollback your changes.