Child themes, over riding in the parents theme

Question

I understand the following about functions.php:

Unlike style.css, the functions.php of a child theme does not override its counterpart from the parent. Instead, it is loaded in addition to the parent’s functions.php. (Specifically, it is loaded right before the parent’s file.)

The problem with this logic is that things, in my framework, are loaded via action hooks in some cases. so for example you can turn off the admin options in child themes by remove_action()

How ever with the logic presented above, That action that loads the admin options is not technically loaded until after the child themes functions.php.

So the action is never created nor is it's associated function technically added. so has_action() will always return false in a child theme. (or at least it is for me in this instance).

What do I need? I need the parent themes functions.php to load FIRST before the child themes. or at least to be first loaded object.

Some people have suggested to do require parent theme function before doing anything in a child themes functions.php.

is this the right way to handle this situation? where you need the parent themes functions.php to load before the child?

Answer 1

The answer is to remove things in your child theme via an action that runs before the action the parent theme has hooked to, everything should be happening within an action of some sort.

For example, in your parent theme:

function do_something(){
    // something happens here
}
add_action( 'init', 'do_something' );

Then in your child theme:

function check_something(){
    remove_action( 'init', 'do_something' );
    add_action( 'init', 'do_my_own_thing' );
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'check_something' );

Or another example, in parent theme:

function some_func(){
    add_action( 'admin_menu', 'do_admin_things' );
}
add_action('init', 'some_func');

function do_admin_things(){
    // admin things
}

Then in the child theme, hook into init with a later priority:

function check_admin_things(){
    remove_action( 'admin_menu', 'do_admin_things' );
}
add_action( 'init', 'check_admin_things', 100 );