There’s a lot of small code snippets I use often. This is where I’ll collect them. If you have any quick tips, feel free to share in the comments.

Force a page layout
This is very useful for ensuring custom pages you build for a client aren’t broken by them changing the page layout (ex: home page). Or, changing the page layout to something other than the default on archive pages (ex: category). The example below is to set the category page to Sidebar-Content-Sidebar.
// Force layout on category
add_filter('genesis_pre_get_option_site_layout', 'child_category_layout');
function child_category_layout($opt) {
if ( is_category() )
$opt = 'sidebar-content-sidebar';
return $opt;
}
Set default page layout
// Register default site layout option
genesis_set_default_layout( 'full-width-content' );
Setup the child theme
This is what I include at the top of my functions.php file in my child themes. Any time below you see an add_action or add_filter, that part goes in the setup function, and the function itself goes after the setup function.
// Start the engine
require_once(TEMPLATEPATH.'/lib/init.php');
// Setup the child theme
add_action('after_setup_theme','child_child_theme_setup');
function child_child_theme_setup() {
// ** Backend **
// Remove Purchase Themes menu link from dashboard
remove_theme_support('genesis-purchase-menu');
// ** Frontend **
}
Unregister unused page layouts
// Unregister other site layouts
genesis_unregister_layout( 'content-sidebar' );
genesis_unregister_layout( 'sidebar-content' );
genesis_unregister_layout( 'content-sidebar-sidebar' );
genesis_unregister_layout( 'sidebar-sidebar-content' );
genesis_unregister_layout( 'sidebar-content-sidebar' );
Add Image Sizes
This adds an image size named ‘feature’ with a fixed size of 600×250. See Mark Jaquith’s post for details.
add_image_size('feature', 600, 250, true);
Modify Post Info
Shortcode Reference
add_filter('genesis_post_info', 'child_post_info_filter');
function child_post_info_filter($post_info) {
$post_info = '[ post_date ] by [ post_author_posts_link ] at [ post_time ] [ post_comments ] [ post_edit ]';
return $post_info;
}
Remove Post Info
remove_action('genesis_before_post_content', 'genesis_post_info');
Modify Post Meta
add_filter('genesis_post_meta', 'child_post_meta_filter');
function child_post_meta_filter($post_meta) {
$post_meta = '[ post_categories ] Tagged with [ post_tags ]';
return $post_meta;
}</code>
<strong>Remove Post Meta</strong>
<code>remove_action('genesis_after_post_content', 'genesis_post_meta');
Change Excerpt More text […]
function child_excerpt_more($more) {
return '[.....]';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'child_excerpt_more');
Remove Footer
remove_action('genesis_footer','genesis_do_footer');
Remove Footer and Footer Markup
// Remove Footer
remove_action('genesis_footer', 'genesis_do_footer');
remove_action('genesis_footer', 'genesis_footer_markup_open', 5);
remove_action('genesis_footer', 'genesis_footer_markup_close', 15);
Customize the Search Form text
add_filter('genesis_search_button_text', 'child_custom_search_button_text');
function child_custom_search_button_text($text) {
return esc_attr('');
}
Remove Breadcrumbs
add_filter('genesis_breadcrumb_args', 'child_custom_breadcrumb_args');
function child_custom_breadcrumb_args($args) {
$args['sep'] = ' > ';
$args['labels']['prefix'] = '';
return $args;
}
Customize the Site Title (in #header)
This is useful if you want to use the default site title (Settings > Title) but style different elements of it differently. This specific code searches for “of” in the site title, and changes it to <em>of</em>.
// Customize the site title
add_filter('genesis_seo_title','child_customize_site_title', 10, 3);
function child_customize_site_title($title, $inside, $wrap) {
$custom = str_replace("of", "<em>of</em>", $title);
return $custom;
}
Customize the Site Description (in #header)
add_filter('genesis_seo_description','child_customize_site_description', 10, 3);
function child_customize_site_description($description, $inside, $wrap) {
$custom = str_replace("Redefining", "<strong>Redefining</strong>", $description);
return $custom;
}
Remove the Post Title
// Remove Post Title
remove_action('genesis_post_title','genesis_do_post_title');
Remove Page Titles
/** Remove page titles */
add_action( 'get_header', 'child_remove_page_titles' );
function child_remove_page_titles() {
if ( is_page() && ! is_page_template( 'page_blog.php' ) )
remove_action( 'genesis_post_title', 'genesis_do_post_title' );
}
Display Description of Menu Items
To add a description to a menu item, go to Appearances > Menus. At the top right click “Screen Options”, then check “Description”. Now you can click the dropdown arrow next to menu items and add a description. The below code will make it visible on the site.
// Display Description of Menu Items
add_filter( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'child_add_description', 10, 2 );
function child_add_description( $item_output, $item ) {
$description = __( $item->post_content );
return preg_replace( '/(<a.*?>[^<]*?)</', '$1' . '<span >' . $description . '</span></', $item_output);
}
Register a Sidebar
genesis_register_sidebar(array(
'name'=>'Homepage Widgets',
'id' => 'homepage-widgets',
'description' => 'This shows up at the bottom of the homepage.',
));
Unregister a Sidebar
unregister_sidebar('sidebar-alt');
Customize Read More Link
// Customize Read More Link
add_filter( 'excerpt_more', 'child_more_link' );
add_filter( 'get_the_content_more_link', 'child_more_link' );
add_filter( 'the_content_more_link', 'child_more_link' );
function child_more_link($more_link, $more_link_text) {
return sprintf('%s', get_permalink(), 'Read More');
}