This originally was a discussion between myself and Kingy on my status this afternoon and i thought i'd open it up to a wider audience.

 

When you're starting a new Wordpress theme, whether for yourself or a client, how do you get started going about it?

Personally i start from scratch with a coded up design and then plugin the needed Wordpress pieces until i have a functioning site.

 

Do you start from scratch, modify 2010 or use one of the many bare-bones templates available?

I'll usually do the same: do a template, then slot in the WP bits.

I'd start with a PSD template and then use it to build a Wordpress theme from scratch.

I havent completed a wordpress theme fully yet, but I usually code into html basic site first and then would add the wordpress php snippets.

 

How to code a wordpress 3.0 theme from scratch

 

Wordpress twentyten theme in HTML5

 

Enjoy

Code up the html first then plug in the wordpress bits. Already have a barebones Wordpress template set up

I've used 2 alternatives; I've coded up using twentyten as a starting template, and more recently using the starkers barebones theme. I prefer the latter, though I have found it a bit counter intuitive in parts - theming up the blog comments etc from scratch has been a lot more difficult than jumping into one thats already been themed and restyling it.

 

Meh, it was a learning curve, which was the main reason I decided to use the starkers theme

 

 

Kyle

How to code a wordpress 3.0 theme from scratch

 

Enjoy

 

Nice one mate, A good read, noticed a few things that i could have been doing far more efficiently.

 

 

 

 

 

Code up the html first then plug in the wordpress bits. Already have a barebones Wordpress template set up

 

Yeah i haven't got round to creating my own personal bare-bones kit yet but i really should as setting up a new theme every time is hugely counter productive.

 

I'd sort of compiled an ordered list of all the plug-in bits and bobs which i refer to when converting a design over to a theme but definitely will look at coding up my own bare-bones kit.

 

 

 

It's quite convenient, I've added plugins to the theme and custom functions for popular posts, twitter widgets, related posts, meta boxes, custom posts and better pagination. Definitely saves tons of time and it means I can carry the same base styles over.

I used to use 860bc, which was a barebones based on 960.gs. Unfortunately it was also based on the old Kubrick theme, so I've recently scrapped it - for my own site I started with Twenty Ten and recoded it to take advantage of Nick La's 978px framework. I also implemented a few fixes of my own - for example, moving the menu location to below the content in the source order, then absolutely-positioning it back to the top.

I usually start with 2010 and strip out the bits I don't need. But I generally find it saves time in the long run because it's pretty functional and mostly well-coded. Nice idea about the menu Renaissance - I might have to try that!

MikeChipshop did you try a site with starkers theme?

MikeChipshop did you try a site with starkers theme?

 

I downloaded and had a look but i'm still going to develop my own one with pre-integrated widgets, menus etc.

Thumbs up for the heads up though

 

 

 

I downloaded and had a look but i'm still going to develop my own one with pre-integrated widgets, menus etc.

Thumbs up for the heads up though

 

yeah standards no problem

I start with a PSD.

 

Then I work from Starkers, a barebones wordpress theme, and code the theme to fit my design. I add in the functionality I need (and strip out the stuff I don't).

 

I found myself using a lot of 3.0/3.1 features, the custom post types and taxonomies especially, to build the functionality into my theme.

Start from scratch using Starkers theme and a coded PSD template. Get all the basics looking sick and working fine and then enhance using some custom templates and post types. Plugins come later if required.

to go off on a tangent slightly ...

 

i haven't got into using wordpress yet but i would really like to turn this site for a friend/client (http://www.deplicque.net/) into a wordpress theme to let him make changes more easily instead of having to email everything to me. i guess i'm looking at copying over 500 pages of content into a new design/framework

 

any advice or other words of wisdom greatly appreciated

I start with a PSD.

 

Then I work from Starkers, a barebones wordpress theme, and code the theme to fit my design. I add in the functionality I need (and strip out the stuff I don't).

 

I found myself using a lot of 3.0/3.1 features, the custom post types and taxonomies especially, to build the functionality into my theme.

 

Can someone explain what the custom post types and taxonomies are and how to use them in general?

 

Thanks

WordPress is primarily a blogging platform, but a lot of people use it as a CMS. A standard install has 'Posts' and 'Pages', but by creating custom post types you can have Portfolio Items etc.

Imagine you have a review site, you could use the normal post for reviews, but you could create a custom post type for mini-reviews.

 

A WordPress taxonomy is like Categories or Tags, you can create your own. For the review site example, you could have a custom taxonomy for cpu, graphics card etc.

 

Custom taxonomies can be used as a filter in the same way you can limit a blog to a single category.

 

Hope that explains it