Theme Frameworks: The Future Of WordPress Themes

THEME FRAMEWORKS A Glimpse Into The Future Of WordPress Themes Presented by David Wang WordCamp Malaysia 2010 1

Hi, I’m David Wang :) aka @blogjunkie Blogger, web geek (10 years+) Freelance web design (5 years+) Online Marketing Strategy & Training 2

THEME ? WHAT IS A FRAMEWORK 3

A Theme Framework Is A Theme Framework Is Not A Theme Framework ✓ Solid codebase to serve as a foundation for other projects ✓ Theme hooks (actions & ﬁlters) ✓ Like developing a plugin 4

X Not True Frameworks 6

A Little History 7

Themes - a major attraction 8

Themes you may have customised before 9

Child Themes • Parent Theme forms the base • Customisations made in Child Theme • Upgrade by replacing Parent Theme 11

Premium Themes + custom.css custom_functions.php 12

Hooks - a deﬁning characteristic of theme frameworks 13

WHY ? SHOULD I CARE 14

Bloggers: Build A Better Blog • More cost effective • Point & click options, widgets, child themes & skins • Better support 15

WordPress for Businesses: Even Better as a CMS 17

Developers: Faster & More Efficient Projects Standardised code Development helpers SEO & semantic code Theme Hooks 18

? HOW DO I START 19

Types of Theme Frameworks Custom CSS & Child Theme Upgradable Core Functons Sandbox, Thematic, WP-Framework, Frugal, Thesis, Hybrid Carrington Headway Create a Child Edit template files Edit custom CSS & Theme to customise directly to customise functions file Replace Parent Replace core files to Copy customisations Theme to upgrade upgrade to new theme 20

themehybrid.com 21

themeshaper.com/thematic 22

zy.sg/the-buffet-framework 23

Create a Child Theme • Upload the theme framework (parent theme) to your themes directory. • Create a new directory for your child theme and create a ﬁle called style.css in it. /* Theme Name: Child Theme Description: Example Child Theme Template: parent-theme */ /* Import the parent theme style (if you want) */ @import url(../parent-theme/style.css); 24

Example: Thematic Parent Theme Child Theme Parent & Child theme must be in the same directory 25

Separate your customisations • Create a ﬁle called custom.css in your theme directory. • Modify your themeʼs header.php by adding the following between the <head> tags <link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/ custom.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> • Modify the body tag to <body class="custom"> • Implement your customisations in custom.css .custom #header { /*custom styles for header*/ } 26

TwentyTen - a great starting point 27

Learn to use Hooks • Put your custom functions into functions.php • Hook the functions into WordPress actions & ﬁlters • E.g. Hook your insertFootNote function to the_content function insertFootNote($content) { $content.= " ?> <div class="footNote"> <p>Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed so you never miss a post!</p> </div> <?php "; return $content; } add_filter ('the_content', 'insertFootNote'); 28

Thematic Theme Hooks thematic_before() thematic_belowcommentslist() thematic_aboveheader() thematic_abovecommentsform() thematic_header() thematic_belowcomments() thematic_blogtitle() thematic_abovemainasides() thematic_blogdescription() thematic_betweenmainasides() thematic_belowheader() thematic_belowmainasides() thematic_abovecomments() thematic_abovefooter() thematic_abovecommentslist() thematic_after() 29

WP 3.0 Features make frameworks more powerful ✓ Improved Child Theme support ✓ Custom header image ✓ Custom background image ✓ Simple navigation menus ✓ Author templates ✓ Custom post types & taxonomies 30

Theme Frameworks are The Future ✓ Premium themes will add features to cater to power users ✓ Regular themes will add features to become base themes ✓ Site owners beneﬁt from maturity of themes ecosystem 31

Thanks for listening! David Wang @blogjunkie http://blogjunkie.net http://buzzmedia.com.my 32

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Theme Frameworks: The Future Of WordPress Themes

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