In Tutorials Jun 1, 200917
WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction
WordPress has become the most popular blogging platform for a while now, and you’re probably using it if you write on a self-hosted blog. One of the key reasons of WordPress success is its templating system. In fact, thousands of free WordPress themes are available on the Internet. However, if you want a truly unique theme, you’ll need to create your own. This article will give you a basic understanding of a WordPress theme’s structure.
The basics
WordPress themes are the standard layout system that define your blog’s appearance. It consists of template files, functions, template tags and images. To install a WordPress theme, you just need to upload it and activate it in your WordPress admin.
WordPress page structure
Most of the time, a WordPress page is composed of the header, the sidebar, the content and the footer. These structural elements usually are separated files that you can include in your template files. There can be more structure elements, such as other sidebars, advertising space or whatever you can think of.
Template files
The above chart shows what files are used depending on the page you are using. You can use only the index.php with a stylesheet, but you would be missing customization options that make your theme more user-friendly.
The Loop
In WordPress, the loop is a set of functions used to display your posts and everything related to the posts (title, tags, author, categories,…). To customize the loop, WordPress has some well documented pages that you’ll find here or here. For a more advanced loop use like multiple loops on the front page, some blogs offer very extensive tutorials about it.
Template Tags
Template tags are small PHP snippets that are used to display info on the blog. For example, <?php bloginfo(‘url’) ?> will display the base url of your blog. Wordpress has a very good documentation about template tags and lists the tags available. When using WordPress plugins, you’ll sometimes get plugin specific template tags.
Functions
The functions.php file is a special one, it will not display a specific page but contains all functions used for your template. For example, you will need it to create widget zones or to create a theme customization page in WordPress’ admin.
17 Comments
Jun 1, 2009
[...] WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviverdesignreviver.com [...]
Jun 1, 2009
Would you consider making this into a PDF download, especially including the structure images you’ve created.
I would love to put this in my wordpress folder to keep for later.
Thank You.
Jun 1, 2009
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Jun 1, 2009
I liked how the template hierarchy and dependencies were visualized with the picture. Great tutorial and place to start when starting to create your first theme.
Jun 1, 2009
[...] WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviver Great beginner theming for wp! (tags: wordpress documentation information development webdesign) [...]
Jun 2, 2009
This is a great article for a beginner wordpress theme developer like myself. I know the basics but I’m about to really delve into it and this will make a perfect road-map.
Jun 3, 2009
[...] WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviver Great intro to wordpress theme building (tags: tutorial tutorials layout wordpress howto themes theme) [...]
Jun 5, 2009
Thanks for the tutorial,I’ll start it soon.
Jun 7, 2009
[...] WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction – One of the key reasons of WordPress success is its templating system. In fact, thousands of free WordPress themes are available on the Internet. However, if you want a truly unique theme, you’ll need to create your own. This article will give you a basic understanding of a WordPress theme’s structure. [...]
Jun 10, 2009
Some excellent tip here to get almost anyone up and running with a blog.
Jun 13, 2009
[...] Originally posted here: WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviver [...]
Jun 18, 2009
[...] WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction – Design Reviver This article will give you a basic understanding of a WordPress theme’s structure. (tags: design webdesign development wordpress reference howto) [...]
Jun 25, 2009
[...] reading here: WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviver Share and [...]
Jun 26, 2009
[...] here to read the rest: WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction | Design Reviver [...]
Jul 16, 2009
[...] WordPress theming for beginners, an introduction [...]
Aug 11, 2009
[...] original (en inglés) http://designreviver.com/uncategorized/wordpress-theming-for-beginners-an-introduction/ Tagged as: Temas, Templates No Comments Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on [...]
Feb 2, 2010
Why does your template hierarchy picture have category.php linked to category.php??
Is that a typo?
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