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Pauline Orr
15,321 PointsHelp me feel better about WordPress or Website Development
I'm about to graduate this Fall with a degree in website development plus a minor in applied computing and graphic design. I have been so excited but then I started an internship at a local advertising firm that does web design.
I hate WordPress! Don't get me wrong, I see how valuable it is! Why reinvent the wheel with say, a contact form, when you can plug a better programmed one in? And it does make it so much easier for clients to maintain themselves.
However, I feel so disappointed. I love hand coding and have been working for a website for my sister which is my best work yet. I am so proud of what I've done for plus I was having these big cool ideas for my own personal website. Now I'm wondering what the point is?
The lady who I'm interning for just picks pre made themes, customizes them to the extent she's allowed and then she's done. I hate it because the customizing itself is so watered down. To change a color you go to a form in the admin panel. I love being down in the code getting my hands dirty yet I'm realizing that WordPress is all clients may want and that the time probably cut in half is better for everyone involved money-wise.
Is there any point in hand coding or doing any more than the minimum with themes that all feel and look the same in a way? I can't stand how WordPress can feel so "drag and drop". I feel capable of more than that. I want to do more and be challenged but is it not even worth it now? The best solution in my head is to make my own themes and customize from there but I'm feeling disheartened. Are frameworks any better for what I'm after?
I'm desperate for any advice or encouragement. I've felt down about this.
5 Answers
Ingvi Jonasson
12,173 PointsI have done WordPress development for a couple of years now. I learned a lot by building a theme myself and that is creating all template files myself and as building everything. It was very time consuming and I will never do it again but I learned so much from it. I recommend you to do it to for the sake of learning and getting your hands dirty in code.
Today I have a very simple starter theme that has very minimal styles added. I use this for 90% my projects. It is fun. It does not feel like I am customising a already build theme. I know how that is and it can be a very boring process.
So I recommend you to do the same. Use a starter theme (or build one yourself) and you will build sites yourself and not configuring themes. Good luck.
Pauline Orr
15,321 PointsThank you for your response! So when you say you build sites off your starter theme are you actually in the files coding? Whats the difference between building and configuring themes?
Ingvi Jonasson
12,173 PointsYes I am always working on the template files.
My starter theme has zurb's foundation (similar to bootstrap). The theme has pretty standard styles, kind of default styles. So I have to develop or build the theme basically. Using a front-end framework does a lot for you but there is still many things that you have to do.
Configuring a theme would be more like taking a theme that already has styles and change them. I am aware of developers/designers who purchase a theme because the like the look of the theme. Then they have to remove everything that they do not like or is unnecessary. This could be just as much work as building a theme yourself.
Pauline Orr
15,321 PointsI think this is helping me feel better. :) I want to be able to code by hand while not being totally old school and behind the times because like I said, I do see the value of WordPress and it should be used. Do you have any tutorials or videos you'd recommend to starting to build your own themes?
Also how difficult is it to take an existing webpage I've coded and transfer it to Wordpress?
Ingvi Jonasson
12,173 PointsWell I guess you should learn it here on treehouse. After that you should be able to implement your static html into WordPress.
Underscore is really good starter theme.
Pauline Orr
15,321 PointsI'm also curious how often frameworks are used in the industry. Are they used a lot like wordpress?
Ingvi Jonasson
12,173 PointsThey are very common and in WordPress too :)