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WordPress

nicholas maddren
nicholas maddren
12,793 Points
Posted by nicholas maddren
nicholas maddren
12,793 Points

Theme Development Question

I have watched some of the Wordpress theme development videos. I still don't know how I should start developing my theme? Should I start by creating a template with HTML, CSS, JQuery and PHP then just migrate it to Wordpress after? I'm completely stumped at the moment. The theme needs some advanced search options that I will code in PHP.

I am just unsure where I start? Would the advanced search module need to be a plugin or could I just code it into my theme?

Thanks, Nick

2 Answers

scottwienke
scottwienke
15,868 Points
scottwienke
scottwienke
15,868 Points

Nick,
There are multiple ways that you could go about this, but the best answer is what works best for you. If you think that it would be easier to create a site in static HTML,CSS,Jquery, then I would do that, then you could use the wonderful tools that Zac Gordon has provided to port that over into a WordPress theme. If you can just think of how you want your theme and how you want it to function on the fly, then you can just start coding it directly into wordpress theme template. Not knowing your skill-level, it would be best left up to you on how you want to start.

For the advanced search module, I would either suggest looking into existing search plugins, or if they do not exist then I would create a seperate plugin, I would not hard-code that into your theme, since your theme could change or you might need to update something, it is easier to seperate these two entities, also allowing for easier updates if wordpress core files change and break your theme or plugin.

Hope that helps you out.

Scott

markwong2
markwong2
2,302 Points
markwong2
markwong2
2,302 Points

For some reason I think its easier for me to just go straight into the basic php/ html framework, and then add the css live as I go on in xampp (for demo before deployment). It's probably better practice to just html/css then go to writing the rest, but if you're just making a theme, you really just need to migrate the custom theme folder you create with the index, css and other pages associated with your custom theme. Zac Gordon has some good videos.