WordPress Theme Development: The Pre-Coding Homework You Ought to do

The razmataz of the WordPress realm continues to beam and grow at an unprecedented rate as more and more webmasters lean towards it, choosing to host their blog on a CMS platform that gives them the maximum room to innovate and ideate. WordPress fits the fill, ever so obligingly.

Pre-Coding Homework You what to do

Pre-Coding Homework You what to do
Pre-Coding Homework You what to do

Now, there are folks who would rather develop their own WordPress theme rather than going in with the deluge of free and paid themes that are available on on the web. And they do draw a lot of confidence from their exceptional coding abilities. Besides, they want their own name up there on WordPress.org as a theme contributor. But, is a darn too coding procedure all that there is to developing an impressive WordPress theme? Arguably not.

There are hordes of things for you to consider before you begin writing the codes, and this is what this article aims to introduce you with:

To Begin With

With increasing number of developments making their way into the WordPress ambit, creating your own WordPress theme is becoming easier by the day. The standard way of starting to building a theme is having an index.php and style.css file and you are good to go.

That said, is that all you need when the agenda is to stand out from the herd? Not really. What you need is to branch out to the seemingly uncharted territories and strive to innovate. And this is where you would need a comprehensive knowledge of HTML and CSS so that you can dig in your heels deeper and get down to the fibre of theme development. Having hands-on expertise in HTML5 and CSS3 is what would make difference at the end of the day. Working on WordPress becomes an exercise with much-greater benefits once you know your way around these two tools.

Furthermore, you need to be clear-eyed about the fact that your theme should create no compatibility hassles with the latest versions of WordPress (upgrading to which is critically important at all times). Besides, the plugins you wish to install should work in perfect unison with your theme.

Chart Out Your Tasks Well in Advance

As iterated earlier, theme development goes beyond coding. And there are a bunch of considerations to keep in mind. You should have time as luxury for:

  • Constantly upgrading the theme and applying patches to it
  • Be responsive to the customer issues
  • Ensure theme maintainability at all times

What would rather serve you the best is a detailed study of the WordPress documentation.

Look at Few Themes for the Influence and Know Your Files

There are some exceptionally impressive and inspiration WordPress themes out there to learn from. I won’t mention any specific as it would rather serve you better if you do a fair bit of research and get a diversified idea.

Now, there are files that form the very fibre of any WordPress website. Get to know them:

  • index.php
  • single.php
  • page.php
  • style.css
  • functions.php
  • search.php
  • header.php
  • sidebar.php
  • footer.php
  • archive.php
  • comments.php
  • 404.php

Evidently, any Wordpres theme consists of a diverse range of PHP template files and you have to get them in order for every element of your theme to work appropriately.

Coming back to the documentation and the WordPress submission guidelines, make sure you don’t skimp over the basic ones.

The APIs Will Help You Sail Through

The basic process of writing a WordPress theme has to be accompanied with knowing the APIs inside out. The APIs cover several aspects of theme development and having a clear-eyed idea of how they would assist you in deliverables like theme customization, widgets, shortcodes, among others, will go a long way in streamlining your exercise.

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You would need to be sure about elements like licensing and the architecure. Now you can use any of the several services that provide you with necessary tools to create themes without worrying about APIs, compatibility, licensing, etc. that is, if you are willing to spend a bomb. Note: avoid using the theme generators, as they are more often than not rejected by WordPress.org

Let your theme development endeavor have a sense of order and half the ground is covered. For the rest of it, your coding talent should suffice.

 

Create custom meta fields using Custom Field Suite plugin

In wordpress we can Create custom meta fields using Custom Field Suite wordpress plugin. wordpress supports custom post type and meta fields in the CMS. Now wordpress supports the custom post type and custom meta fields in the CMS. custom meta field is great feature in wordpress. We can use the meta fields for multiple custom purpose. I am using meta fields in many projects for achieving the custom user requirements.

Custom meta fields are used for add the custom data with specific posts and pages. We can attach any type of data through meta fields. It is very useful feature of wordpress. Custom Field Suite is great wordpress plugin which, makes really simple for you to create custom meta boxes visually for you posts, pages or any custom post types.

custom-meta-box1

It is a wonderful free plugin and have great documentation for you to get start. You can easily create text, text area, wysiwyg, color, select, file upload, user, relationship and loops using visual UI and with minimal code you could display the values in your theme.

Create custom meta fields using Custom Field Suite plugin

The placement rules help you to define, in which scenarios you want to display the custom meta boxes in each content type. You can choose from post type, user roles, exact post or taxonomy terms.

custom-meta-box2 Create custom meta fields
Create custom meta fields

The plugin also have an export and import feature, so it is easy for developers to move from development box to actual server.

URL : http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-field-suite/
Home : http://uproot.us
Documentation : http://uproot.us/custom-field-suite/documentation/

add second sidebar in twenty thirteen wordpress theme

All wp developers and wordpress theme developers know about twenty thirteen wordpress theme. I do not need to talk about this more. Many people discussed about it issues and features. Many people are developed child themes based on twenty thirteen wp theme.

Some people asked me, how to add second sidebar in twenty thirteen wordpress theme. We can very easily add the second sidebar to it’s child theme.

add second sidebar in twenty thirteen wordpress theme

Using following simple code you can add the second sidebar to twenty thirteen wordpress child theme. If you are creating the child theme of twenty thirteen then you just need to add the following code into your functions.php file and that sit.

[viral-lock message=”Solution code is Hidden! It’s Visible for Users who Liked/Shared This article on Facebook or Twitter or Google+. Like or Tweet this article to reveal the content.”]


function second_sidebar() {
register_sidebar( array(
'name'          => __( 'Second Widget Area', 'twentythirteen' ),
'id'            => 'sidebar-3',
'description'   => __( 'Appears on posts and pages in the sidebar.', 'twentythirteen' ),
'before_widget' => '<aside id="%1$s">',
'after_widget'&nbsp; => '</aside>',
'before_title'&nbsp; => '<h3>',
'after_title'&nbsp;&nbsp; => '</h3>',
) );
<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar-3' ); ?>
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'second_sidebar' );

[/viral-lock]

Above code will add the second sidebar to your child theme. using following code you can add the second sidebar to your child theme.


<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar-3' ); ?>

you just need to place above code into your single.php and index.php file or you can add above code where you need to show the second sidebar in your child theme.

Based on child theme code you need to do some CSS changes so your second sidebar will look perfect. I suggest to use the any grid system wordpress framework or you can use bootstrap CSS grid system for fuild HTML framework.

How to add second sidebar in twenty thirteen wordpress theme
How to add second sidebar in twenty thirteen wordpress theme

create maintenance page wordpress with your content

maintenance page is required in website. There are many wordpress plugins which are good to create maintenance page wordpress. need custom maintenance page. In wordpress sites also you need the provision for maintenance page while doing backup, code updation etc operation.

create maintenance page wordpress with your content

There are many wordpress plugins which are helpful to create the maintenance page. Many people need the custom content on maintenance page. Some people need to content and images on maintenance page.

create maintenance page wordpress
create maintenance page wordpress

You can create the maintenance page using simple apache code which you can insert in .htaccess file. You just need to create the maintenance.html page in your root wordpress installation directory.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/maintenance.html$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(jpe?g?|png|gif) [NC]
RewriteRule .* /maintenance.html [R=302,L]
</IfModule>

There are some free wordpress plugins also which are helpful to create the maintenance page with custom content. But I like following wp plugin which really simple to use and nice features.

Ultimate Maintenance Mode

Ultimate Maintenance Mode create maintenance page wordpress with your content
Ultimate Maintenance Mode create maintenance page wordpress with your content

The Ultimate Maintenance Mode plugin displays a screen-shot of your website with an overlay window and the reason your site is down.

Features:

  • Works with any WordPress theme
  • Allows you to work on your site while non logged in visitors see the Maintenance Mode page
  • Automatically Creates a Screen-shot of your Website and uses it as the background for your maintenance mode page.
  • Ability to add a Custom Headline, Message & Background Image
  • Returns a 503 http status and retry header so search engines know your site is down.
  • Simple and Easy to Use
  • Multi-site Support
  • Translation Ready – i18n Support

As per my conclusion above plugin is really good for new wordpress developers and designers to save there time and efforts for creating the maintenance page.

wordpress plugin nextgen gallery review

we written wordpress plugin nextgen gallery review. NextGEN Gallery most downloaded gallery plugin which makes us to organize your images and galleries.

NextGEN Gallery is a most downloaded wordpress gallery plugin which makes us to manage and organize your images and galleries. There are many wordpress gallery and sideshow plugins but nextgen gallery is most used and popular in wordpress world. In every second website we need to show the gallery or sideshow. For showing gallery or sideshow, Nextgen gallery is quickest and simple solution. Every wp designers and developers first choice for gallery or sideshow is Nextgen gallery plugin.

wordpress plugin nextgen gallery review

NextGEN Gallery

wordpress plugin nextgen gallery review  by purabtech.in
wordpress plugin nextgen gallery review

NextGEN Gallery is the most popular WordPress gallery plugin, and one of the most popular WordPress plugins of all time, with over 7.5 million downloads.

It provides a powerful engine for uploading and managing galleries of images, with the ability to batch upload, import meta data, add/delete/rearrange/sort images, edit thumbnails, group galleries into albums, and more. It also provides two front-end display styles (sideshows and thumbnail galleries), both of which come with a wide array of options for controlling size, style, timing, transitions, controls, lightbox effects, and more.

Review:

Pros:

  • Very easy to install in wordpress and using Nextgen gallery is simple.
  • Simple and easy gallery management tools – It has simple image upload and gallery creation interface.
  • It works with custom post type very smoothly
  • Support of short codes so you can easily integrate anywhere in wp site
  • Easily create sideshow through NextGen gallery
  • Many types of effects and JS support using multiple plugins
  • There are many wordpress plugins which can adds effects to gallery or sideshow.
  • If you are wordpress developer then you can easily customize the plugin and add the new effect.
  • We can use Lightbox Plus, FancyBox and Lightbox-type wordpress plugins for gallery and sideshow.

Drawbacks:

  • We cannot include videos in gallery or youtube video in gallery
  • After upgrade of Nextgen gallery you must need to take backup of whole system because many times it will broke your website.
  • WordPress new version release issue – After new wordpress release, there is no guarantee to it will work in Nextgen gallery.
  • It consumes too much processor and so many database queries are fired on server.
  • Poor logic programming, poor user interface, slow user interface, lot’s of queries are just some of the many bugs and bad design of application
  • Performance is low it there are too many requests
  • No caching support.
  • No SEO support

Comments:

If you have high traffic website then do not use the nextgen gallery plugin. If you have low traffic or any organization website then you should go for Nextgen gallery plugin.

There are so many supported plugins for Nextgen gallery, so you can add multiple effects using this plugin.

I used Next Gen gallery plugin for many of my sites. But there is always issue with up-gradation.

But SEO wise this plugin is not so nice.

List of wordpress plugin development framework

Many wordpress developers want to develop new wordpress plugin for various purpose. We given the List of wordpress plugin development frameworks which useful. If you are looking for some ready-made wordpress plugin development frameworks.

List of wordpress plugin development framework

I found some good plugin frameworks which are helpful for developing the wordpress plugin.

Gives authors of new plugins a leg up on creating a great, easy to
maintain plugin by providing a carefully designed plugin skeleton to build on.
Authors of existing plugins can extract individual components and concepts
for transplantation into their own projects.

 

  • JeffreyWay / WordPress-Theme-Options-Page

open source class the project is hosted on github aimed at theme developers, looks nice, haven’t used it. .

 

  • helgatheviking / thematic-options-KIA

open source Framework the project is
hosted on github aimed at help developers build options into their thematic child themes , witch was forked for Thematic-options very much up to date.

 

a commercial solution, packed it features and very easy to use.

 

  • devinsays / Options-Framework

open source Framework the project is hosted on github aimed at theme developers , i later learned that is has evolved in to Thematic-options very large scaled project that has lots of features.

 

and IDE for creating option panels , lots of feature and constantly updated, downside is: it’s not easily integrated in plugins or themes and default options are not an option (up to version 1.1.1).

 

 

has related classes, I used it for one plugin and it saved me plenty of time;

 

I see a lot of mentions for this around, hadn’t used it myself yet;

 

has set of functions for pages/metaboxes/settings, but it probably won’t make sense to use it just for that.

list of wordpress plugin development framework
list of wordpress plugin development framework

Solution to develop wordpress theme with minimal impact

Many wordpress theme developer use following method for developing the wordpress theme. we given Solution to develop wordpress theme with minimal impact and with minimum coding effort.

  1. Copy the wordpress base theme (like twentytwelve in wordpress 3.5)
  2. Rename the folder and converted index.html of my HTML to index.php for wordpress theme.
  3. Replace style.css with  current theme style.css.

Solution to develop wordpress theme with minimal impact

This easy way to creating the new theme or you can use the frameworks like as follows:

http://digcms.com/wordpress-themes/apticus/

At the very minimum, a WordPress Theme consists of two files:

  • style.css
  • index.php

Here are some resources for faster theme development

  1. WordPress frameworks and parent themes
  2. framework for plugin/theme options panel
  3. Best Collection of Code for your functions.php file
  4. Best collection of code for your .htaccess file

As per My suggestion, If there is custom design then do not copy base theme. Just create first two files with your index and style css file.

index.php and style.css file. In top of your style.css file just add following code.


/*
Theme Name: YOURTHEME NAME
Theme URI: YOUR THEME URL
Author: AUTHOR NAME
Author URI: THEME URL -(OPTIONAL)

*/

If you use above method then your work will be reduced.

minimal-impact-wordpress-theme-develop a wordpress theme
minimal-impact-wordpress-theme-develop a wordpress theme

Best of Resources for wordpress theme development

Many new designers and developers are searching for resources for wordpress theme development. Where to start and how to start the wordpress development. Many people don’t want to use the free themes and they want to develop their own theme.

Best of Resources for wordpress theme development

They want to understand about basic rules and api about wordpress theme development. Here we collected some best of urls which has best practices and guidelines about wordpress theme development.

List of free wordpress theme frameworks for wordpress theme developer

How to create wordpress theme

How To Create WordPress Themes From Scratch Part 1

How to Create a WordPress Theme from Scratch

Theme Development

Template Tags for wordpress

Blog design and development

Designing a WordPress Theme From Scratch

Future of PSD to WordPress Conversion

All time Best WordPress Ebooks

General Guidelines when you are developing the new Theme

How to create simple wordpress theme

Basic CSS rules for development of WordPress themes

I liked one picture which about wordpress theme development. This picture is by Yoast blogger.

Best of Resources for wordpress theme-development
Best of Resources for wordpress theme-development

wordpress comment preview for box comment without plugin

Showing wordpress comment preview for comment box is always good for attracting the visitors. I shown code here for show the comments preview.

wordpress comment preview for comment box

Many times comments preview will be useful for visitors to see how comments will be looking. Using google Jquery or wordpress jquery you can add the comment preview to your wordpress blog. Showing comment preview is always good for attracting the visitors. Many clients demands for this. I shown you the example code over here for show the comments preview.

In this tutorial I am using the wordpress inbuild jquery.  First open your header. php file from your theme folder and after head tag following code.


<?php wp_enqueue_script(</code><code>'jquery'</code><code>); ?>
<?php if (is_single()) { ?>

<script type="text/javascript">

jQuery(document).ready(function(){

	jQuery("").add("<h3 id='preview-title'>Comment Preview</h3><div id='comment-preview'></div>").appendTo(document.body);
	jQuery("#comment-preview, #preview-title").insertAfter("#comment");

	var $comment = '';
	jQuery('#comment').keyup(function() {
		$comment = jQuery(this).val();
		$comment = $comment.replace(/\n\n+/g, '<br /><br />').replace(/\n/g, "<br />");
		jQuery('#comment-preview').html( $comment );
	});

});

</script>
<?php } ?>

Then Open Your style.css file from your theme folder put the following code in that file.

#comment-preview {
	border: 1px solid #ccc;
	padding: 5px 15px 15px 15px;
	}
h3#preview-title {
	margin-bottom: 5px
	}

After that upload the modified files on server. you will see following functionality for your wordpress commnets section.

wordpress comment preview for comment box
wordpress comment preview for comment box

If you are not wordpress developer then please dont try this.

create links template page in wordpress theme

From 3rd version wordpress introduced links template. Links is same important like archive page. code snippet for create links template page in wordpress.

create links template page in wordpress

Links template page concept is new in wordpress theme. From wordpress 3 version wordpress introduced the links.php template file in wordpress themes. Adding the links page to your wordpress site or blog is very good for seo.Links page is same important like archive page.

create links template page in wordpress
create links template page in wordpress

You can add your friends and good websites in links page. You should use the links page very carefully because this page is very important for SEO. Google and other search engine is always look for links page where you can put other network or friends sites.

How to create links template page

Note: If you are wordpress developer then only use following code.

You need to create the links.php file in your wordpress theme folder. and put following code in that file.


<?php
/*
Template Name: Links
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>

 <section id="primary">
 <div id="content" role="main">

<div id="archives">

<?php the_post(); ?>
 <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
 <h2>Friends Network </h2>
 <ul>
<?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_li=&categorize=0'); ?>

</ul>

</div>
 </div><!-- #content -->
 </section><!-- #primary -->

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

After that go to your wordpress admin panel and create the links.php with links page template.

create links template page in wordpress
create links template page in wordpress

Publish links page and add the links page in to your menu.

Here are some links which are helpful to you.

create contact us template page in wordpress

If you link this article then please add my site in your links page or blogroll. If you are having any issues or question about links template then please write to me on support@purabtech.in.