Does it matter? Theme setup…

  • I’m a little confused here and not sure if it matters how I setup my theme. Granted Ive been trying this out since yesterday… but I would like to setup my own theme I already have a design (complete CSS no tables) I’m hoping to use. I see you can add all code to the index php file as seen on the tech wench site, or use the broken up version?

    Does it matter? Will I be missing something eitherway? If I use my design and plug in the code where need be. If I wanted to create templates for me and whom ever in the future, should I learn/use a specific way of creating templates?

    I can do the HTML, CSS, and PHP(just a newb in php but ok).

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • If you’re developing a theme, then you should check the code for this topic. You’ll want to keep it separate from the core files.

    What breaking the theme up does is allows you to have different templates/features for different sections.

    For example, if you do it like on my site, in one index.php file, EVERYTHING will have the same layout.

    So, if the template displays the title, date, and post author on your blog posts, it’ll also display those items on your Page posts as well.

    But if you break the template up, you can have a page.php and an index.php and a single.php

    This will let you do stuff like omit date and author text on Pages (page.php), add different items to blog post pages (single.php), and style your main index page differently, maybe you want to use excerpts instead of the whole post.

    My site/cheat sheet only shows the bare minimum that’s necessary for creating a theme.

    Thread Starter Louis

    (@louis)

    Thanks… I guess I need to search around and see how this is done. I see many themes with diff # of files and undertsand what they are used for, just did not realize the theme would involve as much. But I will try to see if I can grasp it.

    -thanks

    One way to help get your mind around it would be to go through the documentation:

    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Theme_Development

    Thread Starter Louis

    (@louis)

    Yes I have printed out the docs. I have also browsed many themes to see what difference there is. I did not see anywhere, where it states the “core files” that would need to be modified, and the ones that can be left alone.

    I’m going try a few things with my current style sheet and images to see what happens. I love some of themes I see, but prefer to make my own using examples I see. Prior to WordPress I used the 2 col structure fixed as well, so it’s not that I dont know how – it’s how to do for wordopress :).

    Wish me luck and thank you for the replies to my question.

    Usually the template files in a theme work together in the way shown here

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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