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Introduction
In the last few years, WordPress has exploded in popularity. What started as simple blogging software has become an amazingly-capable content management system. As the capabilities of the software have grown, so have the unique and novel ways in which WordPress data is displayed.
Nowadays, developers and designers utilize the WordPress theme system to build everything from simple blogs to fully-fledged news sites. You can display different content in unique ways, highlight your most important posts and pages, and engage your users by allowing them to comment on and share your content, quickly and easily.
In short, WordPress makes it easy for people to show the world what they have to offer. Theming WordPress is easy, and template files are readily-modifiable by users of any skill level. However, if you’re willing to put in the time, you will find a powerful system hidden by this simplicity that allows you to build almost anything you want. This book will teach you how to use that power to build robust and high-quality themes that take full advantage of WordPress and the WordPress ecosystem.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, WordPress Theme Basics gets you started with developing WordPress themes teaching you about the documentation and finding, creating and installing themes.
Chapter 2, Creating Navigation shows you how to implement a variety of techniques that allow your users to navigate around your site.
Chapter 3, The Loop teaches you about The Loop, the main building block of WordPress. It shows you how to display your content in unique and interesting ways, and shows you how to change the data that is fetched and presented.
Chapter 4, Template Tags shows you how to display the content that the user enters in the administrative back-end. It teaches you to use unique WordPress functions to show titles, content, and other post data.
Chapter 5, Comments shows you how to start the conversation on your blog by allowing users to view and post comments. It teaches you to modify how the comments are shown and the information shown for each comment.
Chapter 6, Sidebars covers how to display secondary content on your blog by using WordPress’ fabulous widget and sidebar system.
Chapter 7, Custom Page Templates shows you unique content and unique needs for displaying it. It teaches you how to use the powerful template system to make WordPress display the content that you want and the way you want it.
Chapter 8, Integrating Media discusses multimedia types, such as audio and video, which are now commonplace on blogs. It teaches you to take control of how images and media are displayed and create custom media templates for images, audio, video, or any other file type.
Chapter 9, Showing Author Information introduces why your site’s authors are important. It teaches you how to display author bios, latest posts, and custom data.
Chapter 10, Adding JavaScript Effects shows you how to make your theme interactive and easy to use, by adding small pieces of JavaScript functionality.
Chapter 11, Advanced WordPress Themes covers how to take your theme to the next level, by adding theme options, creating multiple color schemes, and packaging and uploading your theme to the WordPress.org theme repository.
Chapter 12, Layout shows you how to extend your theme layout options through global toolbar navigation, centered theme design, tabbed navigation, drag-and-droppable components, and added accessibility through the use of skip navigation links.
Who this book is for
This book is intended for people interested in working with WordPress themes. Some experience with PHP and HTML is assumed, but no prior knowledge of the way in which WordPress works is needed. Users with a background in WordPress themes will still be able to learn from the more advanced recipes in this book.
