WordPress Theme Development

What is Wordpress Theme?

WordPress themes are made up of template files. These are PHP files that contain a mixture of HTML, Template Tags, and PHP code.
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Creating and developing a theme in WordPress can be very simple if you have some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Despite this, some beginners can also complete this mission with the right instructions. You just need to have a properly configured development environment and the CMS (Content Management System) installed.

There are so many free themes available to you when you are running a WordPress website. Beyond the free themes, you might also choose to pay a premium for professionally made WordPress themes that look great and have fantastic features. So why learn how to create your own theme from scratch?

The answer is that no matter what theme you are using, there is going to come a time when you want to make simple changes to your website. Some of those changes might be able to be accommodated by a simple plugin or widget.

Many times however, it makes more sense to understand what it is you want to change, how to change it, and avoid turning your WordPress website into a mess of plugins and add-ons that become unwieldy. With just a bit of foundation level knowledge, you’ll be confident in modifying your theme, or simply building your own from scratch.

All in short, developing a custom theme :

  • It's an opportunity to learn more about CSS, HTML, and PHP.
  • It's an opportunity to put your expertise with CSS, HTML, and PHP to work.
  • It's creative.
  • It's fun (most of the time).
  • If you release it to the public , you can feel good that you shared and gave something back to the WordPress Community (okay, bragging rights)

Installed Theme Location

We know that a WordPress installation usually has a root directory, also called wordpress. In this directory are the files and folders that are shown below.

Files : composer.json , index.php , license.txt , readme.html, wp-activate.php, wp-blog-header.php, wp-comments-post.php, wp-config.php, wp-config-sample.php, wp-cron.php, wp-links-opml.php, wp-load.php, wp-login.php, wp-mail.php, wp-settings.php, wp-signup.php, wp-trackback.php, xmlrpc.php

Folders : wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes

The folder we are looking for is wp-content, where themes and plugins are stored . Inside, there is a folder called themes , which must contain all your WordPress site’s themes, including the one you will create so that the CMS recognizes the new settings.

How to Develope Theme

There are three ways we can start developing our own theme :

  1. From Scratch : By Building the theme from scratch with the template files , css and Javascript
  2. Starter Theme : A WordPress starter theme helps developers to start with a solid foundation. It can become the base for your theme development process and gives you a good head start.E.g Astra , Underscores , WP BootStrap Starter , etc.
  3. Child Themes: The simplest Theme possible is a child theme which includes only a style.css file, plus any images. This is possible because it is a child of another theme which acts as its parent.

Reference