Here is a short list of some resources I’ve found useful for child theme development and WordPress generally. e-Books The above three books are absolutely excellent. They are all ebooks with loads of links to resources and articles. They are also updated for each new WordPress version. Get them at: https://wp-tao.com/store/ Web WordPress Development for […]
Read more "Reading & Resources"Okay, we have looked at the styles.css file, the functions.php file and handling javascript files. So what about the pile of php files that also live in a theme? These are called templates. They are called templates because these files determine how different types of content are rendered for the viewer. In essence, WordPress core […]
Read more "Template Files"A Public Service Message Document what you do If you are like me, you are absolutely certain that you will remember why you put in some clever bit of code. But trust me, those people in Harry Potter movies are plucking such memories out of your head daily and using them for nefarious purposes. It is aggravating […]
Read more "Theme Overrides: hang on tight we’re goin’ in"This will be a fairly opinionated look at tools and processes in that I’m not describing options and alternatives, and it is highly probable I’m not even describing the “best in class”. These are tools and processes that have worked successfully for me. Bare Minimum Tools To build a child theme the minimum tool you […]
Read more "Tools & Procedures"MVCT (Minimum Viable Child Theme) There is actually very little to creating a technically operational child theme. It involves the creation of one directory and two files. Each theme (or plugin for that matter) exists in its own directory. The directory can be called anything, but I favour a variation or amendment of the parent […]
Read more "MVCT (Minimum Viable Child Theme)"So, what are they? Once you have selected a theme that mostly does what you want, a child theme gives you a safe way to customize and override the original theme. The basic idea is that the majority of the code is provided by the parent theme. The child theme contains just those things that […]
Read more "What are Child Themes?"WordPress is provided as an open-source downloadable package, often called WordPress core. WordPress is extensible, meaning that this core can be extended by additional code. The easiest way to do this is to download and install plugins and themes. There are other ways, such as rewriting core code files, but these are not considered good […]
Read more " Thinking about WordPress"We’re going to kick off this basketball game (yeah, I pretty much suck at sports metaphors) by laying down some base concepts to build our discussion of child themes on. Note: I’m presenting these not as “fully nuanced truth” but as “useful ways to think about it for now”. So if you wouldn’t mind holding […]
Read more "Stepping Back"