I didn't know about the best practice of not skinning/modifying/working off of the core wordpress theme (twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, twenty-twelve, twenty-thirteen), and a bunch of my clients sites are running right now on the core themes with a custom/modified skin.
I've heard stories of wordpress getting hacked and sites being compromised because wordpress is out of date. The wordpress team also pretty much states that security issues are being fixed with each update. I need to update the core wordpress files on these sites to prevent this, but now I'm scared that if I update wordpress, the theme will be overwritten.
In fact, I had a client click the update button once in the wordpress admin (not really knowing what they were doing) and overwrite the theme (that was pretty disasterous). I even use a plugin now to disable that message so my other clients don't do that.
What steps should I take now to fix this? Copy the theme, rename the folder/theme name in style.css, and change the theme in admin settings? Would I be OK to update wordpress after I do this? Or are there more steps that I need to take?
You have the right idea. Copy the theme folder and rename the new copy to something else like customtheme. Then edit customtheme's theme info in the comments at the top of style.css and switch to it in the admin panel. After that you are safe to update.
Do keep in mind that it's possible WP updates will break things anyway, depending on how you implement custom functionality and what plugins you are using.
Agree with the above. Don't go anywher near the WP core or the default themes. Either create child themes or better off, build your own.
Copying and renaming and existing theme will cause you all sorts of problems as each theme uses named functions. If you just rename the stylesheet there will be more conflicts than you can fix in a week of debugging.
If you are blocking the update messages you are putting your clients at risk.
Related
I am a freelance developer, and I normally build sites from scratch without using any code generating sites like WordPress or Square Space. But my current client insists on using WordPress. However, I am rescuing this project from a previous developer who made a big mess because from the looks of it does not seem like they knew what they were doing.
Is there a way for me to restart everything, on a clean slate and template on WordPress? I would like to have none of what the previous developer has done. Also is there a way for me do do direct coding using HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc on a WordPress site?
Yes, you just need to look into how to create a theme, since themes are the basis of the Wordpress structure. Ultimately, if you have the code for a website, it can be broken into separate files that Wordpress can use.
See: http://www.wpexplorer.com/create-wordpress-theme-html-1/
If the previous developer has done all the work in the theme files, then simply switching the theme to a default theme (Like Twenty Sixteen) will give you a nice clean slate to dig in and jump off with. You will want to create a child theme of any existing theme if you want to make any changes. If, however, the developer has messed with other files besides the theme folder, then you will most likely want to export the content only (as a logged-in administrator, go to Tools > Export (here's a screenshot))
Then on a new environment (I prefer testing these things first on a local virtual environment like VVV, and then transition to a development subdomain on the same server that the site will eventually go live on and securing it with an htaccess user/password to block curious eyes), import the content on a fresh installation of wordpress via the same menu (Tools > Import). This will give you a fresh installation with the content that's been created, but without any of the mess.
For more information about importing content - here's the codex article.
I hope that's a good start - but if I've glossed over anything you don't understand, let me know - I'm happy to help.
I am going to create a custom theme for one of my client, he will be reselling it to his customers.
As wordpress updates comes frequently and one has to update the wordpress to ensure security, how can I prevent my theme from update effects? I want to know that as there anyway to update the theme remotely with wordpress updates?
I will be using a custom framework not the wordpress default theme engine.
Thanks
Wordpress Codex gives a warning about updates.
That being said, if you look at the "Extended Instructions" for updating, it lists files and folders you can delete. It also lists files and folders you SHOULD NOT DELETE. Those "DO NOT DELETE" items are the files and folders not touched by an update.
So... you should ask yourself, "Will I ever need to edit/enhance one of those core files that may be replaced?"
The answer could help you build safer and smarter.
I'm a WordPress n00b and have a question that may be a stupid one. Basically, I want to start my site from scratch, but want to keep all the plugins and themes that I downloaded. Is this possible, and if so, what are the steps to do it?
If you create a new database and update this value in wp-config.php, it will initialise your posts, users, etc...
The plugins in the plugins folder and themes in themes folder will still remain although you might need to reconfigure the theme.
I have a static HTML site (about ten years old) which I am going to migrate to a Wordpress site.
I have used Wordpress before but never as a migration target. From some initial background reading I have come up with the following process to perform the migration:
Check hosting provider/package for Wordpress suitability
Generate complete current site map
Make a complete backup of current site
Install Wordpress in subdirectory
Install Maintenance mode plugin and activate
Migrate content to Wordpress instance (looks like this could be
painstaking..)
Install suitable theme
Customise selected theme with Logo/fonts/colours etc.
Deactivate maintenance mode
Make Wordpress site available from domain root
Delete old static html site files
(The migration may take place over several weeks/months so I need the static HTML site to be available until step 10 is completed)
In my naivety are there any pitfalls in the above process, or additional issues I have failed to consider?
Are there any other accepted 'best practices' when performing this kind of migration?
Here's a good tutorial:
http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/creating-a-wordpress-theme-from-static-html-creating-template-files--wp-33939
For developers who want the theme converted from HTML in easy way (but no guarantee if it can produce the output as expected):
http://www.htmltowordpressconverter.com/
Hope this was helpful!!!!
WordPress theme styles come in all shapes and sizes. Converting from a static HTML site to something database driven like WordPress can be as easy or complicated as you want.
If you just want to integrate WordPress into an existing HTML theme it's as easy as installing WP, setup the database and config, then building in the old HTML structure using WP. This way everything will be the same but managed within WordPress i.e. Pages, Menus, Sidebars.
Here's are some useful links:
https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
https://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development
https://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates
And here's a "Start from Scratch" theme that would be simple to start from. Just install it, activate it, then begin migrating the main content i.e. copy and images etc, and building the theme itself.
http://adopttheweb.com/start-from-scratch.zip
I have bought this Wordpress theme:
http://themeforest.net/item/wp-pro-real-estate-3-responsive-wordpress-theme/1763306?ref=contempoinc
but I was stupid enough to forget that Wordpress will need to be installed in order to customize and work on it. Is it possible to run it on some server without Wordpress being include, to consider it as "done" template?
No, not in any practical way. Themes operate inside WordPress the way FireFox addons work inside Firefox or the way an Android App needs Android (to a lesser extent).
You must have WordPress to use a WordPress theme. There are too many class and function dependencies to run the theme without WordPress. It would be near impossible to even a load a theme and get all the templates to work without the WordPress core managing things.
You are better off starting from scratch than you are trying to edit the "WordPress" out of a WordPress theme.