What think to be consider when you prefer coding a solution in form of child theme rather then in form of a plugin ?
Themes and plugins solve different problems: plugins are for business logic, themes for presentation. They are not interchangeable. I prefer the right tool for the right job. :)
i prefer in child theme (or in function.php), rather then in form of plugin. It's more easy to reuse. You can just move it from one theme to another.
Any generic functions should be in a plugin. That way, they are available to all themes, and if you make changes in one place, you don't have to copy and paste to several files.
The benefit of a child theme is that you can make changes to an existing theme, such as twentyten, without directly modifying the source code, which is fragile -- it can cause errors and has to be repeated every time the theme is updated.
Depends on the situation. If it's something that could readily be used by any (or many) different sites regardless of the theme, I do a plugin.
If it's something specific to This Particular Site Only, I would probably put it in the child theme's functions.php. Even if specific to the one particular site only, I might make it a plugin if it's something I might want to turn on and off later.
Other than the fact that you can turn plugins on and off, there is little if any difference between code in a plugin and code in functions.php.
If it's something most easily coded straight into the theme (e.g. a particular permutation of the_loop) then of course just do it in the theme template and put supporting code in functions.php
Related
There are quite a few days now, since I started to think about creating a WP theme framework backend. Working with wordpress for some time, I studied a lot of themes from "wp theme clubs" and their backend. All settings sections are organised in vertical tabs, nothing more. Same thing again and again and again. I think 90% of the buyers (customers) will never use those options. Am I right or this is just in my mind ?
Should I create a theme backend using the same old/booooooring style or better try to think outside of the box and create some new, intuitive and innovative ?
Thanks.
Even if 90% of your users don't want to customize the theme then you will leave 10% out that would like to customize your theme.
I suggest you implement 2 things to let your users customize things.
theme customizer
Since 3.4 there is the theme customizer. It already works in twentyeleven and twentytwelve.
Take a look at it if you haven't it's quite easy to use for users and can be extended.
Read more:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Customization_API
http://ottopress.com/2012/making-a-custom-control-for-the-theme-customizer/
http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/theme-development/digging-into-the-theme-customizer-overview/
Actions and filters
You probably used add_action() and add_filter() before. You can add your own filters to your theme so more advanced users can modify stuff. It costs you less effort then making an option of it while keeping your theme easy to modify (for users who know how to code)
Check out some more extensive themes, they are full off do_action() and
apply_filters().
An example. Before you start your loop you might add an do_action('before_content'). Now a user can add an add_action('before_content', 'add_breadcrumbs_callback_fnc');. Now your theme will execute the add_breadcrumbs_callback_fnc function so the user can add breadcrumbs without editing you theme.
Read more:
http://themeshaper.com/2009/05/03/filters-wordpress-child-themes/
http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-beginners-guide-to-wordpress-actions-and-filters/
Attempt to introduce a set of default hook for each themes:
http://literalbarrage.org/blog/2012/06/29/wordpress-theme-hook-alliance/
https://github.com/zamoose/themehookalliance
I don't necessarily think the issue is mutually exclusive.
Users with simple needs might want simplicity, right up until options are needed. A broad and ambiguous answer to a open-ended question.
Check out the wp-svbtle theme: https://github.com/gravityonmars/wp-svbtle
He did a separate boiled down back end.
I have a regular and mobile theme for a site; there are currently a couple of duplicate functions in the template.php of each theme, which do some text munging on the same fields. That is, the markup is the same for these fields in both themes.
How can I impose DRY and only have the logic in one place?
I understand I could make the regular theme inherit the mobile theme, but this doesn't seem like a "proper" solution, since the themes are quite different at the end of the day. Even more so as this would require ex-post-facto manipulation of the preprocess functions, and overriding mobile CSS and JS files - seemingly creating as much work and future WTH as it solves.
Thanks!
I would love to see the proper answer for this.
All i can think of is making a module that holds the duplication of functionality. A library module if you will.
So I'm making this "answer" as a conversation starter.
in: (mobile)template.php
preprocess_page(&$vars){
mymodulename_pagepreprocess($vars,'mobile');
}
(desktop)template.php
preprocess_page(&$vars){
mymodulename_pagepreprocess($vars,'desktop');
}
You can have preprocess-functions in modules as well btw. But it might be nice to send witch template as an argument.(you could however extract this from the global $theme)
How about you make a base theme which holds the functions, and implement both as sub-themes of it.
Or just the mobile theme a sub-theme, and the PC theme is the base?
Creating a sub-theme
first approach to CMS and wordpress I'm wondering if there's any predefined html structure and classes/IDs "must-be" reference that I can refer for making my own theme willing to change in the future for another wordpress theme
thanks
Luca
There are a few other 'template' themes that could get you started - if Starkers isn't quite your thing, you might find WP Framework a good alternative. Or - just start stripping down the Twenty Eleven theme to give you a base (which is just what the Starkers theme does, using the Twenty Ten theme as a base).
There's also quite a handy first-time guide on the WordPress Codex around theme development if you'd prefer to start from scratch.
Wordpress doesn't require you to have any specific classes or IDs in your theme in terms of the HTML and CSS, the only things WP needs are things like the wp_head function inside your element on every page. Having said that themes such as Starkers were created to enable developers to have a starting point instead of starting from scratch.
Now the above applies only to whatever code you write, there are however some functions in WP that will return standard code, for instance if you don't specifically create the comment thread code, WP will generate it for you, and that is really the only code that many themes will share.
I would say that if you are intending on making a number of blogging themes for instance, having a set of standard code might be a good idea, for the article pages for example, so that you don't have to re-write code over and over. Aside from that the only code I ever reuse when making themes is the CSS to style comments if I don't hand-code the comments section, this is a good idea as it will save you a lot of time.
Wordpress provide some functions which add CSS classes depending of page type, templete, conditional tags . . .etc.
These functions are body_class() and post_class().
For more info check:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/post_class
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/body_class
Here's the situation: There's a WordPress plugin in place that enables a mobile-friendly theme if a mobile User Agent is found (with the usual details and logic, not important).
This mobile theme is copied from the plugin directory, into another, and overwritten when updates to the plugin come out.
I need to provide some extra custom functions for the theme, but don't want to put all of the code directly in the mobile plugin/theme, because it may get overwritten.
I think the best thing might be to put my special/custom functions into their own plugin, and deal with the theme-specific changes as they come up - that way there's less to diff/compare when updates come out.
What do you think is the best approach with something like this? Is there a safe alternative to creating my own plugin, where I can store some custom code?
You could make a wordpress child theme, so that if the parent theme gets updated all your changes remain intact. From the above link:
...the functions.php of a child theme does not override its counterpart from the parent. Instead, it is loaded in addition to the parent’s functions.php. (Specifically, it is loaded right before the parent’s file.)
That should allow you to do what you need to do.
I am a Wordpress Theme Developer (Freelancer) and I make somewhere between 1-2 Themes / Week so I need a Quick way to make this happen.
Examples:
I use twentyten every time, delete the functions that I don't need, the CSS, images etc. I kinda let it "naked". (Not a quick way, maybe a personal framework?)
I search for Wordpress functions (since I can't remember all of them), on Wordpress Codex and again, not a quick way. So, do you guys think that a personal Function DB would be ok for me?
And more other stuff that I can't remember right now.
How do you guys organize your workspace?
If the themes you make are fairly similar, you might want to create that "naked" version and keep that as your base for future work.
I've created a handful of themes myself and I followed the same approach. I take that base theme and create new versions of the particular files that need to be customized.
However, if your themes vary quite a bit in form and function (being a freelancer, I'm certain they do), you may still want to create a library of functions and stylesheets rather than re-implementing everything for each project. Even if it means creating functions that call single Wordpress functions with default values, if it streamlines your workflow then it is well worth the minor overhead.
I think it's really a matter of personal preference, what works for you, what's easy to remember, what makes sense to you, etc. If you like starting with a stripped TwentyTen theme, then take that theme as a whole, strip it of everything you don't want, and then use that as your starting point for each theme you build. Certain functions that you find yourself using over and over, you could simply place in the functions.php file, in the theme folder. Then, which ever functions you end up needing for that specific theme are there, and the rest of them you can delete once you've built the theme.
First, it would be useful to develop your own theme as a starting point. Ripping stuff out of twentyten is really inefficient. If you develop one that has everything you need, you can do the second step:
Use child themes. A child theme will keep the parent untouched and you only have to change the things that you need to be different and add a new stylesheet. A big benefit is that it only consists of the stuff that is specific to that particular site. The generic stuff stays in the parent theme. Also you have the benefit of updating the parent easily and adding upgrades across multiple sites quickly.
A good starting point might be to try one of the frameworks like Thematic.
Also take a look at Automattic's toolbox theme. Twentyten is kind of messy and bulky. Toolbox is actually meant to be used more like you are using Twentyten.