Starting to Create your own Wordpress Theme WHILE UNDERSTANDING what your doing

Beginners
1

Yes!

Sounds like a great concept eh?
Well I’ve tried it and run aground on the rocks of Mind bend…
SO!

Check this out… I am half way through it.
That same Lady I was on about in a previous post, mentioning her stuff,
well here she is, walking you through how to WRITE YOUR OWN (basic!)
Wordpress Theme (not even using Pinegrow! - oh the horror!)

But, you will UNDERSTAND… what its all about.
well, the basic stuff.

I need a rest after being half way through but its fab.
I might just have to kill zombies …

Oh!
The link, I Nearly forgot

SO again, this is for beginners, which is why I posted it in the beginners channel not the actual Wordpress channel as there is undoubtedly some way to go after this video :slight_smile:
She does explain that in order to style it you had best use functions.php to use your css and then directs you to her Git Repository, where you can find all the stuff she uses to get stuff to work as she says she doesn’t use Plugins, she just writes it all up.

Way to go girl!!!

Here is that link to her repository

SO! after I get around to doing this to completion, for the first time, having failed to do it with each attempt with PineGrow, I will then attempt it again…with some… UNDERSTANDING of what I’m doing ,
see if it makes any more sense.

And this is the first time of doing this sort of thing with php too, so , funky monkeys all around!

And just in case you also struggle to get on top of all this stuff and
Like me, Procrastinate like hell,
WEll, I’m having another go at a lot of things in life just now, so don’t give up,

there is something in this next link that … well… really brought some things home for me.

The THREE versions of Can’t

check it out, see if it resonates with you… and then realise you can use I Can A lot more often if you choose too.

It has certainly made me re evaluate some stuff.

UPDATE

Well, its 3.30 am on the next day and I have finally worked my way to the end of the vid, along with quite a bit of typing. right, lets get jiggy with it… well actually… maybe tomorrow now :slight_smile:

1 Like
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And whoops, her course is already horribly out of date…

Found it pretty hard to believe that someone could teach how to build a wordpress theme in 45 minutes anyway (I was willing to give it a shot though), but I stopped when she hardcoded the title and the stylesheets. That wasn’t even the way before the Gutenberg update …

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She said it wasn’t the correct way , but it was done in stages to explain HOW it was working so that then you could see WHY you were doing it.

She also then wrote it up on her site - which is again, slightly different, uses bootstrap blocks etc.
its here.

and she has a few wordpress tutorials,including that one, listed here:
https://www.taniarascia.com/category/wordpress/

I started following her Vid, got confused and mixed some stuff up, see will try again shortly,
Along with her updated boostrap inclusive version

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Thanks for thinking us complete WP dummies. Learning how to use my PG WP version for themes has been, and may remain, on my back burner for years. I marvel at how little I know and can still get things done over time. If only I had a lot more of it.

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Same here! Oh how I’ve tried…well actually not really.
My attempts have been pretty lame.

RIGHT THEN!.. so THIS year it is :slight_smile:

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My other project, which involves JavaScript, has been enhanced by
this free tutorial on regex.

Course on regex (regular expressions)

Most interesting and almost comprehensible.

I’m still trying to figure out how it will apply, but I’d like to
believe I am somewhat smarter nonetheless. Ha.

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OH, THAT…free course on Regex… (go on give us a clue…which one? Hers? Ok I will look at it too :slight_smile: if so, where is it… Ive just run a regex on her page and can’t find a …oh!
That’s cos I cant USE Regex correctly.

Now…where is there a good free course?

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Course on regex (regular expressions)

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I have a total noob question… aside from blogging, what’s the advantage to building a site in Wordpress vs ordinary a framework like Bootstrap using ordinary HTML, CSS & JS?

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Well, for a noob answer I would say that for myself, if anyone came to me asking me for a a website with ANY sort of functionality… ie, online booking, shop with online sales, catalogues, which
THEY WANT TO UPDATE THEMSELVES… and this is the main point, then I would knock 'em out with
Wordpress and its funky back end.

They can do all that stuff once they Learn the Wordpress back end, or you can teach them that.

There is HUGE enormous, Plugin eco system (Ie, shop, woo commerce - amazing and free)
Payment Gateways (Stripe. paypal, Card of your choice)
etc.

It can go a LONG way towards setting them up and online and trading.
Also, just for being able to create posts and …post online!
Themselves.

But there are also a pile of other CMS’ for creative writing and blogging etc.
For me, the ability to throw together a functional shop in a day and then teaching them how to populate it is pretty much the main reason - at my noobish level.

for free!

That is the main point for myself.
As they can then get on with it, without needing to call me/the dev constantly for changes.

I’m also aware of quite a few downsides and pitfalls to this approach… but at my level of dev… its currently the only way to go.

That’s why I was asking about whether anyone had experience of the AMPPS server as it has script installers for over 400 things!
Including, bloggin, cms’ shops , all sorts, so it looked like a good way to explore other options.

I am also aware that you should choose the right tool for any job you have to do - based within your skill set . However, at my level, I am currently at the hammer stage of developing a tool kit so
Every problem is a nail to me!

There are no other possibilites for advanced functionlaity on a website, so,
Wordpress it is then :slight_smile:
1/3 of the entire WWW cant be wrong.

disclaimer … I sercretly despise wordpress and all it has come to represent in dumming things down and seperating the devs from the creative stuff by having to learn so much.

I am also its littel b*tch as … I have no other options when it comes to advanced functionality…
Curses!

… And I still cant even make a theme! yet alone advanced functionality.
Drat!

RIght then ,lets check out that Tania’s tutorial again! oh its 01.15 am… oh well :slight_smile:

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I have a client who I have to build a small e-commerce site for (less than 20 items) and I’ve been agonizing over which platform to use. This is his existing site which was done in Magento…
www.yourcupz.com

He knows nothing about websites, and has no desire to maintain it. That’s my job (he’s paying me) so CMS is not an issue. I was planning to go open-source with either Zencart, OSCommerce or Prestashop but really don’t know what’s best. I don’t want to use Magento for two reasons…

  1. It was recently bought by Adobe, and I hate Adobe.
  2. Magento is a PHP platform, and I know very little PHP.

So you would recommend Wordpress. I’ve successfully installed Wordpress on a personal blog I’m putting together, but I’ve only done the install. Haven’t even started working on it yet. http://echosandencores.com/

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me?
Yep I would recommend it. I will check out that link you have done now
Also, Install the responsive theme from CyberChimps (for free)
install Woocommerce - for free

Follow this tutorial by Tyler moore.
I am looking for it now
It is long … like over an hour.
But it will take you througth EVERY Thing …step by step like a noob.

And at the end of it, you will have shop
I will update this with the link now

here is his Youtube channel, showing A video (not the one I am on about)
And it times stamps the parts of it in the commentary.

These are all his vids.

You can skip the irrelevant bits, ie, hosting, domain names etc

and I used this tutorial before to build one

FOUND IT!
God, that took a while to find

So there you have one point of view and some info and links to get you going!

This is a few years old, so some stuff might be wonky, but check out his newer ones too,
ie
He explains and shows a lot of stuff in a lot of detail , but depending on your learning style it could be a bit much.
I found it fine and stil had to stop rewind/pause stuff quite a few times.
he will show all the weird sfuff about how menus are created, nav bars etc.
All very unintuitive if you have never used Wordpress as a Noob before, with draggy droppy stuff.
Ok, good luck and let me knwo how it goes :slight_smile:

I used it to build my first wordpress shop and then
built this where I dived into the mysterious world of PayPal
Buy It Now
buttons

http://venusposter.com

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Much thanks my friend!

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And … why not starting with the Starter Theme 2?

  • Its Free and updated frequently
  • You can grab the full project files and analyze how it’s done
  • You can tweak everything
  • You can change everything
  • You can delete what you don’t want/need
  • If you fail, you can restart from the original files

You have all the instructions to start available here: https://github.com/Pinegrow/PGWPBootstrap4StarterTheme/wiki/Pinegrow-WordPress-Starter-Theme-2-Basics

No?

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Yep, I will try that in an while but as it says there…and often quoted
you need to understand wordpress, refer to the codex
ETc.

well… using the PG started theme and adding Wordpress Functionailty . BLINDLY is no use .
ie,
It doenst explain the Loop etc…

SO…using THIS…I have LEARNT about the loop etc and the PRINCIPLES of how it works, so
That when I return to the Starter theme, I will have some clue …

And if it was mostly pointed to the last post with regards @Printninja, well a valid point :slight_smile:
But he TOO is actually a wordpress Noob :slight_smile: as skillful as he is in other things.
So TaniaRascia explains it,
Tyler Moore shows how to blindly click and add things and create a shop
and how the Backend works in wordpress

and THEN…armed with some understanding of how things work
And how clicky doey the Wordpress back end is…

shoud Started theme2 and PG come into their full glory :slight_smile:

I am saying this a wp noob and not much better with a a lot of Pinegrow (man! it does SO much now! amazing. I haven’t got to required level of proficiency to run rings around it yet…still)

I have not yet succesfully created a wp them with pg
with tanias video,
on my own
but now hope to try again with her tutorial.

then I will have some understanding about just what actions I am adding in PG
and…hope to rock like a WP KIng with it :smiley:

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And I shall now look at it again.

MANDATORY IDIOTIC CHARACTERS TO MAKE UP 20

OH! There is a lot more documentation for this now. @Emmanuel. well done

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@Printninja I’d 100% recommend wordpress and as @Emmanuel suggested Starter Theme 2 will get you of to a great start.

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Does one need the Wordpress version of Pinegrow to use the Starter Theme 2? I would imagine yes. Unfortunately, since I don’t use Wordpress, I only have Pinegrow Pro, not the Wordpress version. Not sure if I want to upgrade the program just to experiment with one website.

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I’d concentrate on Just the Wordpress familiarity first and the backend and getting things done that will take long enough.

There’s a whole bed of roses before yoiu go down the make your own theme Path

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Great. I’m not interested in building a Wordpress theme. I just want to get this e-commerce site together for this client by the beginning of next month. He’s only got about 15 items, so that part shouldn’t be too hard. I’m going to dive into the Wordpress tutorials you posted tomorrow. Thanks for all your help mate!