Building upon my short presentation on Saturday on more advanced theme building techniques, we will take a couple of steps back in the process and go through theme development from the beginning, looking at techniques I use all the time to build efficient, easy to manage bespoke WordPress themes for clients. Stop hacking and start creating easy to update, smarter child themes and learn about ‘the WordPress way’ of doing things.
This workshop will appeal to beginner and intermediate users, those that are taking their first steps into theme development. The focus will be on creation of child themes – either from WordPress core themes like Twenty Fourteen, or other theme or framework. During the workshop you will have time to experiment with some of these techniques with guidance and help available from myself and one or two additional expert theme coders that will be on-hand in the breakout work sessions.
Please bring your laptop with a fresh local install of WordPress along to the session if possible (or make a new WordCamp buddy and sit with them!) It’s not essential – a notepad and pen will also do for those that don’t have this – but HIGHLY recommended.
By the end of the workshop, I’ll be aiming for all attendees to have a good understanding of:
- Theme development planning
- Theme build structure (starter themes, child themes and theme frameworks)
- Theme file structure
- Efficient template parts
- WordPress core helper functions
- Custom queries and loops
- Adding user editable menus and widget areas
These will provide you with the foundations of how to develop smarter, easier to update themes. Expect to walk away with plenty to R&D to follow-up in the future! Depending on time, there may be an opportunity for a short Q&A session on your own theme building issues – and maybe time to share a few other gems on WordPress theme development too!
