How WordPress Themes Work

Austin WordPress Beginners Meetup

How WordPress Themes Work

November 21,  2016Presented by Nick and Sandi Batik

How WordPress Works

❖ A simple overview of how WordPress themes work for beginners

❖ With this knowledge under your belt, you can more easily understand how your WordPress theme works

How WordPress Works

❖ A page on a WordPress website isn’t static; it’s dynamic

❖ Than means each page is created on the fly — every time it’s visited, built from bits and pieces pulled from separate files and from your website’s database

How… Dynamic?❖ All of your sites unique information (including your site

name, your blog posts, and every single comment) is stored in a MySQL database

❖ That information is retrieved from the database using the programming language PHP

❖ Then, the retrieved information is displayed via your theme’s template files, using HTML and CSS

❖ Each page is created on the fly — every time it’s visited, built from bits and pieces pulled from separate files and from your website’s database

What is a WordPress Theme?

❖ A WordPress theme changes the appearance of your website, often including its layout. Changing your theme changes how what a visitor sees when they browse your site on the web.

What can themes do?

❖ Themes take the content and data stored by WordPress and display it in the browser. 

❖ You decide how your site content looks and is displayed, when you choose a WordPress theme.

❖ There are many options available when you are choosing a theme for your site. 

What can themes do?❖ For example:

❖ Your theme can have different layouts, such as fixed-width or responsive; using one column or two.

❖ Your theme may give you options for where and how you want it to be displayed.

❖ Your theme can display content differently on various sized devices (phones, tablets, PCs).

What can themes do?❖ For example:

❖ Your theme may have custom typography and design elements using CSS.

❖ Your theme may give you special areas for other design elements like images and videos.

What can themes do?

❖ A WordPress theme is more than color and layout 

❖ Good themes improve visitor engagement with your website’s content

❖ …in addition to being beautiful

What are themes made of? 

❖ At their most basic level, WordPress themes are collections of different files that work together to create what you see, as well as how your site behaves.

The user’s browser sends a request to WordPress on the web server. WordPress is written with the

PHP.

The PHP instructions in WordPress identify the theme template file to use

PHP instructions in template fetch the text out of the database…

…and the images from the uploads folder

The content is combined with the HTML,…

…the Style Sheet (CSS),

…and Javascript which is a special kind of programming code that make elements on a page

interactive.

All these pieces are combined into the formatted page…

…which is then sent back to the user’s browser.

Can a Theme Be Changed?

❖ WordPress makes it very easy for users to change themes.

❖ BUT…❖ Every theme has its own unique set of features

and options, so it may take some time to set up.

What are the easy things to change?

❖ Navigation Menus❖ WordPress comes with a built-in navigation menu

system ❖ Each WordPress theme defines theme locations

where menus are displayed❖ That’s why when you switch your WordPress

theme, there will be new menu locations❖ The menu you previously assigned to a theme

location might need to be reassigned

What are the easy things to change?

❖ Widgets❖ Widgets allow you to easily place different elements in

your WordPress theme’s sidebars❖ When you change your WordPress theme can deactivate

your active widgets❖ Some themes will automatically show default WordPress

widgets❖ Widgets with customizations will be placed under the

inactive widgets section and can be added back to your new theme’s sidebars

What are the hard things to Change?

❖ Your theme defines what is will display on different types of pages (home page, blog page, list page, etc.), and where that content goes on that page.

❖ If a theme does not have a page type or style that you want, it can be done but you need to hire a programmer.

What are the things I can Change By Myself?

❖ Many Themes have a WordPress Customizer❖ This features allows WordPress Users to tweak

theme settings using a WYSIWYG interface to customize the theme including changing the colors, fonts, text and other customization options

Best Practices for Making Changes to a Theme

❖ What is a Parent Theme?❖ All themes – excluding child themes – are

considered parent themes. ❖ A parent theme is a complete theme which

includes all of the required Wordpress template files for the theme to work

Best Practices for Making Changes to a Theme

❖ A Child Theme is an extension to a theme that you create so you can make changes to it.

❖ A child theme allows you to change small aspects of your site’s appearance yet still preserve your theme’s look and functionality

❖ A child theme inherits the look and feel of the parent theme and all of its functions, but can be used to make modifications to any part of the theme

❖ This customizations are kept  separate from the parent theme’s files

❖ Using a child theme lets you upgrade the parent theme without affecting the customizations you’ve made to your site

Best Practices for Making Changes to a Theme

❖ Child Themes ❖ Make your modifications portable and replicable❖ Keep customization separate from parent theme

functions❖ Allow parent themes to be updated without destroying

your modifications❖ Allow you to take advantage of the effort and testing put

into parent theme❖ Save on development time since you are

not recreating the wheel

Themes vs Templates — What is the Difference?

❖ A template defines the layout of a particular type of page, such as your blog page, home page, and list pages.

❖ All the pages that use a template will be formatted exactly the same.

❖ A Theme is a collection of templates.

Theme Functionality vs Site Functionality

❖ When you want to add functionality to your site, you do so by installing a plugin.

❖ Plugins work regardless of your theme. Even if you change themes, they still work.

❖ Some advanced themes include integrated, built-in plugins. If you change themes, that functionality goes away.

Content / Special Content

❖ How will your theme choice affect special content?

❖ Images❖ Video❖ Audio