theme development

Ever wanted to build a WordPress theme? I’m not talking about a child theme, or a theme built on a framework. I’m talking about a theme built from scratch. I like to challenge myself every now and then and learn something new. This time around, I decided to build a theme from scratch. And found that it was much easier than I anticipated, thanks to a few free resources (which I’m happy to share with you). So if you’ve ever wanted to build a theme from scratch, this article is for you. I won’t be showing you the step-by-step process, […]

WordPress is slightly addictive. I always thought of it as a gateway drug into the world of web development. Maybe you started off just needing a simple website. You figured out how to install WordPress on your server, chose a theme that suited most of your needs, set up some widgets, maybe installed some plugins, and that was it for the beginning. Then came the day you really wanted something on your page but couldn’t find a plugin for it, and it wasn’t part of the theme options either. Or maybe someone told you about Firebug and showed you how to […]

My six or so years of developing WordPress themes and plugins have given me perspective. I’ve had enough time to realize what I should have done differently when I was getting ramped up, and what I’ve learned just by fumbling through. Through the years, I’ve also seen countless people start learning to code by tweaking WordPress themes, and witnessed developers of other languages getting their hands dirty with plugins. So, let me save you some heartache. There are some “best practices” that are better followed from day one, instead of trying to integrate them into your workflow later. Before you touch a […]