A New Phase in Theme Development

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A New Phase in Theme Development

Written by Pixel Theme Studio Wednesday, 22 September 2010 Category: News and Updates

new-phase-design I can easily say when I first got into designing WordPress themes in the summer of 2009, it was quite the learning curve because I came from the Joomla cms platform where things are done differently (putting it mildly). Joomla, by-far is the easier of the two platforms with features that do not require a lot of html or css skills because most things are done with simple mouse clicks in the admin area.

How Come My Theme Doesn't Look Like the Demo?

This has been a common question and relates to one of the bigger changes of many with how I develop themes for WordPress (including WordPress 3.0 themes). Importing an xml file is fine but this does not contain any widget information and it's been somewhat of a frustration when some people are wanting a fresh install of a theme to show sample widget content. Overall, when installing a theme, it's usually been blank with nothing in it.

As I've mentioned, WordPress has been quite the learning curve but I am moving ahead with coding advancements and design enhancements. Starting with my next theme, all new sites installing my themes (beginning with the next one), will now have sample widget content automatically showing up for you, along with a few other items.

Too Much Manual Coding is Required - I Do Not Know How!

I can understand this dilema and this is why I am happy to announce as time goes by and more themes are released, I will be adding more admin functions to manage your theme's features. To give you an idea of what kind of features, here is a sneak peak into some of the many functions my WordPress 3.0 themes will have:

Built-in Menus
Footer content like copyright details no longer requires coding or a widget
Colour theme options
Widget style capability with admin WordPress 3.0 tutorials
Social Networking functions
Short Code capability - basically quick little mini-templates of pre-made elements you can insert
and more...

Basically the goal here is to lessen the amount of html, css, and php coding you have to do when using WordPress as a cms website - which isn't really what WordPress was meant to be but it seems people are wanting to push WP to be just that instead of just a blog script. Albeit, it's more work involved but can be done, and it's why I am designing WordPress themes - to bring some of the Joomla cms concepts over.

What About Us Joomla Users?

Fair enough - Joomla users can be assured that any advancements I do for WordPress 3.0 themes will also include advancements in developmental functions to be part of my Joomla templates (and Joomla 1.6 templates). In fact, I've already started with adding admin based functions that I normally didn't include before. So rest assured, even the Joomla templates I develop will include a lot of enhancements.

Stay tuned for more....