{"id":884,"date":"2024-07-03T02:43:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T02:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/03\/creating-wordpress-themes-any-advice-about-up-to-date-tuition-videos-or-sites-sitepoint\/"},"modified":"2024-07-03T02:43:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T02:43:34","slug":"creating-wordpress-themes-any-advice-about-up-to-date-tuition-videos-or-sites-sitepoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/03\/creating-wordpress-themes-any-advice-about-up-to-date-tuition-videos-or-sites-sitepoint\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating WordPress themes \u2013 any advice about up to date tuition videos or sites? – SitePoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi All, I\u2019m just playing around with WordPress and other CMSes on the localhost, to find out what\u2019s right for my purposes. I\u2019ve started with WordPress, on the assumption that it would be easest to learn quickly, but I do want to be able to design my own themes. I\u2019m fine with the HTML and CSS basics (albeit some brushing up is needed) and also have some experience using PHP. So not a novice anyway.
I started following this YouTube tutorial<\/a> and it was fine up to about 25 minutes. Pretty sure that I followed faithfully, but it goes wrong from around that point. On the video he\u2019s seeing his styles coming up, and I\u2019m getting a blank screen when I preview the pages (everything works fine with the preinstalled themes, by the way). I\u2019m guessing that (or wondering if) there\u2019s maybe something fundamentally different in the structure that this guy is using, which is perhaps not being maintained now. The video is four years old \u2013 maybe enough to make it completely redundant by now – I don\u2019t know. I was wondering if there was some issue with permissions, as I\u2019m on Ubuntu here, but honestly I don\u2019t see how it can be that. Everything under my www directory is as it should be \u2013 ownership given to www-data, all folder\/subfolder permissions 755, files at 644.
Anyway, I\u2019m more or less ready to give up on this video now. And so now I\u2019ll ask if anyone has any recommendations for a good step-by-step guide, whether in video or written form, which isn\u2019t toooooo simple and condescending, but which doesn\u2019t skip the basic necessary concepts. I\u2019ve seen a few courses on Udemy, which I use quite a lot. Any recommendations on there? I already asked a question about this on the WordPress forum, and got pointed towards this plugin<\/a>. which seems very GUI<\/strong><\/em>. I\u2019ve just tried playing with it a bit, and can\u2019t see how to get into editing the CSS and PHP. Even if it is possible somehow, they\u2019re very obviously not going out of their way to encourage it. Are they sliding away towards trying to emulate Wix, Squarespace et al?
Should I persist here, or start playing with Joomla already??? \":thinking:\" Bigger initial learning curve, I realise, but worth the effort in the end?
Just to clarify what I\u2019m talking about, a few screenshots. Here are the options that I get for the block theme that I can create using the plugin that I was directed to:
\"capture_20240623_234646_486\"<\/p>\n

\"capture_20240623_234548_433\"<\/p>\n
<\/use><\/svg>capture_20240623_234548_433<\/span>554\u00d7561 17.1 KB<\/span><\/use><\/svg><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

And by contrast, this is what I see with the theme that I created from following the (relatively) old YouTube video that I was following to create a theme:
\"capture_20240623_234721_353\"<\/p>\n

\"capture_20240623_234945_793\"<\/p>\n
<\/use><\/svg>capture_20240623_234945_793<\/span>350\u00d7568 32.9 KB<\/span><\/use><\/svg><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Clearly, there\u2019s a very different file structure there. The latter allows the user to get right in there and edit the files, and the former is not encouraging that at all. Sorry if I\u2019m too impatient to dig around a bit more. If there is a way to edit directly from within the newer theme, please set me straight!
In my experience (a bit out of date now), creating a WP theme is very messy compared with doing the same in a better CMS like Craft or ExpressionEngine. In those latter examples, you create your template first \u2014 with the HTML and CSS you want to use \u2014 and then plug in the CMS parts where needed. It\u2019s a much cleaner and easier way to build a theme\/template than with WP, which has always been a very messy CMS, imho.
With that plugin you have several options: a blank theme, a child theme\u2026 They work differently. If you create a completely new theme, you need to know how to code the whole theme. If you create a child theme, it should work anyway, even with new, empty functions.php, style.css files.
The way Wix, Squarespace works is creating child themes. They are based on a framework already, and users only customize CSS mostly. I guess you want to do the same? Then you don\u2019t need any plugin. Choose a \u201cparent\u201d theme as your framework, then create a child theme<\/a>. In that case, I would recommend GeneratePress as your parent theme or framework.
Hi, and thanks for replying.
creating a WP theme is very messy compared with doing the same in a better CMS like Craft or ExpressionEngine
Totally new names to me. I\u2019d be happy to have a look at them, but I worry about maintenance of anything which doesn\u2019t have the weight of numbers behind it, and which may disappear in a few years. Anyway, I\u2019ll have a look. Why not?
WP, which has always been a very messy CMS, imho
Yeah, i don\u2019t really know much about the development of WP. I used to use another, very obscure CMS in a job that I did, but never played with WP. It looks like they\u2019re trying to emulate the look and feel of the likes of Blogger\/Blogspot, which I\u2019ve been using for half a year, but precisely want to get away from, in order to have more control over the code and the organisation of files. In other words, they seem to be going in the opposite direction of the way that I want to go! Well, the numbers don\u2019t lie, I suppose. You can\u2019t completely ignore them if you\u2019re trying to brush up on the CMS game :~)
Thanks also for this one :~)
With that plugin you have several options: a blank theme, a child theme\u2026 They work differently. If you create a completely new theme, you need to know how to code the whole theme. If you create a child theme, it should work anyway, even with new, empty functions.php, style.css files
Yes, I was able easily enough to create a blank theme, but the point is that I don\u2019t see much sign of being able to quickly go in and edit the CSS from the bottom up. I only see lots of GUI stuff and some options for \u201cadditional CSS\u201d, which is the same as what I\u2019ve already got on Blogger\/Blogspot\/whatever they call it now.
I would recommend GeneratePress as your parent theme or framework.
OK, this is all quite confusing at first sight, I have to say. But now I understand. Block themes and classic themes. GeneratePress is a classic theme. Fine – that\u2019s the kind of thing I want. Obviously I see the point now of these block themes, but no, that\u2019s not for me. I want to be able to go in and edit everything, so I\u2019ll certainly be playing strictly with the classic themes.
I worry about maintenance of anything which doesn\u2019t have the weight of numbers behind it, and which may disappear in a few years.
ExpressionEngine and Craft have been around for many years (10\u201315) and aren\u2019t going anywhere. They were just two off the top of my head, but I chose them because they are very popular and well designed (especially Craft). I used Expression Engine for many years and it was great, but Craft was partly inspired by it and is generally considered even better. Definitely worth checking out. WordPress was never designed for websites, although it has adapted to this over the years \u2014 though imho it\u2019s still a glorified blogging platform.
Got it. I just asked ChatGPT for a list of lesser known (to me anyway!) CMSes other than WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, and I have to declare that it made me laugh for the first time. Another scary milestone. Anyway, is this a fair summary?
The world of content management systems (CMSs) can indeed feel like a vast forest with countless trees. Each CMS has its unique features, strengths, and quirks. But fear not! Take a deep breath, and let\u2019s break it down. \":deciduous_tree:\"\":herb:\"
Remember that you don\u2019t need to explore every nook and cranny of this forest. Instead, focus on your specific needs and goals. Here\u2019s a friendly compass to guide you:
is this a fair summary?
It\u2019s just AI fluff. Ask a dumb, unconscious machine a question and you\u2019ll get a dumb, unconscious answer. \":stuck_out_tongue:\"
Give it another two or three years
Exactly \u2026 and billions in investment will be down the gurgler following another overhyped tech bubble. AI is a fun toy but research shows there\u2019s very little it can deliver that anyone is willing to pay for \u2014 and there\u2019s the rub.
We\u2019ll seeeeeeeeeeee. I\u2019m not full of optimism about what it\u2019s bringing.
For up-to-date WordPress theme development tutorials, check out Udemy courses like \u201cWordPress Theme Development with Bootstrap\u201d by Brad Schiff, LinkedIn Learning\u2019s \u201cWordPress: Building Themes from Scratch Using Underscores\u201d by Morten Rand-Hendriksen, or YouTube channels like Traversy Media and freeCodeCamp.
The official WordPress Developer Handbook is also a great resource. Given your familiarity with WordPress, continuing with updated resources might be more beneficial than switching to Joomla.
My familiarity is only from the last two or three days!!! You read things in the wrong order somewhere \":smiley:\"
Anyway, no worries\u2026 I suppose I\u2019ve already kind of got the gist of how it works. I\u2019ll use it to put together a basic blog site while I\u2019m playing around learning about all the options \":man_student:t3:\"
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Hi All, I\u2019m just playing around with WordPress and other CMSes on the localhost, to find out what\u2019s right for my purposes. I\u2019ve started with WordPress, on the assumption that it would be easest to learn quickly, but I do want to be able to design my own themes. I\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yellowfalconmedia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}