So, lets get started. First, make a theme folder (name it whatever you like) under /wp-content/themes/. Visit the blog you like to copy it?s theme. Here, I?m using Wordpress?s classic theme. Copy the CSS codes from CSS tab in Firebug Windows .
Select all of CSS codes and paste into text editor (notepad). Put the following codes at the beginning of CSS codes previously copied into notepad. The following codes are used for wordpress theme information.
/*
Theme Name: Your theme name
Theme URI: http://yourthemeURL.com/
Description: Your theme description blah blah blah
Version: 1.1
Author: Your name
Author URI: E-Commerce Hosting
*/
Save it as style.css into theme folder you created under wp-content/themes/.
Firebug?s HTML tab collasped the heading tag and body tag by default. Create a index.php under your theme folder. Write the following codes.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC ?-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN? ?http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd?>
<html xmlns=?http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml?>
<head profile=?http://gmpg.org/xfn/11″>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
language_attributes() can be used to add lang, xml:lang and dir attributes to the html tag for your theme. Put this function after xmlns attribute in html tag.
<html xmlns=?http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml? <?php language_attributes(); ?>>
Understanding BlogInfo functions
BlogInfo returns the information you set in User Profile and General Options from your Wordpress Administration panel. Following codes are the basic information of your wordpress needed for html. Those codes must be inside heading <head> tags.
<meta http-equiv=?Content-Type? content=?<?php bloginfo(?html_type?); ?>; charset=<?php bloginfo(?charset?); ?>? />
<meta name=?generator? content=?WordPress <?php bloginfo(?version?); ?>? />
<link rel=?alternate? type=?application/rss+xml? title=?RSS 2.0″ href=?<?php bloginfo(?rss2_url?); ?>? />
<link rel=?alternate? type=?text/xml? title=?RSS .92″ href=?<?php bloginfo(?rss_url?); ?>? />
<link rel=?alternate? type=?application/atom+xml? title=?Atom 0.3″ href=?<?php bloginfo(?atom_url?); ?>? />
<link rel=?pingback? href=?<?php bloginfo(?pingback_url?); ?>? />
<?php wp_get_archives(?type=monthly&format=link?); ?>
<?php wp_head(); ?>
<style type=?text/css? media=?screen?>
@import url( <?php bloginfo(?stylesheet_url?); ?> );
</style>
Use Better SEO title
<title><?php wp_title(?); ?> <?php if(is_single() || is_page() || is_category){ _e(?»?);}?><?php bloginfo(?name?); ?></title>
Title tag must be inside heading tags.
Let?s start copy the well-formed tag elements
Before you start this lesson, you must have the knowledge about html and wordpress coding. The idea is that we first copy the parent tag elements and then we copy it?s child elements. We repeat the process till all of the tags are copied.
[IMG] adsnews.net/wp-content/images/firebug-html-tags-wordpress.jpg
Expand each tags and try to understand the functions used in the theme
It is important to know the wordpress functions used in the theme which you?re going to copy. First expand the tags and look up and determine what functions are used inside the tags.
[IMG] adsnews.net/wp-content/images/firebug-html-tags-expand.png
An example for code shown in above,
Wordpress has bloginfo function that can generate the basic information of your wordpress I already mentioned. Right now, I?m going to change with the wordpress coding. The following codes will generate the result shown in above.
<h1><a href=?<?php bloginfo(?url?);?>?><?php bloginfo(?title?);?></a></h1>
<div class=?description?><?php bloginfo(?description?);?></div>
Many of wordpress theme creators used default posts query in the theme except custom one. Some used query_posts to make custom query for some purposed. It doesn?t matter. All are in the loop.
Understand the basic structure of Post looping
The Loop is used by WordPress to display each of your posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each of the posts to be displayed on the current page and formats them according to how they match specified criteria within The Loop tags. This is the basic structure of the_loop. Inside this we normally put the_title(), the_permalink(), the_content(), etc.
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<?php _e(?Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.?); ?>
<?php endif; ?>
If you?re doing programming, you can easily know that the following codes are generated from Loop.
[IMG] adsnews.net/wp-content/images/firebug-html-tags-query.png
The following codes will output shown above
<div id=?post-<?php the_ID(); ?>? class=?post?>
</div>
Expand that div you?ll see the following sub elements
[IMG] adsnews.net/wp-content/images/firebug-post-tags-wordpress-01.jpg
Expand h2 tag element.
[IMG] adsnews.net/wp-content/images/firebug-post-tags-wordpress-02.jpg
the_title and the_permalink
the_title returns the post title and the_permalink returns the permalink of your post. So rewrite with the
php code
<h2>
<a title=?Permanet Link to <?php the_title();?>? rel=?bookmark? href=?<?php the_permalink();?>?>
<?php the_title();?></a>
</h2>
the_time or the_date
the_time returns the all the date of your post. and the_date only returns the date of first post which is published in same day. I prefer you to use the_time
<small><?php the_time(?F d, Y?);?></small>
Check date time format from PHP.net
the_content
the_content returns the content of post. Optional parameter is used for showing read more link if the post used <!?more?>
<div class=?entry?>
the_content (?Read the rest of this entry?);
</div>
the_tags
the_tags function return the tags link of the post. It was implemented in wordpress 2.3. the_tags(?start?, ?seperate?,?end?);
<p class=?postmetadata?>
the_tags (?Tags:?, ?, ?, ?<br />?);
</p>
Wordpress uses header.php, index.php, single.php, page.php, category.php, search.php, comments.php, functions.php and footer.php for theme. Oh! you can use only index.php for your theme. But need to write more complicated codes when you?re using different style for different page. Let?s say, if you want main , single post and page different. You have to choose either conditional_tags or the page.
For example, the following code will show excerpt post while browsing the category, search, tags and main page. It shows full content when browsing ? ? ha ha single post
<?php if (is_category() || is_search() || is_tags() || is_main()) {
the_excerpt();
}else {
the_content();
}
?>
