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Summary of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
1. Introducing WordPress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Planning Your Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. Theme Design 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4. Theme Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5. Advanced Theme Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6. Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
7. Theme Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8. Selling Your Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
 BUILD YOUR
OWN WICKED
WORDPRESS
THEMES
BY ALLAN COLE
RAENA JACKSON ARMITAGE
BRANDON R. JONES
JEFFREY WAY
iv

Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes

by Allan Cole, Raena Jackson Armitage, Brandon R. Jones, and Jeffrey Way

Copyright © 2010 SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

Program Director: Andrew Tetlaw Indexer: Fred Brown

Technical Editor: Louis Simoneau Editor: Kelly Steele
Chief Technical Officer: Kevin Yank Cover Design: Alex Walker
Printing History:
First Edition: August 2010

Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by
any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
articles or reviews.

Notice of Liability
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein. However, the information
contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors and SitePoint Pty. Ltd., nor
its dealers or distributors, will be held liable for any damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions
contained in this book, or by the software or hardware products described herein.

Trademark Notice
Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names only in an editorial
fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

Published by SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

48 Cambridge Street Collingwood

VIC Australia 3066
Web: www.sitepoint.com
Email: [email protected]

ISBN 978-0-9804552-9-8
Printed and bound in Canada
 v

About Allan Cole

Allan Cole is a web designer and developer based in Brooklyn, NY. He specializes in front-end user experience
and WordPress customization. Allan is currently developing a small business rooted in custom WordPress
design and development called fthrwght (Feather Weight, http://fthrwght.com/). He can be found online at
his portfolio site (http://temp.fthrwght.com/) and his WordPress blog (http://allancole.com/wordpress/).

About Raena Jackson Armitage

Raena Jackson Armitage is an Australian web developer with a background in content management, public
speaking, and training. When she’s not thinking about the Web, she loves knitting, gaming, all-day breakfasts,
and cycling. Raena’s personal website is at http://raena.net.

About Brandon R. Jones

From sunny Southern California, Brandon Jones has been designing, drawing, photographing, and coding the
world around him for the past several years. Not content to pick one media and stick with it, Brandon has a
broad range of talents that have allowed him to work on projects ranging from grungy digital art kits to Fortune
500 software prototyping.

With a strong background in graphic design, digital illustration, and user interface design (as well as a smat-
tering of front-end programming languages), Brandon has enjoyed working with a variety of award-winning
studios through his young career. He has a degree from California Polytechnic University at Pomona in
Graphic Design, but counts himself as a largely self-taught and self-motivated designer with a desire to play
a larger role in the design community. His personal site can be found at http://makedesignnotwar.com/.

About Jeffrey Way

Jeffrey Way works for Envato, where he manages a code marketplace called CodeCanyon, and runs a popular
web development tutorial site, Nettuts+. He spends a lot of his free time writing, most recently with the release
of Photoshop to HTML (http://rockablepress.com/books/photoshop-to-html/). Beyond code, Jeffrey loves to
play guitar and embarrass his wife-in-training, Allie, by playing Steel Dragon songs loudly with the windows
rolled down in front of movie theaters. You can stop by his website and say hi at www.jeffrey-way.com.

About the Technical Editor

Louis Simoneau joined SitePoint in 2009, after traveling from his native Montréal to Calgary, Taipei, and finally
Melbourne. He now gets to spend his days learning about cool web technologies, an activity that had previously
been relegated to nights and weekends. He enjoys hip-hop, spicy food, and all things geeky. His personal
website is http://louissimoneau.com/ and his latest blog project is http://growbuycookeat.com/.

About the Chief Technical Officer

As Chief Technical Officer for SitePoint, Kevin Yank keeps abreast of all that is new and exciting in web
technology. Best known for his book, Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL, he also
vi

co-authored Simply JavaScript with Cameron Adams and Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong! with
Rachel Andrew. In addition, Kevin hosts the SitePoint Podcast and co-writes the SitePoint Tech Times, a free
email newsletter that goes out to over 240,000 subscribers worldwide.

Kevin lives in Melbourne, Australia and enjoys speaking at conferences, as well as visiting friends and family
in Canada. He’s also passionate about performing improvised comedy theater with Impro Melbourne
(http://www.impromelbourne.com.au/) and flying light aircraft. Kevin’s personal blog is Yes, I’m Canadian
(http://yesimcanadian.com/).

About SitePoint

SitePoint specializes in publishing fun, practical, and easy-to-understand content for Web professionals. Visit
http://www.sitepoint.com/ to access our blogs, books, newsletters, articles, and community forums.

Special Thanks

Skate gear used in the cover shot is courtesy of Jetty Surf, Greensborough.
My chapters are dedicated to that guy or gal who
decided to go out on a limb, and figure out a way
to take control of their own destiny.

—Allan Cole

For Leanne, Marc, Mathew, and Mike.

—Raena Jackson Armitage

This is for everyone out there who is working to

make the Web an open and altogether wonderful
place to learn, work, and play.

—Brandon R. Jones

To the little guy who quietly rested under my office

chair for hours upon hours while I worked on this
book. Here’s to you doggie.

—Jeffrey Way
Table of Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Who Should Read This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
What’s in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Where to Find Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
The SitePoint Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
The Book’s Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
The SitePoint Newsletters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
The SitePoint Podcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Your Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Raena Jackson Armitage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Allan Cole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Brandon R. Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Jeffrey Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Conventions Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Code Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Tips, Notes, and Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Chapter 1 Introducing WordPress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

A Brief History of WordPress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
WordPress Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Why WordPress? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
WordPress.com and WordPress.org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
What is a Theme? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Why become a WordPress theme designer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
And Finally … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2 Planning Your Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

What do you start with? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Pages and Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
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Media and Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Custom Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Defining Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Letting Your Content Lead the Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Doing Your Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Theme Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Plugin Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Script Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Keep on Scouting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Avoiding Feature Bloat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Planning for the Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Planning for Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Planning for Organization and Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Theme Sitemap and Wireframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Sitemap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Wireframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Just Recapping … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 3 Theme Design 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Principles of WordPress Theme Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Branding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Typography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Visual Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Layout and Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The Anatomy of a WordPress Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Navigation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
 xi

The Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Pagination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Sidebars and Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
The Footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The Standard Page Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The Single Post Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The Archive, Author, Category, and Tag Page Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
The Search Results Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The 404 Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Standard Styling for HTML Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Extra Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Don’t Leave Anything Out! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Chapter 4 Theme Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Why use a framework? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Child Themes: The Smart Way to Build on a Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
How do I choose a great framework? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Frameworks Worth Checking Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Freebies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Paid Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
So which framework is the best? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Building a Simple Child Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Preparing Your Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Creating Your Child Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Looking Stylish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Keep Poking Away at Those Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
A Frame to Work With . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Chapter 5 Advanced Theme Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

How Templates Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
xii

Quick-and-dirty Template Hierarchy Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

The Template Hierarchy and Child Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Thematic’s Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Building a Magazine-style Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Ditching That Sidebar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Including Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Modifying the Footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Hooks and Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Adding a Favicon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Thematic’s Hooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Putting It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Time for a Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Pimping Your Child Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Adding a Social Media Button to Your Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Showing an Author Bio on a Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Posts with Excerpts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Red-hot Tips for Themers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Comments, Comments, Comments! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
A Place for Everything, and Everything in Its Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
A Case of Mistaken Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Keep On Exploring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Chapter 6 Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Understanding Widgets and Widget-ready Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Default Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Thematic’s Widget-ready Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Widget Markup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Adding a Custom Widget-ready Area to Your Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Registering a Widget-ready Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Displaying a Widget-ready Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Removing Widget-ready Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Adding Custom Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Introducing the Widgets API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
 xiii

Creating the Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Chapter 7 Theme Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Creating an Options Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Laying the Groundwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Adding an Admin Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
The Options Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Using Options in Your Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Altering CSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Altering Markup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Altering Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Adding Color Variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
The Options Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Adding the Style Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Custom Page Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Shortcodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Building Your Own Shortcodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Customizable Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
With Great Power … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 8 Selling Your Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Understanding the GPL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
You’re Not Only Selling the Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Video Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Convenience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Dual Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
What Makes a Theme Sell? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Multiple Color Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Custom Configuration Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Freebies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
xiv

Embracing the Latest Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Keep It Simple, Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Pull In the Reins and Solve Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Test, Test, Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Browser Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Plugin Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Educating the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Three Avenues for Selling Your Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
One Website Per Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Your Own Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Choosing an Existing, Reputable Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Soaking It All Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Preface
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framework.

While years ago it wasn’t uncommon to spend hundreds of dollars on a powerful content management
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far from true. Though it might have initially been created specifically for blogging applications,
WordPress’s power has since been harnessed by talented designers and developers, building
everything from forums to ecommerce applications. WordPress is only limited by our imaginations
and skill sets, thanks to a powerful and flexible plugin infrastructure.

For web designers, learning how to develop for WordPress opens up enormous opportunities. On
one hand, you’ll be able to provide clients with dynamic sites that are robust and easy to update at
a fraction of what it might cost for an enterprise content management system (CMS). On the other
hand, you’ll also have the skills to develop general purpose themes for sale on the Web. The market
in ready-made WordPress themes has exploded in recent years, so why not get in on the action?

Who Should Read This Book

This book is aimed at front-end web designers looking to branch out from building static sites or
simple PHP-based projects into the world of WordPress theme development.

You should already have at least intermediate knowledge of HTML and CSS, as those technologies
are as important to WordPress themes as they are to static websites. We’ll also assume that you
know a little bit of PHP; while there’s no requirement for you to be a programming whiz, you should
at least understand concepts such as if statements, loops, functions and variables, and the way
PHP generates HTML for output. While you can certainly customize a theme without using any
PHP, the more advanced features shown in the second half of the book require some familiarity
with these basics.
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