Pixl Design

This post is one in the series on creating a Wordpress Theme, including design aspects, mock-up to code, WordPress’s PHP and debugging. This series assumes you know a little bit… If you’re still clueless after the series, contact me and I’ll explain further for you.

Before you can make a WordPress theme (well, a good theme at any rate), you need to know what makes up a theme and how one works.

WordPress stores all of its data - your posts, comments, settings etc. - in a MySQL database, from which is uses PHP to “grab” data from this database.
A WordPress theme can be made of just one PHP file, however for editing purposes it is generally split up into four main files:

• header.php
• index.php
• sidebar.php
• footer.php

Three of these files (header.php, sidebar.php and footer.php) are “called” from index.php when a page or post is loaded.

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Designing, Coding, Fixing, and Testing - in essence, the entire process of making a WordPress theme - is hard work. Not only is it as difficult to design as a static page, but then there is the added complexity of WordPress’s own brand of PHP added into the mix.

This series of posts is a walkthrough of how to make a theme, from start to finish. The posts in this series are as follows:

1. Part One: What is a Wordpress Theme?
2. Part Two: Mockups, Anyone?
3. Part Three: What’s Begun is Half Done

Be sure to come back to this page often for the next part in the series. Don’t want to miss out? Subscribe to Pixl Design’s RSS Feed!