Where did you learn to make Wordpress themes?


o0MSK0o's avatar
/* I'm not even sure which section of the technology forum this belongs in :bucktooth:
These categories make no sense */

I know all the necessary languages to work with Wordpress (html, css, mysql & php), and I want to go into making themes & plugins for wordpress.

The problem is, I can't find any good books/online courses that properly go over how wordpress works. Most of the ones I've found are made by idiots people who don't at all know php, but still try to teach others (and I dont mean that they write bad php; I mean that they literally don't understand the language), and these people end up just saying things like 'Yeah, it's okay just to copy and paste this code from this website...I do it all the time. You don't need to know what it does or how it works'.

I want a proper book/course. Preferably one that also goes into a few bits of how the wordpress core works, and what all the functions do. But that last part isn't necessary.

So can anyone recommend some up-to-date books/courses?
(I've found a few which seem to be good teaching-wise, but comments on all of them all say that wordpress has changed a lot since the times they were made, so the content from there is no longer applicable :shrug:)

I also don't really like the wordpress codex. I feel like it's meant to be more just a handy reference than somewhere to actually learn to properly make themes.
Comments10
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o0MSK0o's avatar
Haha well as I said on the post above I don't really like the codex as a place to learn xD

But I found a good course on Udemy,so it's fine :)

Thanks for the input xP
Kiryuin-Satsuki's avatar
Don't buy books! All the content you need will be online. 
Lynda.com  
Not free but it has start to finish videos of them taking their HTML/CSS site and adapting to Wordpress. Theres loads of free tutorials on youtube but won't be as clear. 

Very good website:
css-tricks.com/snippets/wordpr… 
o0MSK0o's avatar
'Don't by books'seems like an odd approach haha

If I'm paying for a course, why not pay for a book? Same content, different medium xD

And yeah I looked on Lynda.com but I didn't find any that actually went in depth about it.

Thanks for the link! :)
Kiryuin-Satsuki's avatar
Because they're expensive and out of date before they hit the press. 
Also seeing/tweaking code is important to some people to fully get it.
Anyway good luck!
roteirod's avatar
I learned it on my own. I just downloaded some templates from such websites like www.templatemonster.com/wordpr… and tried to customised the templates a little. Used some tutorials and guides from YouTube for it too.
o0MSK0o's avatar
Hmm yeah I considered doing that but I didn't wasn't to end up following any bad practices

I found a good course though, so it's fine xP

Thanks for your advice though!
achipps's avatar
I played around with wordpress for a little while but I didn't like all the code. A lot of it is CSS, at least what I saw.
I usually just study someones code and make a few changes to see how it effects things, and I would need to know what page to be on, but overall I read the codes and see what they did, and what world codes and tags everything calls for. It takes me a while but I could probably create a theme in a month with a month to study the codes, and learn more as I go.
I am sure you are smart enough to figure it out, and I just think it is a lot of work when I rather just create my own PHP website with database and themes, with user logon and anything I would like to add rather than spend so much time learning how it was made and functions to make the theme.
I made a Movie database with pictures and art, to display everything the way I want using my own code, mostly php with html, and css, and of course the mysql database to create tables to keep and display information.

I use to do themes for PHPNuke, and PHPRaven, and most the time I had to fix their code because it used the wrong terms for my version of mysql or edit the flaws in the php to make the themes function, and fix the code to display the forums. Then I submitted a few fixes to the main website, but it took for ever for me to have an account there because they thought my information was fake. So, I didn't help them much I just kept a good copy of the program.

By doing everything myself I might write thousands of lines of codes, but I know everything about it and even if I forget I can study to see what I did. Every situation creates many different ways to do things, so it can be a little hard to see what I did, and might take some time to think about it. I guess that might only happen with massive amount of code and so many if statements.
Some of the codes had to be changed to handle larger amount of information, but as long as I keep working at it I am sure I will have a lot of experience.

It is something to do until I can get local residence status at the college so I can afford to finish my bachelors degree, and go for a masters. It will take about 3 more years. I just have an associates in information technology so far, but I worked with websites since 2001, because RealOne had a small website for the album covers and song information. I learned everything on the web, and that is why I am getting degrees in computers. All I had before was a GED.

I sounds like you have the skill to make everything you could want with theme changes of your own design. I direct the images to variables so I could set up the folder for the themes, and every image uses the same names so I can change them. I think later I might make the php script take sections of code so I could use theme codes to design the themes anyway I could want. Right now I can't, I just let the image links be directed to theme folders and the theme css file. I just wrote the code for user login and I am working on the user settings.
My themes look like this.
 Cherry by achipps
I designed the mouseover button script because I like interaction, and like to see the mouseover actions. I made a very short javascript code that handles all of the buttons and as many as you could want, so I just need each button to have a different name, which I do with a count and add numbers to the generated buttons.

I would add a little java id I could compile the code, but this keeps me busy.
So far I have 87 scripts that takes up 444 kb of disk space and so much more for images.
My little website takes up 109 Gb.
So it is not small and I have been working on it since November.
o0MSK0o's avatar
haha well yeah it makes sense that in theming most of it would be only HTML & CSS; after all, the main idea of themes vs plugins in wordpress is that themes provide what is actually displayed, plugins provide functionality. 

And the problem with creating your own PHP website is that it will almost never be as secure as Wordpress. Wordpress is scrutinized by some of the world's top developers, and also used by millions world wide. Any security bugs will be immediately spotted and fixed, and you just don't have that same level of assurance with your own websites.

Thanks for the input though.