Create a WordPress Theme from Scratch: Overview

Before attempting to create your own WordPress theme, you should:

• Have a domain with WordPress installed on it so you can upload and test your theme in stages.
• Have a basic understanding of the components of a WordPress theme (we'll help you here.)
• Know CSS enough to change the aesthetic appearance of the theme. (We can help some here, too.)
• Understand PHP and MySQL well enough to know what your code is telling the theme to do. (We'll do the best we can here, but this is generally what throws most people off.)
• Have a text editor where you can write your code.
• Familarize yourself with the code validator at W3.org so you can validate your code and ensure that it will work as you go.

To learn how to create a WordPress theme, you need to understand the files the most basic WordPress themes contain:

• header.php: the top of your theme, where your blog title and tagline are displayed.
• footer.php: the bottom of your theme where your copyright information, links, and RSS feeds are displayed.
• index.php: the main part of your theme where your posts, the archive, or pages will be displayed, based on what the PHP calls from the database to display.
• sidebar.php the side of your theme, where several things may be located, depending on how you design it. More complex themes include multiple sidebars, error pages, search boxes, etc.

For the sake of this series, we'll build a two column, widgetizing sidebar theme with a search box and archive. The files in our theme will be:

• header.php
• footer.php
• index.php
• sidebar.php
• archive.php will display the post archive.
• search.php will implement a search function for the theme.

HTML, CSS, and PHP will all work together to create the WordPress theme. HTML is the base language for any website. PHP will communicate with the MySQL database you setup during the installation of WordPress. Your posts and other information will be stored in this database for the PHP files to call and display. CSS will work with the HTML and PHP to change the appearance of the theme in terms of color, font, background, etc. If you learn how to create a wordpress theme, you will be able to provide WordPress design services to clients, strengthening your marketability as a designer.

Our series will be an expedited version of how to create a wordpress theme. The next article will discuss setting up the HTML and PHP for the main parts of the WordPress theme. The third article will discuss the widgetizing sidebar, customizing error messages, and other things you can add to your theme. When it comes to CSS and styling your WordPress theme, it is outside the scope of this tutorial. We will point you to CSS resources along the way to help you come up with your aesthetics.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please visit the channel forum and let us know. We'll assist you the best way we can!