SMASHING: WordPress Themes: MAKING WORDPRESS BEAUTIFUL

CHAPTER 6

PLANNING THE THEME

HOPEFULLY YOU'LL BUILD plenty of themes over the coming weeks, months, and years. This chapter is all about that: what to consider before you begin, site goals that can make it easier to plan for the long run, and checklists for stuff you just can't forget about, such as required template files and basics for good framework design.

Whether you're looking to release your theme for anyone to download, or just want to build a cool site for yourself, your clients, or other projects, these are things to consider.

This chapter starts with a look at what it takes to build a useful theme. And then, when you're done with that, you get into more niched themes (that is, themes that focus on static content, images, or a magazine-inspired design). Good times ahead!

PLAN BEFORE YOU BUILD

Before you create a brand new theme from scratch, make things as easy as possible for yourself. Establish a plan before you get carried away building your theme files and designing a layout. There are many ways to plan a theme, but I tend to go about it in this way.

THE SITE CONCEPT STAGE

At the concept stage, I want to answer the following questions:

• What is the primary goal for this theme?
• Do I need to build it up for later use, or can I just get it out there in the minimum amount of time?
• Do I want to release this theme to the general public at some point?
• Do I need outside help to create this theme?

The second and third questions are all about how I should tackle the code when ...