Create my first theme
To start building your theme, first create a sub-folder in the wp-content/themes directory in your WordPress folder.
After creating the Directory for Theme Folder, create the following files inside folder –
header.php – This file will contain the code for the header section of the theme;
index.php – This is the main file for the theme. It will contain the code for the Main Area and will specify where the other files will be included;
sidebar.php – This file will contain the information about the sidebar;
footer.php – This file will handle your footer;
style.css – This file will handle the styling of your new theme;
The header.php file
Basically, this is simple HTML code with a single line containing a php code and a standard WordPress function. In this file you can specify your meta tags such as the title of your website, meta description and the keywords for your page.
[php]
<html>
<head>
<title>Tutorial theme</title>
<!-- part of the line is a WordPress function that actually loads the stylesheet file.-->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>">
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">
<h1><a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a></h1>
</div>
[/php]
The index.php file
[php]</pre>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="main">
<div id="content">
<h1>Main Area</h1>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<h1><a href=”<?php the_permalink();?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>
<h4>Posted on <?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?></h4>
<p><?php the_content(__('(more...)')); ?></p>
<hr> <?php endwhile; else: ?>
<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
<!-- This will include the sidebar.php and in this file you can display your post categories, archives etc.-- ><?php get_sidebar(); ?>
</div>
<div id="delimiter">
</div>
<!-- which will include the footer.php file in your page. -->
<?php get_footer(); ?>
[/php]
The Sidebar.php file
[php]
<div id="sidebar">
<h2 ><?php _e('Categories'); ?></h2>
<ul >
<?php wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&optioncount=1&hierarchical=0'); ?>
</ul>
<h2 ><?php _e('Archives'); ?></h2>
<ul >
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
</ul>
</div>
[/php]
The Style.css file
[css]
body { text-align: center; }
#wrapper { display: block; border: 1px #a2a2a2 solid; width:90%; margin:0px auto; }
#header { border: 2px #a2a2a2 solid; }
#content { width: 75%; border: 2px #a2a2a2 solid; float: left; }
#sidebar { width: 23%; border: 2px #a2a2a2 solid; float: right; }
#delimiter { clear: both; }
[/css]
