Keeping WordPress on my mind

I keep posting on this about how code is becoming a part of my life and yet I have yet to actually post any of it; It is really depressing to see and read. So, here goes: With the project I have been working on (my site) I have been working with how WordPress handles its files and queries. It has been good seeing and interacting with it all. A good, and quick, example of how it works is here.

With that in mind I have thought about how I want certain things to look on the front page of the site. So, this would entail that WordPress will look for one of many pages. The first one it will look for is

home.php

and then it will look for

index.php

if it doesn’t find the first file. That is, of course, if I am using WordPress as a blogging tool otherwise it will look for the

front-page.php

if I have it set as a CMS (Content Management System ).

The files I have created so far are the basic ones that WordPress needs to be read/seen in the Appearance panel. They are comprised of

style.css

and

index.php

which are the two minimum required files. The front/home page so far will of course have a featured/sticky support but will be able to use the excerpt if the post has it filled out otherwise it will just post the entire content. That little snippet looks like:

<div class="entry-content"></div>
<pre>
    <!--?php if( has_excerpt() ) : the_excerpt(); else : the_content(); theme_linked_pages(); <span class="hiddenSpellError" pre=""-->endif;?>
</div><!-- .entry-content -->

The next stage will be creating the look of how an individual post will look like. That file is called:

single.php

. It will look fairly close to the homepage layout but of course there are going to be subtle differences. I’m debating if I really want a sidebar on the entire site but I know it will be useful for simple navigation.

Now, WordPress uses functions as template tags. Case in point:

the_content()

. It displays the content of the post when used inside of a WordPress loop. I have created a simple

functions.php

file that will house all my custom functions for the theme. In that file I inserted:

function theme_setup () {
        // Add post format support
        add_theme_support( 'post-formats', array('aside', 'image', 'link', 'quote', 'status') );
        // Add theme support for custom background
        add_theme_support( 'custom-background', array('default-color' => 'fff' ) );
        // Add theme support for Post Thumbnails
        add_theme_support ( 'post-thumbnails' );
        // Register the menu
        register_nav_menu ( 'primary', 'Main Menu');
    };

What that little snippet does is create support for post formats, custom background support, thumbnail support and creates a menu holder for my theme. I’ll explain those things down the road – hopefully.

Now, up until recently I have only really posted photos of what my site will look like. This has been a great experience on how my site will look like when I actually start posting more and more code since I am using a plugin to create the syntax highlighting. Taking a turn into the code side of web development will be a great thing for me. Now to explore more about theme development and WordPress.