WordPress Theme Design (B128)

WordPress is much more than a blogging platform, it is the most popular and widely used CMS (Content Management System) on the internet. This course will take users who already know the basics and show you how to create your own design for your WordPress site.

We will take an existing HTML/CSS web design and break it apart section by section and create our own WordPress theme. We will use a blank theme template with just raw data coming from our WordPress database and create all the necessary template pages to make our WordPress site come alive including navigation, posts, custom home page, and custom fields as well.

There will be lots of fun activites with each lesson so to broaden your view of what a real WordPress site can do, apart from just a blog.

Objectives for this class are:

Basic ideas for setting up a basic workflow environment for WordPress theme design.
Taking apart an existing HTML/CSS web design into a WordPress theme.
Understand the different template PHP tags associated with a theme.
Learn basic PHP syntax to modify functionality of a theme.
How to design your theme to accomodate mobile visitors.
Learn proper testing of your site.
Important plugins that every WordPress site should have.
Steps to take to secure your site.

Applicable Job Roles: web designer, web developer, web blogger, blog/content manager.

Who Should Attend: This course is for anybody with existing WordPress experience wanting to continue learning about WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) in creating websites not only blogs. Students will get more involved in working with templates and teaching students how to create a theme from scratch from an existing HTML/CSS static template.

Outline

Week 1 - Starting with an HTM/CSS template

Theming Overview
Templates and hierarchy
Template tag review
PHP Syntax Overview
Review of our HTML/CSS template
Review of Browser Debugging Tools (Firebug)

Week 2 - Creating Our Theme

Review of various techniques of theme design in WordPress
Choosing our starting blank theme
Breaking up our HTML from our design
BLANK WordPress theme Updates:
- Updating our style.css
- Header and footer templates
- Sidebar template
- Creating our Menu
- front-page.php template
- Creating custom fields
Continue to use various template functions with PHP code

Week 3 - Our Theme: Finishing the Theme

BLANK WordPress theme Updates:
- Product and Category custom templates
- Blog home page templating
- Defining our Page structure
- Single and Post templates
- Adding custom JavaScripts
Modular review of Template structure.

Week 4 - Our Theme: Improvements

Undertanding Search templates
Optimizing with Plugins
Styling improvements
Pagination options
Dynamic sidebars
Using Archives

Week 5 -Performance and Security

Common website security hacks
Top Security Tips
Security Plugins
Performance issues with WordPress
Testing tools
Performance caching and minifying files
Whats next?

Prerequisites

Completion of Intro to WordPress course (b129) or equivalent knowledge and/or experience. Good understanding of HTML and CSS with basic understanding of PHP.

Requirements

You must have an online web host account that is UNIX based (not Windows server) that supports PHP and a MySQL database.

Books:

No book is required for this class.

Additional information:

Your place in the course is confirmed by your payment. Introductory courses are intended for students with no experience in the subject matter and are seeking beginner level training.

Refund Policy: Please read our Terms and Refund Policy before registering for this course.

Additional Cost: Book and software might be required for the course. Read the Requirements and Book section for more information. Course fee does not include the book and software cost .

How eClasses Work:Instructors post lectures (text-based, no video or audio), reading selections, and hands-on assignments once a week in the online classroom. Students can discuss the assignments with the instructor and amongst themselves in the classroom area. This format has no set meeting time, which allows students to attend class at a time most convenient to them, yet still provides logically organized communication between class participants. Students can apply for the completion certificate after finishing the class.

Price:

$200.00

Item No.:

B128

Instructor:

Frank Stepanski

Open Courses: No other sessions are scheduled for this course. You can add to your wish list and you will be notified when other sessions are scheduled.

Testimonials

Instructor's Profile

Frank Stepanski has over 10 years experience in the IT field ranging from Senior Analyst, Designer and Web Developer. Frank has worked with technologies such as PHP, MySQL, ASP.NET, SQL Server as well as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. He has a Masters Degree in Software Engineering from Penn State University. He has also taught web programming classes at a local community college.

Before you register for this class, please read the Outline, Prerequisites, Requirements, Books, and Refund Policy sections carefully.

Testimonials

Rating

"This is a marvelous class and very well worth the money. I have found all the eClasses.org classes really do a great job.

The teacher of this course, Frank Stepanski, was especially helpful and gives very fast responses.

The material for this very complex subject beautifully presented. The whole subject looks really impossibly huge in the beginning but his explanations were excellent and things became much clearer as the course progressed.

This course is a definite must for today's Web Designers." - Sheina Yeheskel
"Made this complex subject easy for the novice. Great learning experience." - Carol Margot DeLong
"Great class! Very thorough and packed with useful, practical information." - Donna Gough
"Very much enjoyed this course and learned so much from the instructor, Frank Stepanski, as he promptly answered questions and thoroughly explained the steps to take in creating a custom Wordpress Theme. Highly recommended and look forward to taking more classes through eClasses.org." - Lisa Murphy
"This course ranks among the best courses I have taken at eClasses.org, and I have taken more than a few. Frank provides all the information you need and instead of just giving you a lecture, he provides insightful, well documented code samples and techniques and when you have a question he doesn't just give you the answer, he encourages a dialog that helps you find the answer and really learn. I have now taken my Wordpress skill and knowledge to the next level. I highly recommend this course, and with it the instructor Frank Stepanski. Thanks Frank!" - John Lowe
"Many thanks to Frank for all your patience, help and your instructions through out this course, you really do know your subject and were always there to answer any issues.. I have learned a lot during this class and would recommend it to anyone looking to learn how to build their own WordPress templates.." - Abdelmajid El-Hani
"The classroom instructions were simple, with very accurate examples showing an escalating method of bringing new ideas from the simplest form of problems solving, to real world applications. The class suggested new ideas along the way, without hurry and gently nudging your creative juices to bring your best foot forward for the best website presentations of your work. Very passionate and caring instructor." - Allen Phillipe
"I took this course with the hopes of learning some tricks to increase my knowledge of developing themes in Wordpress, and I was not let down. It gave me the little extra to further push the limits of what I had already done to my clients themes.

I believe the course was new and it sort of showed in the way the lessons was written. Over the weeks it improved alot and the last two lessons gave valuable knowledge of the topics at hand.

As always tho - make sure you set enough time to do the assignments and don't do it the last day of the week. Take the time to post questions and findings - they both help the other students and the instructor improve his class for the next assignment and course." - John-Egil Solberg