WordPress themes use template tags to retrieve content from a database . The content we are talking about here can be any data, as small as a blog title or as large as a complete sidebar. Template tags are the preferred method of getting data into the theme, and the handy thing about template tags: they can print dynamic content. Can be used in multiple theme files. ...

Welcome to the WordPress Theme Development Handbook, an essential resource for learning about WordPress theme development. The Theme Developer's Handbook is a repository for WordPress theme development related questions. Whether you are new to WordPress theme development or an experienced theme developer, you can find answers to your theme-related questions here. ...

Why do I need to set up a development environment? When developing a theme, it's best to do it in the same development environment as the WordPress server. The development environment can be local or remote, but setting up a local development environment is very convenient because: we can test the theme locally without relying on a remote server. This can speed up development...

In Chapter 1, we learned what a theme is and how to start developing one. In this chapter, we will begin to learn how to develop a theme properly, we will break the theme down and learn how to develop a theme from all aspects. First, we'll go through the components of a theme with template files and post types . Then...

Template Terminology In WordPress themes, the term 'template' is used in a couple of different ways: template files are present in the theme and represent the way your site is displayed. Page templates are used in single pages to change the appearance of a page and can be applied to a page or post. Template tags are a built-in feature of WordPress that we can...

Include Theme Core FilesWe already know that WordPress themes are built from many different template files. These files usually include sidebar.php, header.php and footer.php. These files are called using template tags such as get_header() get_foo...

As mentioned above, template files are modular, reusable files that are used to generate pages on a WordPress website. Some template files (such as header and footer templates) are used for all pages of your site, while others are used only under certain conditions. This article describes how WordPress determines which pages to use on each...

Loops are the default mechanism by which WordPress outputs posts via theme template files. In a loop, WordPress iterates over all the posts fetched by the current page, then formats and outputs them using the template tags in the theme. There are many things we can do with WordPress loops, such as displaying multiple posts on the front page of a site...

Post TypesThere are many different types of content in WordPress, and in the WordPress database we differentiate between these by the post_type field, so these content types are often referred to as post types.WordPress built-in data such as posts, pages, media, and so on are all a type of post. In addition to these built-in post...

Conditional functions can be used in WordPress templates, usually as an if/else condition to determine whether the current page meets a certain condition, and then display the corresponding content according to the judgment result. This function usually returns a boolean value, if the return value is true, the code after if is executed, if it returns false, after else...

The functions.php file is the only place where we can add functions to our WordPress theme. In it we can mount custom functions to the core WordPress functionality, making our theme more modular, more extensible, and more feature-rich. What is functions.php? The behavior of the functions.php file is similar to that of WordP...

When creating a theme, we may need to create other stylesheets or JavaScript files. However, keep in mind that your theme is not the only thing that will be active on your WordPress site, there will be many other plugins as well. For them to work harmoniously together, both the theme and the plugins need to use standard WordPress methods to load scripts and styles...

One of the best ways to understand theme code standards is to refer to sample themes that have taken them into account. Default "Twenty" Theme Starting with version 3.0, WordPress packages a default theme with each release (named after the year of release), which is designed with a wide range of theme uses in mind and is fully compliant with the W...