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College project | thinking of basic theme development

by Alex6534
7 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Hi warriors,

The title was quite long enough for me to give a brief explanation of what I'm asking, but here it is.

I am currently studying a HND in Interactive Media (Diploma level) and for our Graded Unit we have to find a client, produce a website to their brief and deliver it on time, simple right? Not really, we were split up into groups and lucky for me I got landed with the two who can barely get a div working and have trouble with floats and basic CSS.... There is one other person who knows her HTML fairly well so that is a bonus.

Now, we were discussing the best way to implement the website, I recommended WordPress, since it will be for a local small-scale business they will likely want to edit it themselves without us having to spend hours teaching them. Also since it is updated regularly it will be secure and many other developer's can work from it on a future date. Naturally there were a few worried faces, as they were just grasping HTML and the thought of editing a WordPress theme didn't encourage them. So they want to do it in static html/css with a few bits of javascript here/there, not really giving a rat's ass about how the client will manage afterwards.

I've been thinking of a middle ground, they help design the layout of the website, banner, navigation, content, sidebar and footer etc then I try my hand at converting that into a WordPress theme. I'm not new to customising theme css, but I am new to creating a new theme from a pre-made html site. If someone could comment on how effective this would be it would be appreciated, also if they know of any good tutorials on doing this/what elements of the site already have to be coded in static html.
#basic #college #development #project #theme #thinking
  • Profile picture of the author David V
    Sounds like a pretty good plan.
    2 Things.....
    I think converting a static html site can be a good way to learn WP and how it operates.

    Since you mentioned that the client will need to edit it themselves, it needs to be pointed out that additional features/functions will need to be added to the theme, likely in the form of "theme options".

    Converting a static site to WP can actually be done with very little coding or work.
    You can activate your new theme but you will find there are absolutely no options inside the admin area for the theme. Some of this could be solved with plugins (social media, etc..)

    I think too many themes go WAY WAY overboard on theme options, but in many cases (especially for newbie wp users) some basic theme settings are needed.

    You would likely want to convert to WP and make sure everything seems to work well, then integrate some basic theme options, but don't go crazy with too many.

    This option framework will help, is well coded, documented, and performs good data sanitization.

    It would be best to find out what the client needs to be able to change/modify first, before making that decision.

    It might even be prudent to use an existing fairly bare bones theme framework and adapt your static design to that.
    Much of the grunt work for the theme would be done already.
    There are many good html5 frameworks to choose from.
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  • Profile picture of the author BillyW
    I think its a good idea in theory, but not really practical. I'm not going to say that learning Wordpress with minimal knowledge of HTML and CSS is easy, but it's not Joomla. If the people in your group know some HTML and CSS, they should be able to modify a simple Wordpress theme. Tell the others in your group to study more.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Like David said, get a bare bones WP framework, no point in reinventing the wheel, especially If your on a tight schedule to get this finished.

    Since your on a team with different skills, make sure to comment the HTML/CSS in the theme template files so everyone knows who did what.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    David,
    Since you mentioned that the client will need to edit it themselves, it needs to be pointed out that additional features/functions will need to be added to the theme, likely in the form of "theme options".
    I guess that's a misunderstanding: the OP, probably, thought about the client editing the content.

    My experience of many years: never ever let the client to be able to edit the design... they always screw it up and then you have a lot of headache! :p
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    • Profile picture of the author David V
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      David,

      I guess that's a misunderstanding: the OP, probably, thought about the client editing the content.
      I likely should have worded it more like choices/features rather then settings.
      I agree, I was going to elaborate, but didn't. The options I was really referring to was not so much major theme settings that could wreak havoc as much as some selective choices in the post/page edit screens.... widgetized areas... A lot of clients do create chaos on their own sites!

      EDIT: @Alex6534 - It's likely best to skip what I said about theme options.... Don't want to confuse the subject or make it harder then it needs to be...
      Since you said "I'm not new to customising theme css", then utilizing a framework is your best choice and you should have no problem adapting your teams design.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex6534
    Thanks for the reply guys, it is much appreciated! I'm going to do a bit more research on it, wanted to get a general feel of opinions on this approach. I might just use a html5 framework so the website is already responsive. Also as above, when I mentioned content all I really meant was for the client to be able to add new images to the featured slider, add new posts/pages and change what appears on the navigation. This will likely take me a little while to figure out but I do hope to go into theme development within the next year, so have to start somewhere! Are there any tutorials that you would personally recommend?
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    • Profile picture of the author David V
      Originally Posted by Alex6534 View Post

      ..... add new images to the featured slider......
      Are there any tutorials that you would personally recommend?
      wptuts has some good tutorials but you must read all the comments at the end of the tutorials....often there are issues and the readers/developers correct them in the comments.

      My opinion: Image sliders should be kept out of the theme and in a plugin.
      When the day comes that the theme is changed (which it will at some point), add-on features like sliders, custom post types, shortcodes, and many other things that get added to themes these days will be gone.
      (there is a way around that for some things, but many theme authors are not that thoughtful)
      Just something to think about.. Good Luck
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