Reverse Engineer a Wordpress site?

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I'm trying to reproduce a similar looking site as one I really like. It will be my own content; no problem there. But the layout, I would like to use this other site as a guide or template. I don't guess there's anything wrong with that.

So I have the same theme, already. I was just wondering, is it practical to look at source code on a blog site to be able to see and make any sense of how the theme, widgets, ads are set up?

No doubt, even if I can't do that, I can figure it out close enough, anyway and add some of my own uniqueness to it. But if it were easy, I'd like to start with this layout and then work from there.

It's an interesting question. I've never tried it and thought one of you designers my have some insights or ideas.
#website design #engineer #reverse #site #wordpress
  • Sure, you can look at the HTML layout and CSS. It's all publicly visible. You might be able to track the source of widgets by looking at the HTML code of the widget block, even though not all plugins mark their widgets clearly.

    If you already have the same theme, I would suggest that you just start building your own site. Cloning another side seems like an unnecessary step.
  • Yes, sure. Its a good idea. I do that in most of my clone projects to start with. If you have Dreamweaver, you can also use "Command => Apply Source Formatting" to make the messy code more readable. Also, the html head 'can' give you hints of what template and plugins are used.
    • [1] reply
    • Most of what you need can be decomposed and reproduced from the home page "style.css".

      You have the header, footer, and possibly numerous "sidebars" which can be positioned either above, below, at either side or several combinations of those positions, frequently several above or below the content.

      One theme I use has a right and left sidebar and four across the bottom above the footer.

      Just take your pick.
  • Hey,

    This is a cool site I found and like to use now that will tell you which theme and plugins a WP site is using just by pasting in the URL. A bit easier than looking at source code!

    WordPress Theme Detector - Free online tool to find a site´s theme

    Hope it helps.

    John
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    Reverse Engineer a Wordpress site?

    I'm trying to reproduce a similar looking site as one I really like. It will be my own content; no problem there. But the layout, I would like to use this other site as a guide or template. I don't guess there's anything wrong with that. So I have the same theme, already. I was just wondering, is it practical to look at source code on a blog site to be able to see and make any sense of how the theme, widgets, ads are set up?