CHILD THEMES, STARTER

THEMES, AND FRAMEWORKS…

OH MY!

J U L I E K U E H L

– W O R D P R E S S W I S D O M

“Don’t hack core.”

(or themes)

– P R O S P E C T I V E C L I E N T

“Do you do custom theme development?”

SOME DEFINITIONS - MY

DEFINITIONS

F I R S T …

• “...a drop-in code library

used to facilitate

development of a theme”

“A front-end web development

framework is simply a

collection of production

ready HTML/CSS/JavaScript

components that we can use

in our designs.”

F R A M E W O R K

• Requires a parent theme

Hint - many WordPress

“frameworks” are parent

themes

C H I L D T H E M E

• Scares the crap out of

you

Little to no CSS

S T A R T E R

T H E M E

– E V E R Y O N E I N T H I S R O O M

“So how do you choose?”

– E V E R Y D E V E L O P E R E V E R Y W H E R E

“It depends.”

FRAMEWORKS

PROS

• Base CSS

• Grid system

• Responsive

• Classes defined

• Typography

• Defines stuff you’d forget

about

• Broader than WordPress

FRAMEWORKS

CONS

• Not a stand-alone theme

• Usually included in a

theme’s functions.php file

or folders

• http://www.punkchip.com/w

hy-dont-you-use-bootstrap/

BOOTSTRAPF R A M E W O R K S

BOOTSTRAP

• HTML, CSS, & JS

• 12-col grid

• XS, S, M, L screen sizes

• “Mobile-first” (mostly min-width)

• Media queries based on pixels

• LESS (ported to Sass)

BOOTSTRAPF R A M E W O R K S

FOUNDATIONF R A M E W O R K S

FOUNDATION

• HTML, CSS, & JS

• 12-col grid

• S, M, L, XL, XXL screen sizes

• “Mobile-first” (min-widths & max-widths)

• Media queries based on ems

• Sass

FRAMEWORK COMPARISONF R A M E W O R K S

CHILD THEME

PROS

• Quickest and easiest choice

• DO THIS rather than hack the

theme

• Parent theme can carry the

weight

• Bork the child and the parent

is OK

• Works immediately

• 80% of the work is done for

you

CHILD THEME

CONS

• At the mercy of the parent

theme’s code

• Quality

• Security

• Upgrades

• Compatibility

• Not the leanest strategy

GENESISP A R E N T T H E M E S

GENESISP A R E N T T H E M E S

JUMP STARTP A R E N T T H E M E S

JUMP STARTP A R E N T T H E M E S

RESPONSIVEP A R E N T T H E M E S

RESPONSIVEP A R E N T T H E M E S

STARTER THEME

PROS

• You control (and are

responsible for) updates

• One and done

• It’s your code

• Lean and mean code

STARTER THEME

CONS

• You control (and are

responsible for) updates

• You have to build the

theme

• 20% of the work is done for

you

_S (UNDERSCORES)S T A R T E R T H E M E S

_S (UNDERSCORES)S T A R T E R T H E M E S

_TKS T A R T E R T H E M E S

_TKS T A R T E R T H E M E S

SOME LIKE IT NEATS T A R T E R T H E M E S

SOME LIKE IT NEATS T A R T E R T H E M E S

SO HOW DO YOU

CHOOSE???

SO HOW DO YOU

CHOOSE???

QUESTIONS TO ASK

• How will it (the site /

framework / parent theme)

change?

• Upgrades?

• Redesigns?

• Improvements?

• Budget? Timeframe?

• What will you be asking

the site to do?

• Heavy traffic?

• Heavy database use?

• Who’s going to support

it?

• What are you comfortable

with?

– A N Y O N E W H O ’ S S T I L L W I T H M E

“So what do you recommend?”

MY ADVICE

• Research the differences

between frameworks

• Choose one parent theme

and build several child

themes on it

• When you’re ready, find a

starter theme that you like

and use it for everything

RIDE YOUR OWN RIDEI N T H E E N D , Y O U H A V E T O

THANK

YOU!QUESTIONS?

J U L I E @ J U L I E K U E H L . C O M

@ J U L I E K U E H L