4 ms·

The anatomy of a WordPress theme (Infographic)

43 points by smashing_mag 16y ago

chanri 16y ago
Excellent graphic describing wordpress theme file structure. It would be very interesting to know if other CMS's share a similar file structure. How does this compare to Drupal or Joomla for example?
- arkitaip 16y ago
  As someone who works with both Wordpress and Drupal, let me just say that theming Wordpress feels easy and fun where Drupal feels too complex and very hard to grasp because there are so many aspects of the system that can be themed and each part does theming differently. Start using Drupal with CCK and views and you will know what I mean, you will know and weep :(
  - vinhboy 16y ago
    Agreed. For all the complaining people do about wordpress, it has one of the best theming design. I was using "liquid" the other day, and it's not as flexible as wordpress in my opinion.
bugmenot 16y ago
classic infographic spam, check below the image, there is a link.
trevorturk 16y ago
FWIW - I made "the simplest possible Wordpress theme" in an effort to understand what the bare minimum Wordpress theme requires (to get into their theme directory). You can see it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplest http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplest
btig 16y ago
Here's another that's been sitting in my bookmarks: How to Build a Custom WordPress Theme from Scratch - http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-build-a-custom-wordpress-theme-from-scratch http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-build-a...
shashank261 16y ago
Very good infographic, would have helped if more info had been provided. Useful anyway
RP_Joe 16y ago
I sure could have used this info 6 months ago. Thank You!
ambiate 16y ago
Notice the link at the end of the infographic. Boosting with backlinks is fun. I never used infographics for SEO, but that sure does seem to work for link/keyword juice on these types of sites.
- mwexler 16y ago
  I was all set to give this post props for it's helpful infographic til I too saw the cheezy ad plug. Even worse, it's not "powered by" or "brought to you by"... it's "This infographic was created by". Disappointing. Though this shouldn't impact my judgement of the value or utility of the infographic in imparting information... it just does.
  - photomatt 16y ago
    I had the same reaction, and I know Yoast! Seems out of character.
- adolph 16y ago
  Are you saying that CreditL0an isn't an infographic creation tool?
jeffclark 16y ago
Wordpress, despite it's "n00b"-y feeling, makes it really really ridiculously easy to get your MVP out the door. Simple account management, simple CMS'ing, and well documented enough so you can spend your time on your business and not your framework. Groupon's MVP was an WP blog and we used it for http://playlookit.com http://playlookit.com
- photomatt 16y ago
  Thank you -- I really appreciate that.
john2x 16y ago
That's a lot more insightful than some of the tutorials I've seen. Thanks!
sfgfdhgfdshdhhd 16y ago
spam, check the link at the bottom
- kristofferR 16y ago
  So having a harmless backlink invalidates the good content? This is not spam at all, this is just great SEO/business. Yoast gets traffic to their site without having to create the content, CreditLoans gets a good quality backlink in return for creating the content. Everyone are happy.
RyanMcGreal 16y ago
This proves that sufficiently advanced spam really is indistinguishable from content: http://lesswrong.com/lw/28r/is_google_paperclipping_the_web_the_perils_of/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/28r/is_google_paperclipping_the_web_...
wildmXranat 16y ago
Ugh, there's a tide of spam that slowly erodes HN usability. It pains me to say it, but it's almost on every site. I am not sure if an idea of a power user simply deleting this type of content, banning/warning the submitter helps. Mods on Reddit cause as much havoc as they fix. I would gladly pay a small fee for a clean non-spammy HN. Let that fund be used for a couple part time mods.
iuguy 16y ago
It's not really the real anatomy of a Wordpress theme until you've included the spending 90% of your time fixing the thing to work properly in IE, although to be fair that seems to be quite a large part of web design in general.
tel 16y ago
My first impression was how disturbed I was to see the enormous ad "sidebar" coyly nestled on the right. Then again, I think that's a fair observation.

43 points by smashing_mag 16y ago

Excellent graphic describing wordpress theme file structure. It would be very interesting to know if other CMS's share a similar file structure. How does this compare to Drupal or Joomla for example?

arkitaip 16y ago
As someone who works with both Wordpress and Drupal, let me just say that theming Wordpress feels easy and fun where Drupal feels too complex and very hard to grasp because there are so many aspects of the system that can be themed and each part does theming differently. Start using Drupal with CCK and views and you will know what I mean, you will know and weep :(
- vinhboy 16y ago
  Agreed. For all the complaining people do about wordpress, it has one of the best theming design. I was using "liquid" the other day, and it's not as flexible as wordpress in my opinion.

bugmenot 16y ago

classic infographic spam, check below the image, there is a link.

trevorturk 16y ago

FWIW - I made "the simplest possible Wordpress theme" in an effort to understand what the bare minimum Wordpress theme requires (to get into their theme directory). You can see it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplest http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplest

btig 16y ago

Here's another that's been sitting in my bookmarks: How to Build a Custom WordPress Theme from Scratch - http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-build-a-custom-wordpress-theme-from-scratch http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-build-a...

shashank261 16y ago

Very good infographic, would have helped if more info had been provided. Useful anyway

RP_Joe 16y ago

I sure could have used this info 6 months ago. Thank You!

ambiate 16y ago

Notice the link at the end of the infographic. Boosting with backlinks is fun. I never used infographics for SEO, but that sure does seem to work for link/keyword juice on these types of sites.

mwexler 16y ago
I was all set to give this post props for it's helpful infographic til I too saw the cheezy ad plug. Even worse, it's not "powered by" or "brought to you by"... it's "This infographic was created by". Disappointing. Though this shouldn't impact my judgement of the value or utility of the infographic in imparting information... it just does.
- photomatt 16y ago
  I had the same reaction, and I know Yoast! Seems out of character.
adolph 16y ago
Are you saying that CreditL0an isn't an infographic creation tool?

jeffclark 16y ago

Wordpress, despite it's "n00b"-y feeling, makes it really really ridiculously easy to get your MVP out the door. Simple account management, simple CMS'ing, and well documented enough so you can spend your time on your business and not your framework. Groupon's MVP was an WP blog and we used it for http://playlookit.com http://playlookit.com

photomatt 16y ago
Thank you -- I really appreciate that.

john2x 16y ago

That's a lot more insightful than some of the tutorials I've seen. Thanks!

sfgfdhgfdshdhhd 16y ago

spam, check the link at the bottom

kristofferR 16y ago
So having a harmless backlink invalidates the good content? This is not spam at all, this is just great SEO/business. Yoast gets traffic to their site without having to create the content, CreditLoans gets a good quality backlink in return for creating the content. Everyone are happy.

RyanMcGreal 16y ago

This proves that sufficiently advanced spam really is indistinguishable from content: http://lesswrong.com/lw/28r/is_google_paperclipping_the_web_the_perils_of/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/28r/is_google_paperclipping_the_web_...

wildmXranat 16y ago

Ugh, there's a tide of spam that slowly erodes HN usability. It pains me to say it, but it's almost on every site. I am not sure if an idea of a power user simply deleting this type of content, banning/warning the submitter helps. Mods on Reddit cause as much havoc as they fix. I would gladly pay a small fee for a clean non-spammy HN. Let that fund be used for a couple part time mods.

iuguy 16y ago

It's not really the real anatomy of a Wordpress theme until you've included the spending 90% of your time fixing the thing to work properly in IE, although to be fair that seems to be quite a large part of web design in general.

tel 16y ago

My first impression was how disturbed I was to see the enormous ad "sidebar" coyly nestled on the right. Then again, I think that's a fair observation.