In the previous post in this series we talked about the basics of PHP and how functions are put together. Today we're going to build on that and talk about how to use Genesis hooks to manipulate theme elements. Have you ever wondered how the Genesis theme framework knows how to call all that code from your child theme files in the right order? Genesis uses a WordPress convention called hooks to "hook" into the code at the desired spot just like WordPress as a whole does. (Genesis also uses ... Read More
PHP Basics
So far in this series we've talked about some tools and best practices, HTML and its new big brother HTML5 as well as an overview of how to work with CSS. In this post we are going to take a look at PHP basics. Like so many things in the internet world, PHP is an acronym. It stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor." (I know. It makes no sense that the first P in PHP stands for, um, PHP. But there you go.) PHP is the primary programming language WordPress is built on. That means it is also ... Read More
Customizing Image Elements in WordPress
When it comes to customizing WordPress themes I generally have an easier time of it changing CSS or tweaking the PHP code than I do modifying image elements of the theme. That's probably because I'm not a graphic designer. Fortunately you don't have to be a graphic designer to be able to customize the image elements of your Genesis themes. If that was a requirement I'd be sunk. What Are Image Elements? What do we mean by image elements? These are the portions of your theme that are ... Read More
The Marriage of HTML5 and Genesis
HTML5 is the new up and coming HTML standard. It has been in development for years, even as far back as 2006, and HTML5 is expected to be fully standardized by the end of 2014. HTML5 allows for more dynamic web content without the need for third party technologies such as Flash. Because HTML5 is so new and hasn't quite been completely finalized yet, no web browsers fully support everything it is capable of 100%. That said, Chrome and Firefox seem to do better on HTML5 compatibility than ... Read More
CSS Basics of the Genesis Framework
If you are doing any work online you should have a basic understanding on CSS and how it works. Regardless of whether you are simply writing content for someone else's website, running your own website, or looking to get into customizing and developing websites with the Genesis theme framework, the ability to fine tune how things are displayed with some CSS basics will set you apart from the crowd and make your work more professional. CSS, which is an acronym for Cascading Style Sheets, works ... Read More
HTML Basics of the Genesis Framework
Everyone with their own website should know some HTML basics. That includes the most technophobic writer who just uses the visual content editor portion of their WordPress dashboard. And if you are customizing any themes for the Genesis framework, then you absolutely need to know a little bit about HTML and how to make changes to the code on your site. HTML is the most basic code that presents every website. It is the language of the internet. It the code our web browsers interpret to ... Read More
Workflow for Customizing Genesis Themes
WordPress is an incredibly powerful platform that will empower you with the potential to reach the entire world with whatever you have to say. Even though WordPress combines relatively simplicity with incredible power and potential doing things like customizing Genesis themes can be a little intimidating if you're just getting started, or if you're just getting started tinkering "under the hood." Fortunately we can take some of the mystery out of it and help you avoid some of the most common ... Read More
23 Tools for Customizing WordPress Themes
There are tons of tools that can help simplify the process of customizing WordPress themes. In fact, the tools are far better than they were just a few short years ago. If you are kicking around the possibilities of starting to customize themes then this list I've put together will save you some headaches. Hopefully you will be able to avoid some of hassles that I went through over the years. These days I work exclusively on Mac's. In fact, I made the decision when I got to the point where ... Read More
The Anatomy of a Child Theme
When it comes to WordPress theme customization there are two main approaches. Traditionally, because WordPress is open source you'd just make your edits directly to the theme itself. Very early on the WordPress core developers added the ability to use a child theme. A child theme inherits all of the templates and functionality of the parent theme while allowing you to modify the parent theme output because the child theme files supersede the parent theme files. Advantages of Using Child ... Read More
Best Practices for Genesis Theme Customization
There is so much to cover when it comes to Genesis theme customization, that I've mapped out an entire series of posts to throughly cover it. I'm hoping this series will help people get a basic understanding of what it takes to start customizing their own WordPress sites and have the confidence to get started. While my specific examples will be aimed at the Genesis theme framework, most of what I share will have general application as well and can be used on most WordPress websites. Here ... Read More
WordPress Plugins – Be Smart About The Ones You Install
One of the great things about WordPress is the ability it gives us to extend the capabilities of the core software with plugins. The official WordPress Plugin Directory now has nearly 23,000 plugins. That's an amazing amount of extra features we can add to our websites. However the old adage is still true: with great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately there's a lot of junk in those 23,000 plugins. You can bog your site down to a crawl, expose your site to hackers or even worse if ... Read More
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