Lately i’ve been working with WordPress theme you can call “Theme Framework“, the Genesis Framework by StudioPress. The idea of using framework is to speed up your theme development time by pre-set functions so you do not have to spend your time doing basic things which is commonly repetitive: Install the Theme Framework, then modify it through Child Theme. If you’d like not to use some functions, deregister it on functions.php.
I often re-do same thing over and over again when i’m developing a theme. Yes i already had something called “starter theme” as starting point of every theme i develop. However, it wasn’t satisfying enough. Long story short, i re-develop it: Get rid of unimportant things, shipped it with commonly used stuffs. I call it “Essential Theme“.
Essential Theme
It is simple-good-looking-and-ready-to-use WordPress theme. However, it is built with theme development in mind, shipped with useful functions which are made to avoid you from repetitive work.
The theme files
To make you understand what do i mean by “get rid of unimportant stuffs“, look at the composition of Essential Theme:
comments.phpfunctions.php-> lots of functions, that’s why the actual functions are placed on separate files on /functions/ directoryindex.php-
licence.txt loop.php–> all loops are placed here. It uses conditional tags for different page layoutsstyle.css–> only the theme statements. i place all the stylings on /css/ directory, alongside with specific styles for the annoying browsers-
/css/ -
/functions/ -
/images/ -
/js/
Theme functions
You can go to the functions.php to see the details of theme functions shipped on essential themes. However, the basic premise is having “all repetitive task packed into functions“. For example: instead of hand coding this on every loop you have:
<span><?php echo get_the_author_link(); ?></span>
<span><?php _e('Posted in: ', 'essential'); the_category(', '); ?></span>
You may replace it and paste this handy function:
<?php ess_post_meta(); ?>
Pretty neat huh? There are more than 20 functions you can use. Some of it are:
ess_share_buttons()ess_tweet_this($mode)ess_facebook_like()ess_twitter_link($username)ess_facebook_link($username)ess_excerpt()ess_content()
And many more. You may find out on more on functions.php
Theme Options & Widgets
I want to make Essential Theme incredibly easy to use. That’s why Essential Theme is packed with widget area + two more custom widgets. It also powered by simple, easy to use & extensible theme options to incorporate casual user who don’t want to touch the code.
Requirements
It requires WordPress 3.1 to work. I’ve tested it using WordPress 3.1 in WP_DEBUG mode turned on. However, i also got it tested on WordPress 3.0 but it wasn’t worked as well as it worked on 3.1. Long story short, ONLY use Essential Themes with latest version of WordPress.
Disclaimer
I’ve tested Essential Theme as best as i can, but there’s no code without bug. I’m not responsible for the usage of this theme. However, i’m willing to update & improve it if you found something wrong. Just contact me as fast as possible.
Future Plan
I’ll keep updating Essential Theme with new and essential stuffs. There are some cool stuffs i haven’t able to ship on this first version:
- Favicon & logo uploader. Saw it on Canvas‘ theme option. Super cool & handy.
- Localization.
- Handy widgets: latest tweets, flickr stream, drag n drop ads, etc
- Shortcodes: form builder
- Submitting it to the WordPress theme directory
- And many more.
Download Essential Theme
It’s free to download, it’s free to use, and it’s GPL! Have fun with it! If you have opinion, experience, suggestion, customization project or anything you can contact me through twitter, facebook or email.
Download it here:
If you’d like to see it in action, view it here:
Please respect my effort by not hotlinking it and link to this article instead.
Can’t wait to hear the good news of using Essential Theme from you 
Merilis “Essential Theme”
19 March 2011
[...] kamu yang berminat mengunduh Essential Theme, silahkan buka laman blog outstando ini. Tautan unduh (download link, agak aneh juga ya mencoba berbahasa Indonesia yang tertib ini)-nya [...]
Januar
19 March 2011
Demonya mana nih??
Moch. Zamroni
19 March 2011
cool
but where is demo?
fikrirasyid
20 March 2011
@Januar & @Moch. Zamroni
Crap, i forgot to post the link LOL here it is, hope you like it: http://outstando.com/themedemo/
Hafid
15 April 2011
Nice theme bro…
Sepertinya, kalo untuk sidebar, kita bisa include user_function.php ke dalam function.php ya?
Saya tertarik untuk buat wp theme juga. Baru selesai desain psd-nya hanya masih blm begitu mengerti cara slice coding dan loop-nya.
fikrirasyid
16 April 2011
Apa tujuan meng-
include user_function.phpke dalamfunctions.php-nya?Banyak tutorial kok cara slice dan coding-nya. Coba digoogling saja. saya juga pernah buat tutorialnya di http://bloggingly.com/tag/cara-membuat-theme-wordpress/
Hafid
20 April 2011
Mmmh, kalau saya pribadi. Sebisa mungkin tidak mengutak-atik
functions.phptheme yg saya pakai, bila saya mau menambahkan fungsi tertentu, saya buat file khusus “user-functions.php / custom-functions.php” seperti pada theme yg sekarang saya pakai, saya sisipkanuser-functions.phpuntuk widget sidebar dancustom-functions.phpuntuk fungsi seperti shortlink, default gravatar, disable autosave, dll. Tujuannya sih, bila saya ganti theme, saya tinggal add kedua file itu. Itu mengacu pada Thesis Framework. Yach, tiap orang punya pemikiran masing-masing sih.fikrirasyid
27 May 2011
Kalau mau ngemodifikasi tanpa merubah themes sih mendingan buat child theme saja
berita terkini
25 May 2011
wow..keren sekali themesnya
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