WordPress Theme Overview

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to define the appearance and layout of your WordPress site. It controls the design, structure, and presentation of content on your site. Themes allow you to customize the look and feel of your website without modifying the core WordPress files.

In our case, all projects are built using the same theme structure, where the theme’s name is based on the client’s acronym followed by -wp-theme. For example, sei-wp-theme, nybj-wp-theme, and so on.

We will dive deeper into themes later, but for now, once you have the theme placed in the correct directory, you can activate it through the WordPress admin dashboard (or using XAMPP, depending on your local setup).

Minimal Files for a Basic WordPress Theme

The basic structure of a WordPress theme includes the following essential files:

• style.css: This file contains the primary CSS styles for your site’s design.
• index.php: The fallback template that WordPress uses to display content.
• functions.php: Used to add custom functions, hooks, and actions to enhance the theme’s functionality.

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Key Files in a WordPress Theme

style.css

The style.css file is the primary stylesheet for your theme. In our case, we only use it to add essential information about the theme, such as its name, version, and author:

/*
Theme Name: My Custom Theme
Theme URI: http://example.com
Author: Your Name
Author URI: http://example.com
Description: A custom theme for my WordPress site.
Version: 1.0
*/

Functions.php

The functions.php file is the heart of your WordPress theme and is often referred to as the “theme’s brain.” It allows you to add custom functionality and hooks to modify the behavior of WordPress. Some common uses of functions.php include:

Registering custom post types or taxonomies

Enqueuing (adding) styles and scripts to the theme

Modifying WordPress settings and behaviors, such as custom widgets or theme support for features like post thumbnails

index.php

The index.php file is one of the most important template files in a WordPress theme. It acts as a fallback template, meaning that if WordPress cannot find a more specific template for the content being requested (such as a single post or page), it will default to index.php. This file is responsible for displaying the main structure of your site, including:

The WordPress loop (which pulls in posts or pages)

Basic HTML structure (such as header, footer, and sidebar)

Though it is a very basic template, it is crucial for ensuring content is displayed correctly when no other template is available.