Themes

in this episode, we'll discuss the concept of themes in both wordpress and processwire.

perhaps one of the most popular features of wordpress is the ability to quickly change the appearance of a website by utilizing a different theme.

but before we continue, what exactly is a theme? according to the wordpress codex:

"A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog. These files are called template files. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Themes may include customized template files, image files, style sheets, custom Pages, as well as any necessary code files."

one requirement of themes is that it must abide by the template files that wordpress expects in each theme. when making a theme, here are the files an author must keep in mind (show it)

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there are many different types of themes and they serve vastly different purposes.

- first, there are free themes. a default installation of wordpress provides you with several free themes, such as "Twenty Fifteen".

if we look at the frontend of our site, you can see twentyfifteen being used.

you can also use wordpress's theme directory to download other free themes.

- second, there are commercial themes. usually, these themes are higher end and do come with a level of support. there are many companies known as themehouses that create excellent themes. wordpresses own website provides you with a link to their sites.

themeforest is also a well known marketplace for themes.

are made by individuals or companies known as themehouses. themeforest is a very popular website where commercial themes can be purchased. wordpress's official theme directory also contains commercial themes.

- third, there are starter themes, which are geared towards developers and provide a simple starting point upon which a custom design can be made. the best known examples of starting themes are the Underscores theme and my personal favorite, Sage.

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let's first demonstrate how to change a traditional free theme. (show it)

let's also quickly demonstrate sage. (show it)

in this episode i won't go into further demonstrations about themes, however the main point is there are a variety of ways to go about it, some of which I didn't cover. ultimately, wordpress has first class support for interchangeable themes.

https://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes

https://wordpress.org/themes/commercial/
http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress
http://www.woothemes.com/product-category/themes/woocommerce/

http://my.studiopress.com/themes/genesis/

http://theme.co/x/
http://theme-fusion.com/avada/

https://ithemes.com/find/themes/

https://github.com/Automattic/_s
https://roots.io/sage/

in the last couple years, there has been a class of commercial themes informally known as "mega" themes which contain not just a design, but a large amount of features that perhaps are better suited as plugins. X theme and Avada are well known examples.

some are free, some are commercial. some are parent themes and some are child themes. some come with a comprehensive design and some are meant as a starting point for developers. some come with very rich editing features and some as very light in what they include. ultimately, they are target different use cases and serve different purposes.

in processwire, there is no such concept as interchangeable themes. the "templates" folder under the "site" folder is essentially the equivalent folder to that of a wordpress theme.

so why is there no such thing as interchangeable themes?

if you think about it, processwire is a system that is unopinionated. it is not geared for a specific task like blogging, nor does it force you into a specific template structure like wordpress. it leaves these decisions up to the developer, and as a result, the consistency from site to site is dictated by the developer. it is for this reason that processwire can be seen as more flexible. it's like a blank sheet of paper.

now if we compare it to the three theme types i mentioned in wordpress, the one that matches up the best are starter themes. i mentioned before that sage was my personal favorite starter theme

because of processwire's flexibility, it excels at websites that are one-of-a-kind and unique. not only can you choose what fields, templates and pages you want to use, but you can also choose how your frontend is built. you can write everything from scratch, or you can repurpose starter themes like sage to processwire, which is my personal approach.

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