Arbenting

So in our intro to the series we talked about the simplistic nature of the of a basic WordPress theme, and the minute number of files needed to pull off your most basic of functional designs. In this installment we take a look at another area, one that gets us started right, and happens to be an area that also lands a bit simply on the lighter side…the tools.

All in all, there are only a handful of tools that are clear necessities in order to get your WordPress theme development under way. Now don’t get us wrong, these tools are not all you will need. On top of what we list below, you will also need to be packing some advanced knowledge of HTML & CSS, and a bit of a background in PHP sure wouldn’t hurt though it is not an absolute necessity. So if you have your coding language clearance then you are ready to proceed. Here are the few things you are going to want to have in your toolbox.

Text Editor

The first thing you will need is a basic text editor. Different people will have different needs but for me syntax highlighting is my only necessity. Keeping it simple and free I recommend Notepad ++ for windows and TextWrangler for mac.

A Local Test Server

Setting up a local test server for WordPress makes developing themes much quicker and easier. You can use the following tutorials to set up XAMPP on Windows or MAMP on Mac

Sample Content

Next, you’re going to need some sample content for your test install. There are a few different options here but my favorite is the sample content from the wordpress codex for the simple reason that it has trackbacks which I’ve found that no other sample content has.

If, like me, you find this version to be a bit bloated, you can also download my slightly altered and Scaled Down Version.

Firefox with Firebug and Web Developer Toolbar

While I’ve begun to hear good things about the web development tools of other browsers, I have very little personal experience with them. So I’ll stick to recommending what I know and what works for me which is Firefox with Firebug which is definitely a must have. The Web Developer Toolbar is also extremely helpful though not as necessary as the former.

Knowledge

On top of the above tools you’re obviously going to need some knowledge. That’s what this series is for but I thought I would list a few books and resources that go into a bit more depth than this series will.

The WordPress Codex has absolutely everything you need to know about WordPress and is kept completely up to date for the newest release.

Digging Into WordPress, both the book and the blog are extremely useful resources

Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog

That’s all for now…

This was the start, getting the building blocks organized if you will, in the next installment we will start getting our hands dirty. If you have any tools that you just can’t code WordPress themes without, then feel free to drop them in the comments section to keep the toolbox expanding.

A Final Word

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