In Chapter 17 (page 78) we introduced WordPress and gave some basic assistance in getting started with it. WordPress continues to grow and its popularity has probably passed the tipping point so that it will eventually represent 80% of the CMS market. So, how do you get in on all this WordPress goodness? You can write your own themes. That way you can really take control of your websites, but at the same time ride on the success coattails of WordPress.
Developing Your Own Themes
You can start out easy by just developing your own theme. Mostly this involves creating CSS and images. You end up with your own private version of what WordPress should look like. (Or you can share it.) You can do as little or as much as you want, and WordPress will make up the difference.
The WordPress Loop
Maybe a theme is too under-powered for your vision. Maybe you want a fullblown application, but you like the fact that WordPress is widely available and provides a myriad of small things, like logging in and password recovery. You can use WordPress as your basis and build almost anything within that framework.
WordPress builds webpages using a database and custom programming that is part of each theme. The loop is the way you can totally customize what is going up on the user’s screen. This is where you capability equivalent to Drupal or any other high-end Content Management System. This is where WordPress escapes from being merely a blogging platform and turns into a full-blown application development platform.
Developing Your Own PlugIns
PlugIns can be shared across many themes. Each is basically a miniwebpage, a page within a page. We present here an alphabetical listing of some of the vocabulary words and acronyms used throughout this book.
The Web Color Wheel
Web colors are based on an additive model, using Red, Green, and Blue as the nominal components; nominal because the green is really more of a lime color. The outer ring of the color wheel uses FF (full intensity) and 00 (absence) to create the primary and secondary web colors. The inner ring of the color wheel uses 80 (half intensity) and 00 (absence) to create shaded versions of the primary and secondary web colors.
Noticably absent from these 12 colors is orange. CSS version 2.1 gives official names to 17 colors, including the 12 shown in this color wheel. It also includes the color orange and four desaturated colors of white, silver, gray, and black. Here is the complete list: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, orange, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow. Fuchsia is named for German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. The incorrect spelling, fuschia, is pretty common, and may even work in some browsers, but is still incorrect
render: the process used by the browser to convert HTML into a usable image. Also the process used by the browser to convert vector fonts into raster images displayed on a webpage. sans-serif: One of the five generic font families. It literally means without serifs. Sans-serif fonts have plain ends on their strokes. Sans fonts are commonly used for headings in web pages and printed pages.
