There are around 12 core files. Here is Overview of the main files you will be working with:
• Header.php – Contains everything you’d want to appear at the top of your site.
• Index.php – The core file that load your theme, also act as the homepage.
• Functions.php – A file that can be used to configure the wordpress core,
Without editing core files.
• Sidebar.php – Contains everything you’d want to appear in sidebar.
• Footer.php – Contains everything you’d want to appear at the bottom of your site.
• Archive.php – The template file used when viewing categories, dates, posts by author,etc.
• Single.php – The template file used when viewing the individual post.
• Comments.php – Called at the bottom of single.php file to enable the comments section.
• Page.php – Similar to single.php
• Search.php – The template file used to search display search results.
• 404.php – The template file that display when a 404 error occurs.
• Style.css – All the styling goes here.
Each of these files contains series of php template tag. By using these tags we can insert dynamic content.
• Configuring the stylesheet
All the details of a WordPress theme are contained within the stylesheet. At the top of your style.css add the following code.
/* Theme Name: Vibidsoft Theme URI: http://www.vibidsoft.in/ Description: Vibidsoft WordPress theme Version: 1 Author: Vibidsoft Author URI: http://www.vibidsoft.in/ */
index.php
Open the index.php, add this piece of code and save the file:
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="container">
<?php if(have_posts()) : ?><?php while(have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div class="post" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
<?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<div class="entry">
<?php the_content(); ?>
<p class="postmetadata">
<?php _e('Filed under:'); ?> <?php the_category(', ') ?> <?php _e('by'); ?>
<?php the_author(); ?><br />
<?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?>
<?php edit_post_link('Edit', ' | ', ''); ?>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<div class="navigation">
<?php posts_nav_link(); ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
The index-file now contains the code that calls to the header, sidebar and footer template files
header.php
Open the header.php, add this piece of code and save the file:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
<title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?><?php wp_title(); ?></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="<?php bloginfo('html_type'); ?>;
charset=<?php bloginfo('charset'); ?>" />
<meta name="generator" content="WordPress <?php bloginfo('version'); ?>" />
<!-- leave this for stats please -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>"
type="text/css" media="screen" />
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly&format=link'); ?>
<?php //comments_popup_script(); // off by default ?>
<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="header">
<h1><a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a></h1>
<?php bloginfo('description'); ?>
</div>
footer.php
Open the footer.php, add this piece of code and save the file:
<div id="footer">
<p>
Copyright 2007 <a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></a>
</p>
</div>
</div></body>
</html>
sidebar.php
Open the sidebar.php, add this piece of code and save the file:
<div class="sidebar">
<ul>
<?php if ( function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') && dynamic_sidebar() ) : else : ?>
<?php wp_list_pages('depth=3&title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>'); ?>
<li><h2><?php _e('Categories'); ?></h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&optioncount=1&hierarchical=0'); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<li><h2><?php _e('Archives'); ?></h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=monthly'); ?>
</ul>
</li>
<?php get_links_list(); ?>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>