Before you start¶

First thing you should do before you start developing blog and pages in wp theme (of course only if you didin`t done this before) is download and import to your wp installation Wordpress Theme Unit Test Data it helps you to develope your wp theme. Second thing you should have and which helps you in developing blog is WP Monster Widget .

Page structure¶

Your first step should be index.php file. This one is responsible for displaying post on page. It depends form the project but usually your this page should be displayed in three variants:

• Page with no sidebar
• Page with sidebar on left side
• Page with sidebar on right side

This one like any other blog setting should be set in blog section in Customizer options.

Remember to proper style all worpdress lists pages:

• Archive archive.php
• Author author.php
• Category category.php
• Tag tag.php
• Search search.php

Next thing you should do is develop every type of wp post. Wordpress by default have this type of posts:

• Standard single.php
• Aside content-aside.php
• Image content-image.php
• Video content-video.php
• Audio content-audio.php
• Quote content-quote.php
• Link content-link.php
• Gallery content-gallery.php
• Page content-page.php

Sidebar¶

Blog sidebar is container with registered widget area. You can register blog sidebar in inc/sidebar.php.

Use register function like this:

register_sidebar( array(
    'name'          => esc_html__( 'Blog sidebar', 'ct_theme' ),
    'id'            => 'blog-sidebar',
    'description'   => esc_html__( 'Sidebar placed in blog page', 'ct_theme' ),
    'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s ct-sidebar-widget ct-u-margin-bottom-30">',
    'after_widget'  => '</div>',
    'before_title'  => '<h4 class="widget-title ct-sidebar-widget-title">',
    'after_title'   => '</h4>',
) );

Next insert sidebar into pages and remember to put them into functions is_active_sidebar() :

<?php if ( is_active_sidebar( 'blog-sidebar' ) ):
        dynamic_sidebar( 'blog-sidebar' );
endif; ?>

For sidebar development put monster widget into your blog sidebar.

Custom post Types¶

When you finished with default blog and sidebar look your next step should be coding Custom Post Types if project need them templates. For more information see Custom Post Types.

Pages¶

The last thing you should do after you finished developing all posts types, lists pages and default widget is work on all custom pages in your project. Every project has unique pages wich you should code and register as a page template - eg. error 404 page - 404.php .

After you finished develping Header, Footer and Blog you should go on Codex Theme Testing Process and check all the points.