Hi, i have just installed my very first wordpress site... i have been using my own custom CMS site for the last few years and i have finally got around to testing out wordpress properly... i have been using it for the last 2 days now and i am very happy with it... i wanted to use all the standard functions on it and building a few questions on wordpress instead of posting several questions... I have a few simple questions that i hope someone can help me with... 1 - are themes and templates the same thing 2 - are widgets and plugins the same thing 3 - when you install a theme / template do they come with their own additional plugins / widgets also 4 - i designed my own CMS site a few years ago and i build a strong base structure / template that allowed me to use each time i started a new project... are there custom blank templates out there that allow you to easily adapt them and create your own base template / theme 5 - when you customise wordpress (cms settings, theme settings, image files, code changes etc...) is there a way to back it all up as a package and then use it as a starting template for other sites thanks in advance to anyone that can help with any of the above questions, much appreciated...
Hi, 1. Themes and templates are different (a template is a collection of themes, or maybe vice versa) 2. No, they are not the same thing 3. If u get a complete package from the likes of, say, thesis theme, then they provide u complete framework, including any widgets etc. 4. Frameworks allow you to tweak the looks as u want. Other templates can be modified to make new "child themes" etc. Your case may not be supported. 5. You can export the settings using tools section in dashboard, then import them in another WP site. TC
1) Themes and templates are different 2) Widgets and plugin are also different 3) It depends on the theme you choose 4) For this you can use thesis theme 5) yes of course you can
Yes. They are the same thing. Frameworks are another subject. No. Widgets are drag and drop modules that you can apply to widget ready areas of your design...most commonly the sidebar. Plug ins add additional functionality to your site. Some plug ins exist only to create a widget with specific functions, such as a Twitter Feed widget, or Flickr Gallery. But every plug in doesn't have a widget. Some do. Some designers will recommend certain plugs that are required for you to get all of the functionality out of the theme. Common ones are image plug ins and contact forms. Are you speaking of child themes? Some of the better premium themes come with child themes so that you can make changes to the template and are still able to update without loosing them. There is no specific "Blank theme" out there, but you can make a child theme out of what ever you wish. Check this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes You can save your mods just by copying the theme folder to your computer or where ever you store files, but you can't back up the settings since they are specific to each site. You can transfer your content by using the "Export" function in the tools. And then the "Import" function in the tools of the new site. You can however, download the database tables of your plug ins which would save their settings, and then upload them to a new database, but I don't recommend it. Seems like too much work just to do something so simple. There are some plug ins built for multisite installations that allow you to duplicate settings and such for multiple sites within a network. Image files are stored in wp-content/uploads. You can always take them with you to a new site, however, if you are transferring the files of a new site verbatim, you still have to go in and re-path your images because they will still be coming from the old URL.
1) Themes are the combination of templates. In a single theme, there are multiple templates (index.php, header.php, footer.php etc). 2) No, they are not same thing. 3) Some theme have their own built-in widgets, some does not have. But they don't come with plug-in. Some premium themes though provide plug-ins as extra module. 4) What did you mean by blank theme? Without the database, all themes are blank by itself! 5) If you want the theme, you can copy the theme folder. But if you want full site (with all contents), you need to copy your wordpress directory and the database, and then set them for some other domain in some other location.
Very few users call the files that make up a theme, "templates". If you look up "Templates" in Google, you'll get a listing of themes, not individual files that make up a theme. If you want to get technical, a template is not a file like index.php or header.php or footer.php because those files cannot act alone to structure a page. They are a part of a Template. Creating a page.php or single.php with a defined or customized structure to display the content, would be considered a template.