Webstractions Web Development » webstractive theme http://webstractions.com Abstract thoughts in web design and development. Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:22:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 The Building of a Blog http://webstractions.com/wordpress/the-building-of-a-blog/ http://webstractions.com/wordpress/the-building-of-a-blog/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:40:19 +0000 Ronnie T. Dodger http://webstractions.com/?p=5 While I am not totally new to WordPress as a blogging platform, this is the first time I have used it for my personal website. The previous version of this site, I had used Blogger which was FTP-ed to my server. With a few Php enhancements and a phpBB backend, I have managed to create a rather unique blogging atmosphere.

I am now starting from scratch with WordPress 2.7 — this is the first time I have used this later version. The backend Admin area was totally rearranged. I rather like it though, especially the way Posts are laid out. It felt more comfortable to use to me.

What follows is an abstract for some of the high-points during the creation of this blog. More for documentation purposes, and in the future will be updated to include links to newer posts in which I can go into more detail.

WordPress Settings

Moved WordPress to the root domain per Codex article.

Turned off the Visual Editor in profile settings.

Custom structure for Permalinks /%category%/%postname%/

WordPress Plugins

Akismet, of course.

That is about it. Pretty much lean and mean.

WordPress Theme (Webstractive)

Early stages of theme development

Early stages of theme development

The new WordPress theme, dubbed Webstractive, is inspired by Dawud Miracle’s new layout that he launched in April of 2008. I liked the simple brown color schemes — it had an earthy quality to it.

As a baseline, I am using the old Copyblogger theme. Albeit, it is a heavily modified version that I use for new blogs and even a website that I developed with Zend Framework. I got a lot of mileage out of this puppy!

All graphics are created using Photoshop Elements, and an old version to boot. I am too set in my ways and this baby has served me well for a number of years. I am not too graphically talented, so why load up something that I never intend to use to its fullest.

Use of <?php the_excerpt(); ?> on index, category and archive pages. This did not take too much thought. It is a little more work to create those little teasers, but I think it adds character and a touch of professionalism to a blog.

Future Work

Will update this post as needed, add in screenshots, document procedures, etc. yada, yada. As mentioned in my inaugural post, there is an undocumented ‘snafu’ with the is_home() and is_front() functions in the WP core – more on that later too.

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