This new site is set up as a replacement for my old one : chenximao.net.
It was built on top of one commercial WordPress template called Thesis. My development got on very well and the integration proved to be not hard at all.
So far as I can tell, having a WordPress template framework is a good approach for web developers. One of the reasons is that you no longer have to start everything from scratch or modify a finished theme to cope your very need. Although WordPress template system is easy to understand and quick to have a mock-up. it still takes much time before you can happily say all is done. I don’t believe Rapid Theme Development exist, without the help of such a theme framework like Thesis. On contrast, having a fully “polished” theme seems to be a brilliant idea at first, however, sooner or later you would find modifying someone else’s code, or better to say, style, is really really painful. I admit the fact that there are tons of beautiful and amazing WordPress themes out there in the market, just grab one, put it on the theme folder, activate it and , bang! Welcome to the new world! Unfortunately, for a person like me who wants to try everything with his own hands, that is also not an accepted solution.
Having said that, there are still some inconveniences need to be pointed out. Firstly, customization of Thesis template should be easier, especially when you wanna customize the custom-functions.php or custom.css. They should have been no direct editable panels in wp-admin – since once you make a mistake, everything is GONE! Secondly, the structure of Thesis file system remains a mystery to me, for instance, I have no idea where the FootScript is placed, thus can only refer my javascripts using absolute paths. At last, modification should have more freedom, arbitrary control on all elements in html. Things like changing the background image of the body tag should have been made dead-easy.
During my development phase I did get lots of experience about how theme and other plugins integrated into the WordPress CMS. I feel like it! I don’t regret my $80 payment to the Thesis team. After thress days of trials and errors, I can finally say that the initial design is done. Of course more to come in the near future but let me sit back in my couch and enjoy my work for some time first…
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{ 1 comment }
Let me get the first comment myself:)
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