WordPress Themes Development Frameworks
If you build and develop WordPress themes often, you will probably be fed up of all the repetitive code writing, the constantly checking of your mark-up and all you really want to do is focus on the design and the project-specific features. The answer is a WordPress development framework. A framework is designed to speed up the process of designing and coding a WordPress theme by minimizing your time, and balancing your patience, on WordPress’ back-end code that is repeated within every theme.
This post is not about finding the best framework, it is about finding the right framework that works for you. If you are an experienced developer then you will probably go for the powerful and feature rich Thematic or Carrington, or if you are a novice, you could try the Whiteboard framework or , even easier, download a stripped out and bare bones blank canvas theme, which you will find at the bottom of the post.
Which would you use?
Thematic – WP Framework
Thematic is a highly polished WordPress Theme Framework that is built upon the 960.gs. At first glance, its backend may look daunting and complex, but you will soon realise just how well organised it is and easy to use. Its power is based upon its flexibility and its simple customisation, you would be very hard pushed to find a project you couldn’t use the Thematic WP Framework for.
- Thematic Homepage.
- View Thematic Demo.
- Download Thematic WP Framework.
- Thematic Support Forums.
- Thematic Customisation Guide.
THEMATIC FEATURES
- Optional 2 or 3 column layouts.
- Up to 13 widget ready areas.
- Modular CSS with pre-packaged resets and basic typography.
- Fully Search-Engine Optimized.
- Can be used as it is, or as a blank WordPress theme.
- Dynamic post and body classes make it a hyper-canvas for CSS artists.
- Options for multi-author blogs.
- Great support available from the customisation guide and forums.
- Child Themes are available for upgrading the theme.
THEMATIC (CHILD) THEMES
Thematic uses Child Themes, these are essentially stripped down versions of a full WP theme, that needs the Thematic Framework for functionality. Upon download, Thematic comes packaged with a basic child theme, but you can download many more from the Thematic homepage. Download Thematic Child Themes.