WordPress: The chicken or the egg?

[nixnerd]

My question is VERY simple:

Is it better to hand code a site and THEN add WordPress functionality, OR is it better to have WordPress in mind from the start?

My workflow generally dictates that HTML comes first, then CSS, then PHP/functionality. So, in theory, it’s fine to turn a site into a WordPress theme as a final step. Am I wrong here?

[Alen]

It’s a big waste of time IMO. You might want to test modules/components in HTML then translate that feature into WordPress, but if your ultimate tool is WordPress then start there.

You can still technically build just HTML within WordPress. All you really need is index.php and style.css files to get going with building theme. Then as your site grows in complexity and you want to customize theme, start dividing things into templates: header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php, page.php, single.php… etc. Once you have index.php completed this gives you the base to copy from and adjust.

Hope that helps. -Alen

[Senff]

Indeed, it totally depends. If you’re not all to comfortable with WordPress, it’s fine to code everything in HTML first, and then when you’re done, transfer it all one by one into a WordPress site.

Myself, I’ve been using WP for years so I’m comfortable enough with it to start with a blank template in WP and then go from there. I’d say that if you know how the templating system works in WordPress (the interaction between the header, footer, templates, and loop), then you’re probably better off coding straight into WP.

But then still it depends on the size/structure of the site.

[Author]

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