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WordPress Tutorial: How To Create A WordPress Theme from HTML (Part 1)

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If you started with an HTML ( + CSS) website, you don’t have to throw it all away when moving to WordPress. You can convert your HTML into WordPress and run your (now more powerful) website on the dynamic WordPress platform.

Or maybe that’s not the case. Perhaps you are just wondering how to convert a client’s HTML design into a fully-fledged WordPress theme. Or maybe you would like to learn basic WordPress (+ PHP) programming from the more-familiar HTML side.

Whatever the reason you are here today, this WordPress tutorial will introduce you to the basics of creating a WordPress theme from HTML. You can follow this guide to create your theme from scratch or you can head over to Github and download the WPExplorer starter theme which provides an “empty canvas” to create your theme with all the necessary template files and code to get started. So if you are one of those people that rather learn by reading through code then download the starter theme, skip the guide and see how things work…Otherwise, get a code editor (I use and recommend Notepad++, or SublimeText) and a browser ready, then follow this simple guide to the end.

Naming Your WordPress Theme

First things first, we have to give your theme a unique name, which isn’t necessary if you’re building a theme for your website only. Regardless, we need to name your theme to make it easily identifiable upon installation.

General assumptions at this point:

  • You have your index.html and CSS stylesheet ready.
  • You have a working WordPress installation with at least one theme e.g. Twenty Fourteen
  • You have already created a theme folder where you’ll be saving your new WordPress theme 🙂

Let’s get back to naming your WordPress theme. Open your code editor and copy-paste the contents of your stylesheet into a new file and save it as style.css in your theme folder. Add the following information at the very top of the newly-created style.css:

/*
Theme Name: Your theme's name
Theme URI: Your theme's URL
Description: A brief description of your theme
Version: 1.0 or any other version you want
Author: Your name or WordPress.org's username
Author URI: Your web address
Tags: Tags to locate your theme in the WordPress theme repository
*/

Do not leave out the (/*…*/) comment tags. Save the changes. This info tells WordPress the name of your theme, the author and complimentary stuff like that. The important part is the theme’s name, which allows you to choose and activate your theme via the WP dashboard.

Breaking Up Your HTML Template into PHP Files

This tutorial further assumes you have your HTML template arranged left to right: header, content, sidebar, footer. If you have a different design, you might need to play with the code a bit. It’s fun and super easy.

The next step involves creating four PHP files. Using your code editor, create index.php, header.php, sidebar.php and footer.php, and save them in your theme folder. All the files are empty at this point, so don’t expect them to do anything. For illustration purposes, I am using the following index.html and CSS stylesheet files:

INDEX.HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
	<head>
		<meta charset="UTF-8">
		<title>How To Convert HTML Template to WordPress Theme - WPExplorer</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="style.css"/>
	</head>
	<body>
		<div id="wrap">
			<header class="header">
				<p>This is header section. Put your logo and other details here.</p>
			</header><!-- .header -->
			<div class="content">
				<p>This is the main content area.</p>
			</div><!-- .content -->
			<div class="sidebar">
				<p>This is the side bar</p>
			</div><!-- .sidebar -->
			<footer class="footer">
				<p>And this is the footer.</p>
			</footer><!-- .footer -->
		</div><!-- #wrap -->
	</body>
</html>

CSS STYLESHEET

#wrap{margin: 0 auto; width:95%; margin-top:-10px; height:100%;}
.header{width:99.8%; border:1px solid #999;height:135px;}
.content{width:70%; border:1px solid #999;margin-top:5px;}
.sidebar{float:right; margin-top:-54px;width:29%; border:1px solid #999;}
.footer{width:99.8%;border:1px solid #999;margin-top:10px;}

You can grab both codes if you have nothing to work with. Just copy-paste them into your code editor, save them, create the four PHP files we just mentioned and get ready for the next part. Open your newly-created (and empty) header.php. Login into your existing WordPress installation, navigate to Appearance –>> Editor and open header.php. Copy all the  code between the <head> tags and paste it into your header.php file. The following is the code I got from the header.php file in Twenty Fourteen theme:

<head>
	<meta charset="<?php bloginfo( 'charset' ); ?>">
	<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
	<title><?php wp_title( '|', true, 'right' ); ?></title>
	<link rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
	<link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>">
	<!--[if lt IE 9]>
	<script src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/js/html5.js"></script>
	<![endif]-->
	<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>

Then open your index.html file and copy the header code (i.e. the code in the <div class= “header”> section) to your header.php just below the <head> tags as shown below:

<html>
	<head>
		<meta charset="<?php bloginfo( 'charset' ); ?>">
		<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
		<title><?php wp_title( '|', true, 'right' ); ?></title>
		<link rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
		<link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>">
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>" type="text/css" />
		<!--[if lt IE 9]>
		<script src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/js/html5.js"></script>
		<![endif]-->
		<?php wp_head(); ?>
	</head>
	<body>
		<header class="header">
		<p>This is header section. Put your logo and other details here.</p>
	</header>

Then add…

<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>" type="text/css" />

…anywhere between the <head> tags in the header.php file to link your stylesheet. Remember also to put the <html> and <body> opening tags in the header.php as shown above. Save all changes.

Copy the second section (i.e. <div class=”content”>…</div> from index.html to the newly-created index.php , and add…

<?php get_header(); ?>

…at the very top and …

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

…to the absolute bottom. These three lines fetch the header.php, sidebar.php and footer.php (in that order) and display them in the index.php, which puts your code back together. Save all changes. At this point, your index.php file should look like:

<?php get_header(); ?>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Then copy the content from the sidebar and footer sections in your index.html to sidebar.php and footer.php respectively.

Adding Posts

Your HTML template is about to morph into a WordPress theme. We just need to add your posts. If you have posts on your blog, how would you display them in your custom-made “HTML-to-WordPress” theme? You use a special type of PHP function known as the Loop. The Loop is just a specialized piece of code that displays your posts and comments wherever you place it.

Now, to display your posts in the content section of the index.php template, copy and paste the following code between the <div class=”content”> and </div> tags as shown below:

<div class="content">
	<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
		<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
			<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
				<div class="post-header">
					<div class="date"><?php the_time( 'M j y' ); ?></div>
					<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
					<div class="author"><?php the_author(); ?></div>
				</div><!--.post-header-->
				<div class="entry clear">
					<?php if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
					<?php the_content(); ?>
					<?php edit_post_link(); ?>
					<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>
				</div><!--. entry-->
				<footer class="post-footer">
					<div class="comments"><?php comments_popup_link( 'Leave a Comment', '1 Comment', '% Comments' ); ?></div>
				</footer><!--.post-footer-->
			</div><!-- .post-->
		<?php endwhile; /* rewind or continue if all posts have been fetched */ ?>
			<nav class="navigation index">
				<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link( 'Older Entries' ); ?></div>
				<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link( 'Newer Entries' ); ?></div>
			</nav><!--.navigation-->
		<?php else : ?>
	<?php endif; ?>
</div><!--.content-->

That will take care of your posts. Easy as ABC. At this juncture (and using the sample files provided in this tutorial), your header.php should look like this:

<head>
	<meta charset="<?php bloginfo( 'charset' ); ?>">
	<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
	<title><?php wp_title( '|', true, 'right' ); ?></title>
	<link rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11">
	<link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>">
	<!--[if lt IE 9]>
	<script src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/js/html5.js"></script>
	<![endif]-->
	<?php wp_head(); ?>
</head>

Your sidebar.php should look like this:

<?php dynamic_sidebar( 'sidebar' ); ?>

Your footer.php should look like this:

<footer class="footer">
    <p>And this is the footer</p>
</footer>
<?php wp_footer(); // Crucial core hook! ?>
</body>
</html>

Did you notice the closing </body> and </html> tags in the footer? Don’t forget to include those too.

Your style.css should look something like this:

/*
Theme Name: Creating WordPress Theme from HTML
Theme URI: http://wpexplorer.com
Description: This theme shows you how to create WordPress themes from HTML
Version: 1.0
Author: Freddy for @WPExplorer
Author URI: http://WPExplorer.com/create-wordpress-theme-html-1/
Tags: wpexplorer, custom theme, HTML to WordPress, create WordPress theme
*/
body {
    font-family: arial, helvetica, verdana;
    font-size: 0.8em;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
}

.header {
    background-color: #1be;
    margin-left: 14%;
    top: 0;
    border-width: 0.1em;
    border-color: #999;
    border-style: solid;
    width: 72%;
    height: 250px;
}

.content {
    background-color: #999;
    margin-left: 14%;
    margin-top: 5px;
    float: left;
    width: 46%;
    border-width: 0.1em;
    border-color: #999;
    border-style: solid;
}

.sidebar {
    background-color: #1d5;
    margin-right: 14%;
    margin-top: 5px;
    float: right;
    border-width: 0.1em;
    border-color: #999;
    border-style: solid;
    top: 180px;
    width: 23%;
}

.footer {
    background-color: red;
    margin-left: 14%;
    float: left;
    margin-top: 5px;
    width: 72%;
    height: 50px;
    border-width: 0.1em;
    border-color: #999;
    border-style: solid;
}

And your index.php should look similar to:

<?php get_header(); ?>
<div class="content">
	<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
		<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
			<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
				<div class="post-header">
					<div class="date"><?php the_time( 'M j y' ); ?></div>
					<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
					<div class="author"><?php the_author(); ?></div>
				</div><!--.post-header-->
				<div class="entry clear">
					<?php if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
					<?php the_content(); ?>
					<?php edit_post_link(); ?>
					<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>
				</div><!--. entry-->
				<footer class="post-footer">
					<div class="comments"><?php comments_popup_link( 'Leave a Comment', '1 Comment', '% Comments' ); ?></div>
				</footer><!--.post-footer-->
			</div><!-- .post-->
		<?php endwhile; /* rewind or continue if all posts have been fetched */ ?>
			<nav class="navigation index">
				<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link( 'Older Entries' ); ?></div>
				<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link( 'Newer Entries' ); ?></div>
			</nav><!--.navigation-->
		<?php else : ?>
	<?php endif; ?>
</div><!--.content-->
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php wp_footer(); // Crucial footer hook! ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Again – this is based on a left to right website with a header, content, sidebar, footer layout. Are you following? All the five files should be saved in your theme folder. Name the folder whatever you want and compress it into a ZIP archive using WinRar or an equivalent program. Upload your new theme to your WordPress installation, activate it and see your converted theme in action!

That was easy, right? You can style your theme however you want but most of the features we love in WordPress are still inactive since…this tutorial covers the basics of converting HTML templates into WordPress and should be of great value to you as a beginner. In the next tutorial, we will take things a notch higher and play around with other aspects of WordPress programming (such as Template Files and Template Tags) that will let you turn your HTML templates whichever way you like. Stay tuned!

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