Comments on: general fun with themes http://www.digitalramble.com/2006/06/27/48/ surveyor of the foothills, valleys and occasional sheer cliff drops of the world of computer programming... Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:52:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Brian Layman http://www.digitalramble.com/2006/06/27/48/#comment-32 Brian Layman Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:47:15 +0000 http://www.digitalramble.com/2006/06/27/48/#comment-32 Hmmm, it didn't like me using your code tag... let's do this the old fashioned way... This is what I was trying to show... <?php require(dirname(__FILE__).'/inc/custompage_top.php'); ?> [... custom code ...] <?php require(dirname(__FILE__).'/inc/custompage_btm.php'); ?> Hmmm, it didn’t like me using your code tag… let’s do this the old fashioned way…
This is what I was trying to show…

<?php require(dirname(__FILE__).’/inc/custompage_top.php’); ?>
[… custom code …]
<?php require(dirname(__FILE__).’/inc/custompage_btm.php’); ?>

]]> By: Brian Layman http://www.digitalramble.com/2006/06/27/48/#comment-31 Brian Layman Thu, 29 Jun 2006 13:44:12 +0000 http://www.digitalramble.com/2006/06/27/48/#comment-31 This is a VERY good tip. And I think it is a style that should be followed on all themes. On my wife's blog, and she better not post that picture she took of me wearing her robe yesterday, I have several pages that hang independently off of the blog but carry the whole theme of the blog. So the very first thing I do when adopting a new theme (and having 1 theme per blog makes this possible) is determine what must come before and "THE LOOP" and create two php files from that and store them in my own includes directory. What I should do is store them in a directory underneath the theme so that I can theme switch... Anyway that give me web pages that look something like this... <code><br />  <br /> [... custom code ...]<br />  <br /> </code> I also have a standard include file that contains only my DB login and Password for a particular DB, one that opens the DB connection, and one that closes it. So my pages that query the DB all have a similar structure. That makes pages like: <a href='http://www.knitchat.com/knitting-in-the-news.php' rel="nofollow">The Latest Knitting News</a> <a href='http://www.knitchat.com/fleet.php' rel="nofollow">Ships in the Fleet</a> <a href='http://www.knitchat.com/linktome.php' rel="nofollow">Link back to me. Arg!</a> <a href='http://www.knitchat.com/subscribetome.php' rel="nofollow">Advanced News feeds. Yar!</a> really easy to create. (BTW Yes that was a cut and paste of the links, you're not the only one that's lazy!) In fact, this was all supposed to be info in one of my first blog posts three months ago but I never got around to it... This is a VERY good tip. And I think it is a style that should be followed on all themes. On my wife’s blog, and she better not post that picture she took of me wearing her robe yesterday, I have several pages that hang independently off of the blog but carry the whole theme of the blog.

So the very first thing I do when adopting a new theme (and having 1 theme per blog makes this possible) is determine what must come before and “THE LOOP” and create two php files from that and store them in my own includes directory. What I should do is store them in a directory underneath the theme so that I can theme switch…

Anyway that give me web pages that look something like this…

 
[... custom code ...]
 

I also have a standard include file that contains only my DB login and Password for a particular DB, one that opens the DB connection, and one that closes it. So my pages that query the DB all have a similar structure.

That makes pages like:

The Latest Knitting News
Ships in the Fleet
Link back to me. Arg!
Advanced News feeds. Yar!

really easy to create. (BTW Yes that was a cut and paste of the links, you’re not the only one that’s lazy!) In fact, this was all supposed to be info in one of my first blog posts three months ago but I never got around to it…

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