Anatomy of a WordPress Theme – exploring the files behind your theme

This video, by Tom Johnson of I’d Rather Be Writing explains the different files that make up the template of your WordPress blog. Templates discussed include index.php, single.php, category.php, tag.php, search.php, author.php, and more.

Comments

21 responses to “Anatomy of a WordPress Theme – exploring the files behind your theme”

  1. I never knew about author.php and category-ID.php, really excellent screen cast. Thanks a lot 🙂

  2. really fantastic
    thanks a lot .

  3. category-ID.php is a great nugget of info. Thanks.

  4. Great stuff, nice and simple explanation of the theme files.

    Thanks

  5. franzenjb Avatar
    franzenjb

    You say “go to theme and select editor”. I do not have that option. I have Edit CSS but none of these options or pages come up? I purchased the Edit CSS option / upgrade?

    1. If you’re hosting your blog with WordPress.com, you can’t edit your theme files, only your CSS.

  6. Coo’ beans. Thanks for taking the time to explain this.

    Take care.

  7. nice, “Eassy to learn”

  8. Good stuff, I agree with Magda. Using the Cat ID could be cool…

  9. I never knew about the category-id.php. Now it will be more easy to me to make my websites more pretty.

  10. kittemar Avatar

    I’m just starting “in this wonderland” so excuse my stupid questions. Could I delete files I don’t want to be shown in my blog? I have a hosting account with GD must I upload files there?

    1. You can remove those files, but if they are theme files, your best option is to either delete them using a control panel with your host (if available) or to delete them via FTP. If you still need additional help, please direct your question to the WordPress.org Support forum.

  11. Unbelievable. I became increasingly easy to understand the structure of wordpress theme after watching this video.

  12. Thanks for this information. It’s nice to be refreshed on things that you don’t use often enough. And, the author tidbit was great! Appreciate your tutorials!

  13. Sorry for the silly question, but how do you get the “editor” to appearance in the “Appearance” section. I have WordPress 2.92. Is it supposed to be there by default or is it a plug-in?

    Many thanks,
    lee

    1. The Editor option should be under Appearance in the Dashboard as long as you have sufficient user privileges to use that feature.

  14. Main Index is the highest in hierarchy. Excellent info. My favorite part is how you showed where the header, sidebar, and footer php script is located on each template.

    (get header) on top
    (get sidebar & footer) on bottom

    I put my php example in the post above, but they got erased.

  15. David J Avatar
    David J

    Well explained and still useful even over 2 years after publishing.

  16. I’d also like to mention there are plugins that can tell you what file the page is using, since sometimes the hierarchy can get tricky, ‘show theme file’ plugin is pretty good at it.

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Video details

Published

March 16, 2009

Tags

PHP 14
Themes 106
WordPress 2.7 43


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