The workflow
These are the steps that we can follow in order to build a basic WordPress website:
1- The design
To build a website, we start with the frontend design, and here we have multiple options:
Design images (from scratch): in this case, the client usually provides the design as images (each image is a page), and we need to transform these images into HTML & CSS, this usually takes more time and effort than other methods, especially when we need to make sure that the website is responsive. this option is rarely used with our work now, but it can still be used with certain projects.
HTML template: in this case, we buy a license for an HTML template (with a responsive design), where the HTML code and CSS is already written, this method will save us time and effort, and it is usually a good approach to follow, but that doesn't mean we will use the design as is, we may still need to modify different aspects, for example:
- changing the logo
- changing the colors
- adding or duplicating existing sections
- removing unnecessary sections
- etc..
Wordpress theme/template: in this case, we buy a license for a WordPress theme/template, which means the design is already integrated as a WordPress theme, so usually in this case that means the theme is linked with WordPress admin so we can already do some data entry that will be reflected directly on the site (for example, if we bought a restaurant WordPress theme, we can directly start adding items to the food menu from the admin, and the changes will appear on the website), now, with this method the theme code might be messy or it may be difficult to modify the design while navigating the existing theme code, but it all depends on the theme, but this can be a good method as well, especially if the client didn't request much modifications to the original theme.
2- Creating a custom WordPress theme
The next step would be to create a WordPress theme out of the design files that we got (HTML, CSS, images,...).
You can check WordPress snippets (custom WordPress theme)
- Coder voice WordPress videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_vMoUyBr3srVNgzGNxLuiSi4XSUxzs_H
- Check WordPress snippets
3- Building the database
In this case you won't actually create the database tables yourself, but rather you will use Pods plugin (WordPress) or Voyager (Laravel), and you can then create "post types" and specify their fields.
For example you can create a Pod called "books" that has an ISBN, a photo, a title, a description and an Author.
You will also create what I call a "configs list", which is basically a list of configs that the admin can change and which contains some different stuff that are related to the website, so in this case the admin can easily change certain info from the admin panel without asking you to do that for them (some examples include: phone number, email, address, Facebook link, instagram link, etc..)
- Coder voice WordPress videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_vMoUyBr3srVNgzGNxLuiSi4XSUxzs_H
- Check WordPress snippets
4- Linking the database to the theme
After working on the database and adding the needed post types, now you have to link the admin to the actual website (front end), so let's say we have a bookshop website, and the admin already entered the books in the admin panel, in this stage we need to show these books on the website, and maybe organize them into categories and adding paginations as well (pagination means showing the result into multiple pages).
And we also need to link the configs list that we mentioned earlier to the main website as well (e.g phone number, Facebook link, Instagram link, etc..)
- Coder voice WordPress videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_vMoUyBr3srVNgzGNxLuiSi4XSUxzs_H
- Check WordPress snippets