The Complete WordPress Theme Development Course

** UPDATED DEC 16th 2020 **

Have you ever wanted to learn how to customize a WordPress theme or plugin so that it looks and works exactly the way you want it to? Most times our ability to build a WordPress website depends heavily on what options are available to us by the theme and plugins we use. This course aims to break through this barrier by teaching you how to build your very own WordPress functions and templates. 

Quick Summary of What You Will Learn

In this course, you will learn

• How WordPress works behind the scenes to display content on your website

• How to build your own custom page templates

• How to write WordPress functions

• How to work with custom post types and advanced custom fields

• How to work with WordPress template tags

• How to create and display your very own custom sidebars

• and so much more .....

Reviews from Students ...

"Fantastic course. Covers a wide range of subjects related to WordPress development - and in greater depth than I was expecting to be honest. Alex doesn't try to impress you with what he knows (like many instructors do), but just gives clear, concise information which follows a logical structure - with plenty of real-world coding examples which are easy to follow along with. At no point was I left wondering what he was talking about, or how we got there (another common problem). He also responds remarkably quickly to questions. Really enjoyable. " -- Paul Brant

Alex is the guy. 1 - Always answer your questions. 2 - If you're novice (the kind of novice that only knows how to install wordpress), he takes you by the hand during the videos. VERY VERY WELL EXPLAINED. 3 - Even if you have experience building wordpress themes from scratch, im sure you'll have some quite good insight about WP structure. 4 - That's obvious, but lots of content you see here you can find on internet, but Alex makes easier and faster to understand... So... Worth every penny :) -- Guilherme Soares

The WordPress Loop

The WordPress loop is the single most crucial and important function of WordPress and in this course, you will learn exactly how it works and how you can modify the loop to customize how your post and page content are displayed.

"Great course, perfect after a little playing with WP on your own and some PHP knowledge. Although you could probably pick up the PHP as you go. I like Alex's instruction style, it feels like he is invested in your success. The exercises are easy to follow, seem to be clearly explained. I haven't found anything like this for free, it's all set out for you so you don't have to hash through multiple resources to level up. The course is really helping me to understand the inner workings of WP and with a little prior experience I am building a theme for a hostel for free then I'm sure I am ready for my first paid job."  -- Trevor Joel

We are going to use a starter theme (underscores) to build a complete WordPress blog about movies.

The first section will introduce you to the core template files that you will find in every WordPress theme and also the WordPress template hierarchy which determines what template file displays content.

We will then move on to learn about WordPress template tags and the almighty WordPress loop which is responsible for displaying the content of your post types. We will then learn how to create custom image sizes so that you will have total control on how media files are displayed on your website. We will round up section 4 by learning how to customize the WordPress query and post excerpts.

We will cover custom post types and advanced custom fields in the next section which are crucial to your arsenal as a WordPress developer. You will then learn how to create your very own custom template files so you can determine how content is displayed on your website.

Custom sidebars and how to create and display them comes next. We will progress to start building our custom home page template and also learn how to properly load custom style sheets.

You will then learn about taxonomy templates and conditional tags before we take a look at global variables and how to work outside the WordPress loop.

I will then proceed to show you how to write your very own custom WordPress functions. We will write the following

• A function to display the current time

• A function to add Google Analytics

• A function to add a custom gravatar

• A function to add profile authors

• A function to hide the WordPress version

We will then conclude this course by taking a look at the WordPress installation directory and database management.

Bonus Section

You will be given the opportunity to test your new found skills by applying them onto a real world project. You are going to build a food menu for a restaurant with advanced custom fields and post types. You will also display this menu by customizing the WordPress loop and page templates.

I cannot wait for you to enroll in this true WordPress development course.

I hope to see you on the inside.

Alex.