Functions.php Where to Start

[nomis]

Hi again,
I’m trying to learn as much about Genesis as possible. I’ve spent a few years learning CSS and HTML. I pretty much understand everything that’s happening in the styles.css of my child theme, and also when I view the source in my browser. But functions.php is still pretty much a mystery to me.

Lets me start by saying, I’m a bit of a megalomaniac - I really want to have complete control over Genesis. You know those people who get a brand-new gizmo, and immediately start taking it apart to see how it works? …That’s me. I eventually hope to be able to develop child themes from scratch. I’m not content to just paste in snippets that I find online, without any idea how they’re working.

1. I did the “PHP for web designers” course on Lynda, and that was interesting (variables, functions, arrays, includes etc.) but the problem is that this basic vanilla PHP doesn’t seem to relate that much to what I’m seeing in functions.php.
2. I also viewed their “Customising Themes with Genesis,” and this explained things like adding widgets, but it was a pretty brief course and didn’t go very deep.
3. I started looking through the Genesis tutorials, but I came across quite a lot that I didn’t understand. They seems to assume a certain level of working knowledge.
4. I also looked through “Genesis Explained” by Nick the Geek. It seems to be a fantastic resource but I’m still coming up against terms like: (custom loop) and may other which I don’t understand.

Basically I’m a bit lost and I really don’t know where to begin my campaign for total Genesis domination 😉

1. Should I go back and try to get a deeper understanding of standard PHP?
2. Should I focus on material which explains the structure and customisation of normal (non-Genesis) websites? There’s a lot of it around, but is it relevant to Genesis?
3. Should I just plough on with the Genesis tutorials and “Genesis Explained” and hope that it all comes together and makes sense?

I’m very keen to make progress, but I just don’t know where to start, so any advice would be very welcome.

[Brad Dalton]

Whats specifically do you want to do in functions? Please ask 1 specific question at a time.

---

Tutorials for StudioPress Themes.

[nomis]

I want to do everything in functions. On this occasion I’m not looking for the answer to a specific coding problem, more some advice on a recommended study path, so that I can master the PHP side of Genesis, and a thus no longer have to ask so many questions.

[MoodyRiviera]

I'm impressed by your desire to learn everything about this and to take control of Genesis. I think that's really cool.

Way beyond anything I could get up to...but as long as you're asking advice, here's my advice:

Since you seem to already have done a lot of studying, I would recommend getting in contact with someone like @braddalton or Nick The Greek, or some of the other Genesis experts who appear in these forums...explain to them in an e-mail or over the phone what you're getting at, and then ask if you could hire them for some real one-on-one tutoring.

I don't know much about it myself, but I would think that with the studying you've already done, and with your zeal to learn more, having a real expert who would do some totally personalized, screen-sharing tutorials with you would get you up to the next level.

Yes, it would cost some money, and probably wouldn't be easy...but sounds like it would be worth it.

In other words, I think you're at the point where you need "hands-on" (even though by long distance) training from a real expert you can actually talk with.

*MoodyRiviera*

[Summer]

My first thought is how much WordPress specific coding have you studied? If you only studied PHP coding, and not WordPress specific functions & features, you might be going down a wrong path.

I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who took on a website completion project after the previous developer abandoned the client. I could tell from the coding in the templates that the previous dev knew how to code in PHP but had zero clue about how to do things properly or efficiently for WordPress templates.

I don't consider myself a hardcore coder by any stretch of the imagination, but reading that person's code, it was obvious they were fair on clueless about WordPress and were literally making their modifications based on what code they were reading in an outdated version of the TwentyEleven theme.

So, have you taken any classes on WordPress programming at either Lynda or Treehouse or Udemy? I think that would help you make the connection between the PHP classes you've taken and the mysteries of Genesis coding & templates. (and I'm a firm believer that not everything should be done just in functions.php)

Genesis domination... that amuses me, and gave me a good laugh this morning.... thank you 🙂

---

WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After Dark

[arijuki]

I was in the same situation some months back. What I did was read some tutorials, examples of code snippets etc. from Studiopress site. There are also other good tutorials available, e.g. http://www.billerickson.net/contributions/tutorials/
You just have to proceed step-by-step. Starting is a struggle, but after while it gets easier.

Difference with Genesis compared to WordPress core is, that there are more functionalities inbuild. There is more complete hook system and additional filters existing (http://genesistutorials.com/visual-hook-guide/). In addition to Genesis documentation I have been reading Wordpess Codex when needed.

I started from scratch in February and have created child theme on top on Genesis after that, having 4 sites running with that now. I have used only functions.php for adding functionality, no templates at all. In functions.php you can target functionalities by using conditional tags (https://codex.wordpress.org/Conditional_Tags).

If I can help, I will try. But you need to be a bit more specific with your questions. All coding you do is PHP, by using ready functions existing in WordPress or creating your own.

[Summer]

@nomis, here is a recent interview with a popular WP trainer on Lynda:

WordPress Trainer Morten Rand-Hendriksen on Common Pain Points, Roadblocks, and Advice for New Users

The post also includes a link to a WP class of his being free on Lynda for the next month.

My own rule of thumb is that putting everything in functions can sometimes slow down your site, because it has to load everything for every page or post your visitors click on.

By making use of templates for customizations for single posts, category archives, customized pages & landing pages, custom post types, etc, you push off those calls, and they are only made when they are needed.

I even know of Genesis child theme designers who incorporate separate custom css and custom functions files so that you can add your own customizations and not worry about losing them if you happen to want to apply a theme update. If you had put all of your customizations just in functions.php, then you'd have to do a little more work to do that update.

---

WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After Dark

[nomis]

Wow, so many responses. Thank you all very much. I’m beginning to realise that this is a very supportive community 🙂

@MoodyRiviera
Don’t be too impressed by my desire to learn. I also expressed a desire to learn Chinese a few years ago, but so far I only know the words for “beer” and “condom.” You may be surprised how much I was able to achieve using those two words during my trip to Wuhan last year? I think the private online tuition is a great idea, but I am worried that it may be a wee bit out of my price range. It also occurs to me that saying that I want to learn everything about Genesis not only makes me sound like a bit of an arse, but also a religious zealot lol.

@Summer
I think this is a really good point Summer, I came straight to Genesis without stopping off at WordPress, so maybe some general tuts on customising WP themes would be a good idea. I’ve only tried Lynda so far. I’m a bit reluctant to try Treehouse because I have a fear of heights. And based on my present Genesis frustration, I fear I may be tempted to jump 😉

@arijuki
Wow, thanks there arijuki, I hadn’t seen those Bill Erickson tutorials before. I think you offer some very useful advice here 🙂

@Summer
Yes, Mr Rand-Hendriksen really seems to know his stuff. I actually did work through this tutorial recently ,and also:

Moving WordPress with WP Migrate DB
Up and Running with Genesis for WordPress
Customizing Themes with Genesis for WordPress
Installing and Running WordPress: MAMP
WordPress Plugins: Contact Forms

So I think we may need to start entertaining the possibility that I’m stupid, lazy, or both lol. I just knew it was a mistake to leave the chicken abattoir and go to study graphic design 🙂

Like Ma told me, “Likes of us got no place goin' to London ’n’ mixing with all those highfalutin design folks. afor ya know it y’all be on that there interweb, jabberin’ with them there Genesis folks. Weez been slaughtering’ chickins fur three generations. Folks like us gotta know our place.”

si

[Author]

Posts