Overview

The problem

• Clients want the world, but only have a dime to pay for it. 
• You want people to blog about how awesome your websites are, but you only have 30 hours to build them.
• You work with awesome designers who create unique, beautiful sites, but you have no time to build them. 

If the first line of code you write is a doctype, you might be _DOING_IT_WRONG();

Using a parent theme, starter theme, or framework is a great way to speed up the development of your sites, without compromising your integrity. 

Parent Themes

Definition

• Every theme can be a parent theme (unless it already has a parent)
• Parent themes are meant to utilize child themes in order to customize functionality and styles.

Advantages

• Easy to work with
• Simple process to modify
• Actually looks like something out of the box
• It's a complete theme, and provides coverage for a lot of base styles and templates you wouldn't normally think of. 

Disadvantages

• Most employ the "kitchen sink" approach which can leave you with bloated stylesheets and unnecessary template files. 
• Sometimes require a lot of work to override code. 
• Sometimes if you just need to change one line of code, you have to copy over the entire file that contains that code. 

Use cases

• I need to get a site built fast, and I really don't care about the scalability of it. 
• I'm fairly new to WordPress and want to learn while I'm building a theme. 
• I'm building a simple theme that has a similar layout to my parent theme. 

Examples

• FoundationPress
• WP-Forge
• The Bootstrap theme
• Quark

Public Service Announcment:

DON't HACK PARENT THEMES

Seriously... Don't hack parent themes

Starter Themes

Definition

• A starter theme is a base theme that is meant to be hacked on top of to create a brand new theme.
• Often barebones theme that includes only the essentials. 

Advantages

• Provides a great foundation for a developer to start from.
• Normally includes some utilities for developers to speed up development time. 
• End result is usually very light weight. 

Disadvantages

• No global updates
• Barrier to entry is a little bit higher
• Often is less complete out of the box
• Usually more work for the developer

Use cases

• I'm comfortable with building themes, but the parent theme I've been using is leaving my site bloated with unused features.
• I just need the basics to get me started, I can do the rest.
• Our sites are 100% custom, and often don't fit inside a box.

Examples

• Underscores
• Sage (part of roots)
• Bones

Theme Frameworks

Definition

• Theme frameworks are focused on extending core functionality, and are often used with a starter / parent theme. 
• Can be implemented in the form of a plugin, a theme, or just some drop-in code. 
• Popular amongst large theme shops. 

Advantages

• Separates functionality from visual components.
• Offers an easy way to provide global updates to site functionality. 
• Usually has built in hooks and filters to easily modify functionality with out having to rewrite large sections of code. 
• Makes content extremely portable if you consistently use the same framework. 

Disadvantages

• Highest barrier of entry
• Each framework takes different development approaches which developers will need to familiarize themselves with. 
• Can often lead to redundant code, or contain many unused features. 

Use cases

• Our sites normally have a lot of the same functionality, and it would be great to control that from one place. 
• Hooks and filters are my sh*t.
• I work with a very specific business vertical that requires a unique set of functionality. 

Examples

• Genesis
• Themosis
• Carrington Core
• Thesis

The DIY Route

Where do I start?

• Look at sites you have built before, and identify the common features. 
• Dig through code from other themes. 
• Fork another boilerplate

Stuff in my starter theme-Work

• Logo upload
• Custom sidebars
• Favicon upload
• Social links
• Social feeds
• Slider functionality
• Custom widget classes
• Plugin dependency manager

• Debug functions
• Helper classes
• Query shorthands
• Breadcrumbs
• Custom login logo
• Custom excerpt function

ADvantages

• You have 100% control of your codebase.
• You can make some assumptions that you wouldn't otherwise be able to make. 
• Tailored to all of your needs. Provides you with exactly what you need. 

Disadvantages

• It's a lot of ongoing work. 
• Requires a deep knowledge of core, and an in depth knowledge of your company's / customers needs.

Use cases

• I have trust issues when it comes to code. 
• Our clients have very specific needs, and there is nothing out there that will fill all of these needs. 
• We need to build our sites quickly, but they are often 100% custom. 

Which ONe is right for me?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seriously though...

• Experiment! 
• Next time you get frustrated implementing a feature you've built a thousand times, make note of it. 
• There's a lot of options out there, do some googling, and mess around with some stuff to find what's right for you.