Individual assignment

Exercice

Before starting the assignment you have to practice the basics of WordPress by building a portfolio website. This is the website that you will later develop a custom theme for.

Building a portfolio website in WordPress is a great way to showcase your work and highlight your skills and talents. WordPress is an easy-to-use content management system that makes it easy to create a professional website without any coding knowledge. With WordPress, you can create a portfolio website quickly and easily. You can select from a range of themes and plugins that are available to customize the look and feel of your site. You can also add features such as galleries, contact forms, and blogs to make your portfolio website stand out. A portfolio website built in WordPress is a great way to showcase your work and make it easy for potential clients and employers to find you.

This is how you build your website

0. Install WordPress locally as we do in Lecture 9.

1. Select a WordPress theme that fits the look and feel you want for your portfolio site. Think about the overall design, layout, features, and functionality of the theme. Look for one that includes support for portfolio posts, galleries, and contact forms.

2. Install and activate the theme. Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Themes. Click the Add New button and upload the theme you selected. Activate it when it’s installed. You can also install the theme by browsing in your /wp-admin area instead of dowloading the theme externally and uploading it manually.

3. Install and activate the necessary plugins for your portfolio site, such as a gallery plugin, portfolio plugin, and contact forms. Look for plugins that are compatible with the theme you selected and have good reviews. Once the plugins are installed, activate them. These are some examples to search for:

• Gallery plugin: Allows you to display your portfolio images in an attractive way.

• Portfolio plugin: Helps you create portfolio posts and categories for each type of work.

• Contact forms: Makes it easy for people to contact you through your website.

• SEO plugin: Improves the visibility of your website in search engine results.

• Social media sharing plugin: Allows visitors to share your portfolio posts on their social networks.

• Security plugin: Helps protect your website from malware and other malicious attacks.

4. Set up your portfolio categories and pages. Create a portfolio page and add categories for each type of work you want to feature. List experiences that you have from other courses or previous work.

5. Create your portfolio posts, adding images and text to each post. Use a portfolio plugin or features of your theme to create posts for each item in your portfolio. Select the appropriate category and add images and text to each post.

6. Create a page for your About page, adding text and images to it.

7. Set up the contact forms and gallery plugins so that visitors can contact you or view your portfolio images. Configure the plugins to display the contact forms and galleries in the appropriate places on your site.

8. Install and configure any other plugins you may need, such as SEO, social media sharing, and security plugins. Research and install plugins that are compatible with your theme and can help improve the performance of your site.

9. Test the site to make sure all the features are working correctly. Test each page on the site and make sure everything is working as it should.

10. If you want to host your page online for free you can create an AWS account and launch a free WordPress site using AWS Lightsail. Export your local site and import it to your public site using All-in-One WP Migration

Assignment

Create a theme for the portfolio page you created in the exercise and add the following files

• index.php – The main template file that will be used to display the content of your WordPress site.
• style.css – The file that contains the CSS code used to style the theme.
• functions.php – The file where you can register your theme with WordPress and add custom functions.
• header.php – Contains code for the header area of the theme.
• footer.php – Contains code for the footer area of the theme.
• sidebar.php – Contains code for the sidebar area of the theme.
• search.php – Contains code for the search feature of the theme.
• single.php – Contains code for displaying single posts on the site.
• page.php – Contains code for displaying pages on the site.

In lecture 10 we go through how to create your own custom theme. This is a broad overvioew of the steps to follow:

1. Create the necessary WordPress files: index.php, style.css, functions.php, and any other files you need to create the theme.

• Upload your theme to your WordPress site and activate it.

2. Register your theme with WordPress by adding the necessary theme information to the style.css file.

3. Create the HTML and CSS for the theme.

4. Add WordPress template tags and functions to the index.php and functions.php files.

5. Test your theme to make sure it’s working properly.

6. Customize the theme to your liking, adding the necessary elements and features.

7. Test the theme again to make sure everything is working properly.

Your assigment is to create a theme including all listed files and submit the theme on Canvas.

The deadline for the project and the individual assignment is 2023-06-04

Requirements and grading

For grade 3

Build a theme that displays posts, pages and menus which are editable from the wp-admin interface.

For grade 4

Implement at least one widget area as well as search functionality.

For grade 5

Add a custom post type with a title and content and display all posts of that type somewhere on your WordPress site. Read more about custom post types here and here.