Plans for Website Update

I have started to worked on changes to my website. I had a couple of goals. First to make the website more mobile friendly. Second to update the look of the website. I've made some progress.

I've had a website for my movies since 1999, and I haven't updated the look of my web page since 2009. Originally I used HTML for my site, then switched to PHP in 2009. I finally switched to WordPress in 2010.

In WordPress I tried a couple of themes (Kubrick and Core) before I decided to create my own theme. I tried to build one from scratch, but then decided to modify the Core theme. I didn't know about child themes at the time, so I just modified the original Core files. I added several special page types. I ended up with was a very rigid theme that is difficult to modify.

Over the last year or so I've read that more and more people access the internet through tablets and smart phones. Because the screen sizes are smaller, websites designed for a desk top don't look very nice on portable devices. My current theme is very hard to modify for different screen sizes.

Last week I installed a local server so I can experiment with different themes on my computer without making changes to my on-line website. I got it from a company called Bitnami (https://bitnami.com/stack/wordpress). It was quite easy to set up and work with I'm not sure how I can use it to test how the website will look on different devices though.

So far I have focussed on the technical aspects of a new theme design. I haven't given much thought as to what I want the theme to look like. I'll stick with my Dynamic Lethargy Films logo, but I'm not sure how I want the page laid out, or what color scheme to use.

My initial attempt was to create a child theme. I thought that would be easier to do, but after a little experimentation I decided to create a theme from scratch. I found a web page (http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress_create_theme.htm) that provided the code for a very basic theme. I used that as a starting point.

I've managed to create a theme that can handle my current page set up. It still needs a lot of work. Several times the theme wouldn't work when I make some changes to the templates. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I was able to go back to earlier versions that did work.

I plan to work in small steps toward a theme I'm happy with. I'm not in a big rush to get it done.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog