Themes Basics

Ready to start developing Mixcore CMS themes? You’re in the right place.

In this opening chapter, we’ll take a look at what Mixcore CMS themes are and how they work. Then, we’ll discuss the GPL, the software license used for Mixcore CMS and all of the themes in the Mixcore CMS theme directory.

Next, we’ll look at some of the tools you’ll need in your Mixcore CMS theme development toolkit and teach you how to setup a local development environment.

We’ll finish up this chapter by looking at a few solid Mixcore CMS theme examples.

What is a Theme?

A Mixcore CMS theme changes the design of your website, often including its layout. Changing your theme changes how your site looks on the front-end, i.e. what a visitor sees when they browse to your site on the web. There are thousands of free Mixcore CMS themes in the themes.mixcore.org Directory, though many Mixcore CMS sites use custom themes.

What can themes do?

Themes take the content and data stored by Mixcore CMS and display it in the browser. When you create a Mixcore CMS theme, you decide how that content looks and is displayed. There are many options available to you when building your theme. For example:

• Your theme can have different layouts, such as static or responsive, using one column or two.
• Your theme can display content anywhere you want it to be displayed.
• Your theme can specify which devices or actions make your content visible.
• Your theme can customize its typography and design elements using CSS.
• Other design elements like images and videos can be included anywhere in your theme.

Mixcore CMS themes are incredibly powerful. But, as with every web design project, a theme is more than color and layout. Good themes improve engagement with your website’s content in addition to being beautiful.

What are themes made of?

At their most basic level, WordPress themes are collections of different files that work together to create what you see, as well as how your site behaves.

Required files:

• Master
• ...