Building a Custom WordPress Theme from Scratch

Technology Stack

WordPress
MySQL
HTMl5
CSS3

The Client

This is a social networking-cum-news portal owned by a US-based media startup. The website highlights curated news from the world of politics, business, sports, lifestyle, and entertainment. The super admin aggregates, fact-checks, and then publishes every news piece on this platform. So, the chances of viewing fake or incorrect news are nil here. The platform also has a separate social networking feed for registered users to ‘like’ and ‘comment’ on posts shared by fellow users. It helps people engage within a social feed and connect better.

The Challenge

The client asked Capital Numbers to build this social networking-cum-news website from scratch. But, using a ready-made social media design theme wasn’t enough. The client specifically asked for a custom theme. He wanted us to build and integrate the custom theme into the pre-built BuddyBoss theme.

The WordPress BuddyBoss (BB) theme already has pre-integrated social media features like groups, forums, activity feeds, etc. So, setting it up straight away wouldn’t have been a problem. But, the challenge was to create a different theme and embed it within this ready-made BB theme.

To be more specific, we had to build a social feed similar to Facebook for registrants to ‘like,’ ‘comment,’ ‘upvote,’ ‘downvote,’ and ‘flag’ shared posts. We needed to add permission rights for the super admin to control user-uploaded content. We had to work on the colors, dynamic sliders, personalized banners, logos, etc. We also needed the system to scale well to process thousands of user logins via Facebook and Gmail.

The Solution

Keeping the above points in mind, we got ahead with the project. We started by listing BuddyBoss’s default menus, colors, social features, etc. We selected the ones we could play around with. We had to be on the same page as the clients. So, we held twice-a-week meetings with the client to understand what needed to be kept as-is and what needed to be changed.

After thorough discussions, we created the desired layout prototype in the PSD format. We sent the PSD to the client for final approval. Once the client approved, we started coding them.

The primary areas of customization included the following:

Home page
About Us page
Banner and footer areas
Super-admin and admin panels
News categorizations
Social feed

We wrote custom functions for these sections using PHP and merged them within the existing BuddyBoss install. We were extra careful while syncing all custom elements into the pre-built theme so that nothing gets distorted. We also used CSS3/HTML5 to fine-tune UI elements like sliders and banners.

We segmented all design and coding tasks into small milestones. It helped us measure progress well. The project had around five milestones, which we completed step-by-step, and at the end of each, we ran manual tests. We tested everything in our local server, checked for workflow and functionality, and found all custom elements blended well within the default theme as desired.

Results

Capital Numbers wireframed, prototyped, designed, coded, and staged the envisioned product within six months. This scope-driven project had critical success areas, among which the key ones are:

Over 95% of Code Customized

We built a social networking-cum-content sharing website in which we customized over 95% of the code.

Simultaneous User Requests

Our architecturally-strong system’s backend accommodates unlimited user logins per day.

Unlimited Content Uploads

Our MySQL-powered solution supports small to large file uploads - news articles, videos, GIFs, memes, etc.

Fine-grained Super Admin Role

Our client can control every piece of content and user activity from the backend and even flag posts if anything appears as spam.

Ad Placements

We kept ad spaces to help the client run Google ads in the future and capitalize on his product.

User Privileges

Website visitors can log in via FB or Google to stay updated about global and local news.

Social Activity Feed

Our custom activity feed allows registrants to ‘share,’ ‘like,’ ‘comment,’ ‘vote,’ and ‘report’ user-uploaded posts and engage with an online community.

Multi-linguality

We used the WordPress Multilingual plugin to cater to English-speaking and Spanish-speaking audiences.

Successful UI

Our meaningfully-done colors, menus, backgrounds, and other ‘little details’ give the website a satisfying experience for all web and mobile users.

Zero Disruptions

We found no errors in the software build even while merging the new custom theme into the default BB install.

Custom Theme Integration

Our client was pleased with our custom theme integration skills, which he feels are much better than many US-based developers he has worked with.

Timeline Planning

Our client also liked our ability to anticipate user needs, set timelines, and deliver the project without back and forths.

Milestone-based Development

As much as this milestone-based project proved valuable for our client, delivering it was a great learning experience for Capital Numbers.