Winter Break Project

So over the winter break I took up a little project with a friend to build a blog for him. I initially was thinking I would just start from the ground up and create it all from scratch. I figured it would be fun and a great way to learn PHP. Once the demands of the project became much larger this approach had to be scrapped because I didn't want to be strapped to a computer all break.

Instead I decided to go with Wordpress. If you don't know what it is, Wordpress is an application hosted on the web server that provides the back end of a blog. It's really nice in the way that one uses the service. On the host there is a php page that will allow you to log in to the admin section. This is where you can manage the blog, add posts, edit posts, reject comments, etc.

Of special note however, is the ability to edit the theme. With Wordpress the webmaster essentially creates a theme to surround Wordpress. That is the part that I have been working on. There are thousands of free themes to use but we wanted a custom theme. I initially found a theme that I wanted to emulate and began to pick apart the theme piece by piece. Grabbing elements from other themes and putting them all together I have been able to create an original blog.

Its been really cool being able to see a full on php project and picking it apart. This is the first opportunity I have had to actually write and edit some php and I have been learning like crazy. I am also realizing how much html and css I had forgotten. Its been about six years since my last foray into either language and its been nice getting back into the groove of things. I would definitely suggest a project like this to anyone looking to get their feet wet in web mastering and or php.