Wordpress Bootstrap 3 Starter Theme – MIT License

https://github.com/bencarlson/wp-bootstrap

by bcarlson • 13 years ago

69 43 13 years ago

Thought you guys might find this useful. I whipped it up over the weekend as I couldn't find one that worked properly. I'm using it for a client project, and will make updates as I make progress.

-Ben

thebiglebrewski3• 13 years ago

Hey, this is awesome! Got a demo site maybe?

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

I just tossed one up at a new domain... it'll likely change so check the github site for the latest. Without further ado: http://hillfold.com/

thebiglebrewski3• 13 years ago

Cool! Your test menu page is broken? http://hillfold.com/?page_id=15 Might want to check out the page.php file

thebiglebrewski3• 13 years ago

Also would be awesome to implement it as a theme in https://github.com/zachfeldman/wordpress-haml-sass

hnriot• 13 years ago

Why would you adapt Wordpress, something that isn't a bootstrap project, but rather a mature product? The bootstrap framework is meant as (and delivers as) a starter place from which to begin customization. Bootstrap has done wonders for the web, but putting a theme on wp for it just doesn't (to me) make any sense.

tjbiddle• 13 years ago

Bootstrap is a framework for design, Wordpress is a CMS. Completely different products.

anu_gupta• 13 years ago

This isn't adapting WordPress really - it provides a starting point for theme development, which is something different from adapting WordPress.

wdmeldon• 13 years ago

This isn't a theme, it's a customized boilerplate for themes. On it's own, this is fairly worthless, but it's a good starting point for modern theme development. I pretty much did this myself for the last theme I put together.

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

Exactly! :)

jrochkind1• 13 years ago

Because Bootstrap's typography and layout (line heights, margins and spacing, etc.) is way better than most everything else, including browser default stylesheets and most WP themes.

Because if you do want to customize it further, there are an increasing number of people who find it most efficient and powerful to do that on top of Bootstrap, and a lot of code samples/templates for doing so.

I know that the official line is (or was?) that Bootstrap is 'a starter place, for wireframe prototypes, not for mature projects' -- but that is not in fact how it's been used. I believe the reason it's been so popular is because of it's excellent typography, as well as fairly well-structured easy to work with code.

pdwetz• 13 years ago

Related to these points, if you're using Bootstrap elsewhere and then have to work on a WP project, it's convenient being able to utilize the same classes, tricks, etc. that you've grown accustomed to utilizing.

DanHulton• 13 years ago

Because a lot of people make bootstrap themes. With this as a base, it becomes a lot easier to adapt those themes to WordPress.

codelust• 13 years ago

Guess one valid scenario is to use this as the base for a child theme.

gavinballard• 13 years ago

Looks great, Ben! I agree with thebiglebrewski that a link to a demo site would be super helpful.

FYI, I built a similar (paid) product for Shopify Themes (http://bootstrapforshopify.com) and I have gotten quite a few queries from folks asking about a similar thing for Wordpress - there are people willing to pay for something like this, for sure, if you're interested in offering a supported version or something of that ilk.

In any case, now I have somewhere to direct folks that ask about a WP Bootstrap framework :).

ptbello• 13 years ago

Good job! I did the same a while ago https://github.com/ptbello/_strap

it's a medley between bootstrap 2.3.* and automattic's _s theme. Haven't got round to updating it to bootstrap 3 yet. I guess that's what the Christmas break will be for.

bretthopper• 13 years ago

This looks like a good, simple Bootstrap 3 theme. https://github.com/roots/roots is another more mature option, but also has more features (could be a downside for some).

MichaelTieso2• 13 years ago

Been using Roots for awhile and absolutely love it. For all the other features, they make it quite easy to remove. Very active on GitHub too.

retlehs• 13 years ago

You shouldn't be hardcoding CSS/JS into the template files - look into wp_enqueue_style and wp_enqueue_script.

Could use a better directory structure, too. Assets should be in a different folder, things like the walker should be in a lib/includes folder.

Being a starter theme, it doesn't make sense to just reference the Bootstrap CSS from a CDN. Shouldn't you have the LESS files so people can easily make changes without having to do overrides in their CSS?

ps. It's "WordPress", not "Wordpress" (http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/capital_P_dang...)

Disclaimer: I made Roots (http://roots.io), a Bootstrap starter theme that's been around for a while

scarecrowbob• 13 years ago

Sorry for a content-free post, but I just want to say thanks for roots; it changed my workflow in a lot of positive ways.

korymath• 13 years ago

What version of Bootstrap is roots running on?

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

There's alot of stuff I did in this whipped together version that you shouldn't do! :) If you think this is something to take as-is and use, you're sorrowfully mistaken! :) I just wanted to give people a shortcut to start using Bootstrap 3 on wORDpRESS... er, I mean WordPress (sorry about that... touchy people... sheesh!) :)

Ok, all snarky responses aside, you're absolutely right on your points. The way I look at it is, I have six hours into it, realized it might be useful for others, and have alot of the tough parts out of the way. I am not selling it, so if it rubs you the wrong way, say your piece, and move along. This is not for you, right now.

I hadn't heard of Roots before, and obviously didn't find it in my searching. Looking at the site, you might want to make it clear what versions of both WordPress and Bootstrap you are using... I believe I was searching on something like "Wordpress bootstrap 3 theme", and it didn't show up.

Take care man, and keep doing what you're doing... it looks solid!

-Ben

MichaelTieso2• 13 years ago

Roots is likely one of the most popular starter templates out there for WordPress. Try searching for "WordPress Starter Template" rather than WordPress Bootstrap 3. Bootstrap is optional on Roots, it's only included for your convenience. I guess they could put the number 3 on the front page but with a little search on GitHub, you'll see that Bootstrap 3 is used and updated rather quickly with each release.

It's pretty clear on the Roots site that it's a starter template. Not sure it's necessary to put what version of WordPress it works on seeing that it's pretty obvious that it works on the latest.

Just a Roots user that has been following its development and using it for clients.

dkroy• 13 years ago

I was going to mention roots. I have always used roots as my WP starter theme if I needed Bootstrap as a base.

skloubkov• 13 years ago

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you should provide a screenshot or a demo page. Seems like it would help since its all about visuals for the project.

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

Here you go: http://hillfold.com/

nixarn• 13 years ago

No screenshots? Or am I missing something

buckbova• 13 years ago

There's probably not much to look at, aside from pictures of bbq chicken.

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

Yeah... I'm building a site for a BBQ Sauce company, and when I went looking for a wordpress/bootstrap3 theme to start with... nada. So, enjoy the chicken and ribs photos for now... I'll try to put up a demo site shortly. :)

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

Demo site: http://hillfold.com/ Sorry for the delay... I honestly never expected this much interest!

davidgerard2• 13 years ago

I believe Wordpress have stated that they regard Wordpress themes as derivative code of Wordpress, and the PHP of a theme should therefore be GPL, else constitute a copyright violation:

http://ma.tt/2010/07/theme-are-gpl-too/ http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/why-wordpress-th...

lucasmullens• 13 years ago

Correct, they have to be GPL. Even paid themes must be GPL.

davidgerard2• 13 years ago

Yep. Thus demonstrating quite well, btw, that there is a market for paid GPL software. (And the assorted images and CSS are often under another licence.)

callmeed• 13 years ago

I've been recently looking to build a theme or have one built. It's been a bit of a pain trying to track down the best practices and tools to use for theme development.

Can anyone offer some guidance? Does a framework like Genesis help or hurt in the long-run? Are tools like http://roots.io getting traction?

What are the essential things to require when hiring someone to build a theme for you?

abimaelmartell3• 13 years ago

wp_bootstrap_navwalker is GPL, wordpress is GPL, you cant license your project as MIT

abimaelmartell3• 13 years ago

http://choosealicense.com/licenses/gpl-v2/ Sublicensing is Forbidden

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

Shame on me... thanks for pointing that out, I'll try to get some time to figure out what license I can use.

abimaelmartell3• 13 years ago

you only can use GPL v2, the same as wordpress

bcarlson8• 13 years ago

Hey guys, thanks for the response! This was just meant to be a starting point for anyone working on getting bootstrap 3 to work. It's not an end-all be-all, use it as-is theme. I just realized after a bunch of hours of fighting through and figuring out stuff, that this might help some others.

You have great points about the (horrible lack of) code structure. Sue me. Fix it yourself! :) Kidding aside, literally I have about six hours into this, and thought it might be helpful to others.

I really stuck it on github more so that my buddies could use it, than for general consumption... it was just a whim to stick in on here.

I'll pop up a demo site in the next day or two... client work takes a priority. If I had expected to get as much traffic as I am, I would have put it up already... sorry about that!

As for the licensing... I'm not up on it, and shame on me for that... I guess I'll have to do some reading about GPL vs MIT... I just know that I tend to use MIT in the past. Thank you for pointing that out... stay tuned.

DotSauce• 13 years ago

Here is a preview for anyone interested in seeing it right away: http://www.markfulton.com/?theme=wp-bootstrap-master

The front page template is hard coded.

eflowers• 13 years ago

I've started a similar thing, but much more bare bones and meant for really digging through things. There's almost no presentation layer done other than just setting up Bootstrap defaults. It's meant to be something you go fully custom on the design, and hopefully it is as much of a "reset" as it can be.

The theme is here: http://shoelace-theme.helloerik.com/ the repo: https://github.com/erikflowers/shoelace-theme

It's built on the hybrid-base pre starter theme: http://themehybrid.com/themes/hybrid-base

It's not a theme you use as is, its just a starter that is meant to be hacked apart as needed, but it has the bootstrap Less and your own less already started, and the html/php stuff is stubbed out for a lot easier manipulation.

I made it with the intent that you should have to do as little "undoing" of a theme as possible, which is why there are almost no custom layouts or designs.

It's 0.0.0, as I am just getting started. Definitely not worth a HN submission, but I would be really interested in seeing what people think of this approach in comparison to the OP's, which is great and I commend and admire the efforts.

the_mitsuhiko• 13 years ago

How can you even legally combine wordpress (GPL 2.0) with bootstrap (Apache License 2.0)?

straws• 13 years ago

Just here to say: if you have to be using WordPress, use Timber (http://jarednova.github.io/timber/).

Abstracts away what is terrible about querying posts, pages, authors, comments, etc and gives you nice objects with what you'd expect. Uses Twig templates.

pavansolapure• 13 years ago

What is the depth of menus you have implemented. Twitter Bootstrap recommends only 2 levels. I am looking for simple solution to allow multiple levels of menus. Any pointers?

Wordpress Bootstrap 3 Starter Theme – MIT License

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