Way back when I created a modified version of the Underscores starter theme with Foundation mixed in that I brilliantly named DobsonDev Underscores – very creative naming. Originally there were just two shell scripts that would run to create a customized starter theme. These shell scripts would basically go through the project and change the folder, slug and theme name throughout the files.
Even though the scripts worked really well (and were extremely fast when installed on a server), I always wanted to have a web interface like they did on underscores.me which grabbed the latest version of the project from GitHub and did all the theme name, slug and folder name switching right there on the website. What you got after all that was a zip ready to use with your customized starter theme.
I’m very happy and proud to say that with the help of my good friend I’ve been able to create the same type of online generator for my starter theme. You can go check it out now at underscores.dobsondev.com and create a starter theme for yourself right now.
Below you can see the README from the project which will go over all the important things about it:
I’m really happy with how the DobsonDev Underscores theme has come along so far – but I plan to make a lot of improvements over the next little while. Some of the things at the top of my list are:
- clean up the CSS in style.css to include pretty much just WordPress related style and let foundation do most of the work for everything else
- add documentation to explain how the theme is generally laid out and the rationale behind everything so that others can understand how to use the theme as easily as I do
- add a bunch of code examples for things like drop down menus so they can be easily referenced
- create a solid responsive menu CSS that will look great right out of the gate
- eventually I would like to create a theme options framework so things such as logos can be loaded from the WordPress backend – this way themes made with DobsonDev Underscores could become a lot more versatile and possibly even be sold on marketplaces such as themeforest
The theme options framework might still be a ways off yet but I think this gives a good example of some of things you can look forward to out of DobsonDev Underscores. I feel that the generator website will allow me to easily update the theme in a way that wasn’t possible before, and I’m looking forward to making the theme the best it can be as time goes on.
As always thank you for reading and please share DobsonDev Underscores around as much as you can! Please feel free to put any suggestions or ideas for the theme in the comments section below, and please try the theme out for yourself!