Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › Not quite getting Genesis
- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 12 months ago by David Chu.
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April 24, 2014 at 10:37 am #102172AntoineMember
Hi,
I've just got assigned to the WordPress team in my company and as a new member they want me to elaborate and comprehend what's the trend with Genesis.
Everyone here is a WordPress coder and I'm speaking as one.
I read about Genesis, been around, doing a couple of tutorials, been checking the /lib, etc. As it is, to be honest, I don't quite get what makes Genesis useful for us.
Most of our theme are made from scratch and some are bought on themeforest.
What are the best ways to convince people of using Genesis?
Business speaking, how Genesis could make us become more profitable?
April 24, 2014 at 3:47 pm #102235David ChuParticipantHi Antoine,
An interesting open-ended question!Since you're a coder, I'll say that it has loads of hooks and functions that make theming easy. At times I can build a custom theme using just 2 child theme files, functions.php and style.css. To me, that's very clean and fast. The hooks very amply supplement the stock WordPress hooks - basically they cover everything and every spot you can think of. Some learning curve there, but once you know those, you cruise at high speed, and speed is money. Coding that way is a different style from hacking loads of template files, a la Underscores or the like.
Comparing that to anything from Themeforest, those are so gigantic and bloated with features that I can often build a custom Genesis theme from scratch faster than it takes me to do a customization job on a Themeforest theme, which typically has so many theme files, so many zillions of lines of code, and such gruesome, poorly-written CSS, that you can go insane.
Some people start with the Genesis Sample child theme as a base - I did, and shaped and altered it to my own tastes. There are also people on Github who have Genesis base themes using Bootstrap, various CSS pre-processors, and other such fun.
Apart from that, there are excellent coders working on the framework itself, who keep up with modern techniques. Since Genesis is very popular, there are also lots of people all over sharing ideas on how to use it.
It would also be useful to know what your team is comparing it to. This isn't a drag-and-drop, no-coding thing like Headway or things like that.
Hope that helps,
Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
April 25, 2014 at 6:41 am #102295AntoineMemberWhat a great answer you gave there, thank you!
That's where I'm now, customizing the sample genesis child theme.
I'll keep on working on that, cheers!
April 25, 2014 at 8:00 am #102307David ChuParticipantAntoine,
Welcome to the "gang"! I'm glad that was helpful.Just as with any framework, there is a learning curve. For me it was getting used to the hooks and filters. To help make that less steep, check out this Visual Hook Guide. Easier to grasp than text docs.
You can even get this stuff right on the theme that you're making with this super handy plugin, which puts the hooks right in the context of the pages you're working on.
After getting the hang of that, I can bang out a theme from a PSD very fast, for instance. Armed with this stuff, you become nearly unstoppable.
Cheers, Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
April 25, 2014 at 11:26 am #102336essaysnarkParticipantThis should be a sticky at the top of this forum.
April 25, 2014 at 11:43 am #102338David ChuParticipantThis should be a sticky at the top of this forum.
Thanks, my friend!
Good to see you.And maybe a new thread title might be better PR. 😉
Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
April 28, 2014 at 12:17 am #102687TomParticipantWelcome, Antoine,
What a nice thread to stumble across. And a nice mini-manifesto from David :). His points are all spot-on and should convince any coder to get on board. You were also asking about what it might mean for your business.
Since you're on the company WordPress 'team' and being right upfront about getting a return on investment, you're probably in an organization with some size. With some people, some turnover, and lots of opinions. Probably never enough time or resources. (Am I on track?)
While Genesis (the framework) and the family of available themes is simple enough for a beginner to work with, this masks some of the real strengths that would appeal to business, not bloggers. Here's my take on a few of them. (Source: I've spent a couple decades in IT and business org's small, big, and outright huge.)
1. Committing to a framework is something you and your IT organization have done before, whether for project management, operations, data modelling, business analysis, supply chain, etc. A framework gives you and the team some efficiencies, a common point of reference, a common language and a common technical base. Genesis provides all of these. A strong codebase. Proven methods and functions. Great documentation. Reliable support. And, as David noted, improved time-to-market for your projects.
2. You're not pioneering. With Genesis all of those bonus points already noted are solid assets, like money in the bank. Many more are to be found with a little familiarity for the caches of goodies that are available, like:
- Dozens of Genesis-specific plugins that make for rapid and reliable development.
- Multiple code libraries shared by Genesis devs, honed and sharpened by their experience.
- A dozen or more starter themes that you can use for building or for learning.
- Over 300 Genesis-powered themes you can use to jumpstart a project when necessary (yes, some won't be viable for your work; probably 100+ are). If you've shopped Themeforest or other marketplaces you might try, say, 10 themes revealing 10 different approaches. With Genesis, they've all got the same approach by using the same underlying codebase. Different looks; same strengths.
- Hundreds, if not thousands, of how-tos, tutorials and demos to tighten up the learning curve.
3. Support. You've got StudioPress as a backstop. You've got these forums, with regulars that jump on questions and know where to get more help when needed. Maybe not perfect, but never idle. For instance, unanswered support posts had climbed of late :(. They weren't all critical, but they all deserved a reply and follow-up - rally the troops and they all got answered (if not yet resolved). At this minute there are but twelve (12).
Behind all of these is the large and growing community of smart people that work with Genesis everyday. Got an issue, question, nagging glitch? Somebody's got your back with an idea or snippet or helpful reference. Hang out on Twitter or Google+ and follow #GenesisWP and you'll find a bench deep with talent. So while you're getting Genesis (the Framework) you're also getting is Genesis (the team/community/family).
Genesis makes WordPress better, and should make your business better, too.
Choose your next site design from over 350 Genesis themes.
[ Follow me: Twitter ] [ Follow Themes: Twitter ] [ My Favourite Webhost ]April 28, 2014 at 8:11 am #102715David ChuParticipantTom,
Thanks, that's a super description of your business and management perspective, as opposed to my technician emphasis. And lots of other valuable points.For questions that are larger "why does my header look like crap?" [botched botox??], the social media Genesis groups may indeed be the best sources. My hangout of choice is Twitter, and there are plenty of sociable Genesis hackers there.
Gary Jones has been an extremely important contributor to the Genesis codebase, for instance, and I'd if you're "all in" for Genesis, I'd suggest buying his excellent and very reasonably priced ebook. He knows where all the bodies are buried. 🙂
Cheers, Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
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