Considering Genesis - Concept Questions

[shorthills]

Hi,
I'm looking for a reliable way to go from PSD to Wordpress and one of my primary concerns is that if I have a developer do the coding, that there could be instability in the conversion to Wordpress, etc. I thus came across Genesis and I have a few questions.

1) Is it accurate to say that the core of the genesis framework will basically remain untouched, so that if a developer were to do a PSD to Genesis theme for me, that the underlying core files can't be compromised? I simply want to avoid a situation where I have someone code a PSD for me and then have to deal with the theme breaking once WP is updated.

2) When a child theme sold here on SP says that it has "6 colors", is there a way to use other colors, or do these other colors simply need to be added via CSS?

3) Is the general concept for using genesis this: create a .PSD -> find a genesis theme that's close to the layout you want -> convert the PSD to this genesis theme?

4) Is the process of converting a PSD to Genesis more or less complex than converting a PSD to Wordpress? Does having the Genesis framework on top of the WP installation simplify custom theme creation (or customization of an existing theme?)

5) Why doesn't Genesis 'break" when WP is updated? Does Genesis need to be updated before all WP updates?

6) Without getting into the technical ins and outs of genesis, is it possible to create a website with large image on home page but different header image on other page(s)? Again, I'm not looking for the technical answer here, I just want to know if something like this can be done.

7) Can genesis-based themes still use "normal" Wordpress-plugins? Are there WP plugins that are known to interfere with Genesis?

8) I have a strong background in XHTML/CSS and PHP. Is there a large learning curve for going from PSD to Genesis, or is it a process that really needs to be handled by an expert.

Thank you very much!

[NicktheGeek]

David,

Thanks for conacting us. These are some good questions.

1) Yes, assuming the developer is familiar with Genesis. Some developers don't have any idea and will edit Genesis files directly to get the layout/style. Then things really break the first time you update Genesis. If you are looking for a developer please make sure they are familiar with Genesis before hiring theme.

2) The color options are added via CSS so you could add to them pretty easily. You will need to make a small change in the functions.php file to register the new color as well so they can be selected.

3) That is one route many developers take. Others start from scratch, blank style sheet and blank functions.php file, then build it all from there. I personally use the latest version of the Sample child theme then build from there. So I have something more to start with but not as much as if I tried finding a theme that is close to what I want.

4) Having Genesis in place means you get 3/4 of the work done. The theme frame is all there and there is a solid system controlling everything, so you don't need to build that for each theme. Plus you get updates so everything stays current. However, this means you must work with the hook/filter system. That throws a lot of people who aren't familiar with how that works, even though WordPress actually uses an identical system. Many developers have never used that system. Check out my Genesis Explained series for a detailed explanation.

5) Genesis doesn't break because we use the best practices and work closely with the WordPress core dev team. One of our developers has been a major contributor to WP core. Despite all of that, sometimes changes happen that make code in Genesis outdated but the update system makes it possible to keep Genesis working seamlessly with WordPress. The order of update sometimes varies. Usually the order of the update doesn't matter much though.

6) Yes this can be done. This tutorial touches on how that would be done
http://nickc.co/body-class

7) Most plugins will work with Genesis. We can't guarantee all will, but there aren't many times that I find plugins that absolutely won't work with Genesis. Generally what happens is a plugin conflicts with another plugin.

8) If you have a strong background in XHTML/CSS and PHP then you should pickup on how this works pretty quickly. Check out my Genesis Explained series for a jump start on how it all works. Pretty much every Genesis developer started by learning the system.

[shorthills]

Thanks for the detailed reply. And I will positively check out the tutorials.
David