Confused About Learning Wordpress Template Functions

[chaseman]

I'm trying to build a wordpress template, I got the design ready and The Loop is working, but I'm quite confused about everything that goes beyond that.

 

When I researched building wordpress templates everybody recommended the wordpress codex, but now that I'm looking at it I find it useless.

 

First of all, the functions are not named the same way how they work in my templates, for example the function reference section in the documentation names a functions called get_the_content(), which does not work in my template instead the_content() works.

To have a post preview I'd have to use the_exceprt() which is not even listed in the reference section. the_tags() is not listed either.

 

 

So how am I supposed to learn all the functions if I can't rely on the documentation?

 

Any ideas?

[chaseman]

What I find interesting is, the documentation has a page called the_excerpt but that function is not listed in the function reference. ???

[ldb358]

First off the wordpress codex is really good after you get more familiar with wordpress. As for the problem you described there, you need to get used to wordpress naming conventions. any function that is "get_the_*" returns the value where as "the_*" echos the value out. also i good way to see what a function does is to just type it into the search bar on the codex.

[chaseman]

Thanks for your post, I simply started looking up the functions in the core code of wordpress itself. After getting more into template development i'm seeing things a bit clearer now, I've learned that it's best to use several resources at the same time, and not just rely on the codex. The codex is good for quickly checking the description or the description of the arguments, of course it's nothing like the PHP documentation.

 

I've also learned that it's good to simply write your own functions if you want specific things.

 

At first it all looked messy but now I'm able to navigate in this jungle.