Wordpress Themes

Hi Susana, I've always thought similar. I know some say content first and then select a theme, and it's aesthetics are not as important as the quality of content however some themes don't support certain features. And adding a new theme later on can mess everything around so yeah I suggest getting a theme designed for user rating, I've used elegant themes before they are good and have review based themes.

The problem I always see is how people use functional themes, or app themes. Personally I think a theme should be all about design, not functionality in respect to things like voting, jobs boards, reviews boards, etc.

The issue is theme lock, use that theme and as Richard pointed out "however some themes don't support certain features. And adding a new theme later on can mess everything around". This is the issue, so later if need a fresh new design then unless you're going to code it yourself or hire a developer, you're stuck to the same theme unless you're lucky enough to find another that caries the same functionality and respects where the data is located. Unless it's from the same original developer it's unlikely.

Plugins are for functionality, this is where the action should take place. This is the bricks and mortar of a building, the theme could be considered the painting and decorating. :)

If the theme doesn't have filters and actions exactly where you need them and the default WordPress ones don't do it for you, then add them in the theme (probably best to use a child theme depending on the additions) where you need them and hook into that. This way the functionality can be coded into a separate plugin and easily added back when you go to a new design.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Action_Reference

http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference

You mentioned rating, have you checked out the many rating type plugins out there:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/gd-star-rating/description/

I often recommend that one, but there are tons of others out there as well.

Your question, how important is it to select the right theme. Very, but not for features/functionality, rather for your target market and how current you want to be with the times. Consider things like is it responsive and does that matter to you, is the market you're targeting likely to come from mobile devices and can you afford not to be responsive if it might mean missing a customer or two (or more)? Social promotion, and where it's placed, is it just icons or does it start messing with FB OG stuff that may conflict and cause huge headaches with other social (Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, etc) plugins you end up using?

For social network plugins there are the following:

BuddyPress - http://buddypress.org/ WP Symposium - http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-symposium/ Mingle - http://wordpress.org/plugins/mingle/

BuddyPress is my favourite.

Your other question "if I choose a theme that doesn't support a feature I need, can I then add that feature pretty easily?" depends on what you want to add and where. If it's something you can hook into in the core then it's easy to extend. If it's something that the theme doesn't make easy to extend then you'll need to hack the theme code some to add filters and/or actions.

All said and done, some people love to use functional/app themes, and there is a market for it. Whilst it works for them I personally wouldn't go that route. :)

Hope this helps.

I would say that in general you can find a theme that does what you want and plugins to add the extra functionality without having to code too much. Even if you don't get a theme right the first time, don't worry, it's not too much work to just swap out a different theme and tweak it to see if it works. However, as Richard Rogers points out, it can sometimes be a bear. So, try to identify sooner than later that it can do everything you want.

That said, based on the type of site you're trying to build that you may get stuck at certain points wanting to fill gaps between themes and plugins and not knowing what to do. The tricky thing about being in this position is that you don't know if it's a simple fix and you just need to add a line of WordPress PHP somewhere or if it's an insanely complex solution that you'll need help from someone else for. This is where taking a look through one of our theme development courses could at least help you assess whether you could do more on your own or would need help.

I would suggest checking out our course on BuddyPress since that is the plugin used to turn WordPress sites into social networks. Good BuddyPress themes are less common than just regular WordPress themes, but that course has some suggestions on good ones to start with.

You should not have too much trouble finding a ratings plugin you like, but I would suggest searching for a ratings plugin while you're looking at themes since the theme might not have that feature by default.

Just a bit of up-to-date info on themes and their functionality, here's one that is pretty much considered the best and most versatile theme ever created: http://theme.co/x/