Hello friends! Today’s topic is whether Bootstrap is good or bad for WordPress themes. Now, this is a point of everybody’s opinion. In this blog, I am going to discuss both i.e. how Bootstrap is good and how it is not good for the WordPress themes.
Bootstrap was released in 2011 and since then it is the most popularly used frontend framework on GitHub. It has also affected the WordPress themes all over the world because it is being used by the developers at the time of website developments as well as during the release of the WordPress themes, so the Bootstrap has become a special tool for increasing the sales.
But some people say that Bootstrap is a bad choice for the development of WordPress themes.
Let’s check the reasons behind this:
It is found that actually, the Bootstrap was generated or created at Twitter for the backend developers who used to help them in creating interfaces for applications. There were some libraries which were being used by the WordPress developers even before the release of Bootstrap, but those libraries were not consistent and also they were not easy to maintain.
Due to this reason, Bootstrap was created for achieving a goal so that WordPress developers will be able to concentrate on their backend coding and repeat it without taking tension of front end.
So people think that Bootstrap is a bad tool for a WordPress theme both for a front – end or when the website gets loaded.
They also say that Bootstrap is not doing the things according to WordPress. At the time of development of WordPress themes, WordPress allows a set of functions that can be used in template files. By using the help of these outputs of these functions, it is easy for the developers to write well organized and entirely good code that operates with various types of contents.
Now instead of this Bootstrap has his own point of view towards the HTML structure and HTML also it is not suitable with the things which are offered by WordPress as a default. Due to this, the developers are required to write some additional coding steps so that WordPress will adjust to the working of this Bootstrap framework. Navigation menus are considered as a good example of it. Developers started to write Custom Walker Classes which helped to change the output of the HTML using those functions and thus they will be able to use Bootstrap CSS and JavaScript.
This point of view resulted in extra coding and it was also less efficient and it required more maintenance, as well as time for development and the benefits, were not that helpful.
People think that the coding written by using a framework is not as systematic as the coding written for a particular reason, it is because the frameworks are developed using general cases and then moves towards the more specific cases, which shows that the expansion gets added in the process. Many a time’s several CSS classes are required to be included in HTML elements for achieving a desired visual result and also the required CSS. The other thing which gets added to this situation is not only the CSS code used for designing themes is wrapped but also the complete code of the framework.
Twelve Column is the most popular feature offered by the Bootstrap, which is a complete responsive grid system. So websites which are created by including the classes to the HTML responds to every screen size.
If the developers use a predefined grid then a good design cannot be achieved. The issue here is that the developers are designing from the superficial side to display the contents in those predefined grids. The overall result is a design with grids and a spontaneous feel to the design without an ideal relationship between them.
This universal standard approach makes it sure that the design does not adjust to a constraint like image dimensions or line length. Now even though if you use fonts like sans-serif they require space but the grids remain the same. This results in bad clarity and strange looking typography.
Now let’s see what could be a better approach to this?
There is a perception behind every great looking theme. You also need to know the exact reason behind designing the theme and also which factors are you imagining for it? The answer to this question will help you in deciding with which constraints you should work.
Once you have decided your perception, then you need to start designing perfectly. You can use some sample content for testing a few posts and then also you can start designing as per that content. This is really good practice, so once you start concentrating on the content first and then building out the remaining design elements surrounding it; you will definitely receive positive results.
If we consider the technical point of view, then use libraries and code snippets for decreasing the development time.
Now up to here, we have discussed how Bootstrap is not good for WordPress themes. But there are people who are not agreeing to this. They think that Bootstrap is good for WordPress themes.
So let’s see from their point of view:
A bootstrap is only a tool which was originally built with backend interfaces. Which may be the initial intentions, but there are other theme developers as well as front end developers who like to use Bootstrap as a framework for building a theme and website based on it because of its responsive design to mobile devices which is something that is largely accepted as one of the best practices for building websites and themes which are compatible with all the devices.
Bootstrap provides a good edge for responsive designs at the same time it provides an edge for the theme development also. This doesn’t mean that you will get a responsive website suddenly without any need to change anything, but it will definitely take you closer to it.
It is found that Bootstrap has its own approach towards doing things and a Custom Walker Class is required for allowing the menus to work by using the Bootstrap’s way of working styles. Also as Bootstrap believes in working in a certain kind of way for marking up HTML doesn’t necessarily mean that it is not possible to design a theme or website in a WordPress way. This is a point of concern, to let WordPress and the Bootstrap work together nicely and at the end achieve the goal.
There is nothing wrong if it is required to use Custom Walker Classes. There is no such a note for using the Walker_Nav_Menu class and if the developers need to avoid it, then this must be the first time that anyone had said.
Classes are good and if you go into the detail of these functions then it will help in learning more about how to handle the WordPress navigation. Open source is nothing but going into details, finding out how the stuff works and it should be like that. He uses these functions a lot and can create his own custom navigation whenever he wants it.
Also, he has pointed out one more thing about the bloating of the framework. At one point every framework was called “Bloated” which included WordPress also. As a developer, he is happy and inspired by the fact that these libraries exist and also he can call them from core instead of loading them onto his themes or Plugins. Thus bloat gives him various options; it indicates that Bootstrap has a lot of things to give which you can use in each project.
Conclusion:
So I think that whether Bootstrap is good or bad for WordPress themes, is the opinion of different people. So what do you think about it? What is your opinion? Please share it in the comment section below. I think you find this blog helpful. I have tried my best to find out whether the Bootstrap is good or bad for WordPress themes.
Also if you have any suggestions or queries comment them also in the comment section. See you with another blog next time!
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