How To Clone (steal) a Wordpress Theme?

Post originated from : http://www.myokyawhtun.com/2008/02/15/how-to-steal-a-wordpress-theme.html/ (now removed)

Copying the whole wordpress theme is not easy task but not too difficult as you think. In this post, I?m going to teach you how to copy the wordpress theme using Firefox and Firefox plugin called Firebug. But I?m afraid that my guideness will lead you to be a thief. Keep in mind that you should consider copyright and respect other?s people work. This tutorial will helps you to improve your knowledge of XHTML, CSS and the wordpress coding.

Before you start you must have Wordpress runing on your local machine, knowledge of XHTML, CSS and programming. And your computer must has Firefox installed and it?s plugin called Firebug.

So, lets get started. First, make a theme folder (name it whatever you like) under /wp-content/themes/. Visit the blog you like to copy it?s theme. Here, I?m using Wordpress?s classic theme. Copy the CSS codes from CSS tab in Firebug Windows .

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If you see like this (shown in below). Click the link. You?ll see the full CSS codes shown in above.

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Select all of CSS codes and paste into text editor (notepad). Put the following codes at the beginning of CSS codes previously copied into notepad. The following codes are used for wordpress theme information.


Code:
/*
Theme Name: Your theme name
Theme URI: http://yourthemeURL.com/
Description: Your theme description blah blah blah
Version: 1.1
Author: Your name
Author URI: http://www.yoursite.com/
*/

Save it as style.css into theme folder you created under wp-content/themes/.
Firebug?s HTML tab collasped the heading tag and body tag by default. Create a index.php under your theme folder. Write the following codes.

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Default view of the Firebug?s HTML tab.

Code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC ?-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN? ?http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd?>

<html xmlns=?http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml?>
<head profile=?http://gmpg.org/xfn/11″>

</head>

<body>

</body>
</html>

language_attributes() can be used to add lang, xml:lang and dir attributes to the html tag for your theme. Put this function after xmlns attribute in html tag.

Code:
<html xmlns=?http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml? <?php language_attributes(); ?>>


Understanding BlogInfo functions


BlogInfo returns the information you set in User Profile and General Options from your Wordpress Administration panel. Following codes are the basic information of your wordpress needed for html. Those codes must be inside heading <head> tags.

Code:
<meta http-equiv=?Content-Type? content=?<?php bloginfo(?html_type?); ?>; charset=<?php bloginfo(?charset?); ?>? />
<meta name=?generator? content=?WordPress <?php bloginfo(?version?); ?>? />
<link rel=?alternate? type=?application/rss+xml? title=?RSS 2.0″ href=?<?php bloginfo(?rss2_url?); ?>? />
<link rel=?alternate? type=?text/xml? title=?RSS .92″ href=?<?php bloginfo(?rss_url?); ?>? />
<link rel=?alternate? type=?application/atom+xml? title=?Atom 0.3″ href=?<?php bloginfo(?atom_url?); ?>? />
<link rel=?pingback? href=?<?php bloginfo(?pingback_url?); ?>? />
<?php wp_get_archives(?type=monthly&format=link?); ?>
<?php wp_head(); ?>
<style type=?text/css? media=?screen?>
@import url( <?php bloginfo(?stylesheet_url?); ?> );
</style>

Use Better SEO title

Code:
<title><?php wp_title(?); ?> <?php if(is_single() || is_page() || is_category){ _e(??);}?><?php bloginfo(?name?); ?></title>

Title tag must be inside heading tags.

Let?s start copy the well-formed tag elements
Before you start this lesson, you must have the knowledge about html and wordpress coding. The idea is that we first copy the parent tag elements and then we copy it?s child elements. We repeat the process till all of the tags are copied.

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Expand each tags and try to understand the functions used in the theme

It is important to know the wordpress functions used in the theme which you?re going to copy. First expand the tags and look up and determine what functions are used inside the tags.

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An example for code shown in above,

Wordpress has bloginfo function that can generate the basic information of your wordpress I already mentioned. Right now, I?m going to change with the wordpress coding. The following codes will generate the result shown in above.

Code:
<h1><a href=?<?php bloginfo(?url?);?>?><?php bloginfo(?title?);?></a></h1>

<div class=?description?><?php bloginfo(?description?);?></div>

Many of wordpress theme creators used default posts query in the theme except custom one. Some used query_posts to make custom query for some purposed. It doesn?t matter. All are in the loop.

Understand the basic structure of Post looping

The Loop is used by WordPress to display each of your posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each of the posts to be displayed on the current page and formats them according to how they match specified criteria within The Loop tags. This is the basic structure of the_loop. Inside this we normally put the_title(), the_permalink(), the_content(), etc.

Code:
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>

<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<?php _e(?Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.?); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

If you?re doing programming, you can easily know that the following codes are generated from Loop.

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The following codes will output shown above

Code:
<div id=?post-<?php the_ID(); ?>? class=?post?>

</div>

Expand that div you?ll see the following sub elements

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Expand h2 tag element.

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the_title and the_permalink

the_title returns the post title and the_permalink returns the permalink of your post. So rewrite with the php code.

Code:
<h2>
<a title=?Permanet Link to <?php the_title();?>? rel=?bookmark? href=?<?php the_permalink();?>?>
<?php the_title();?></a>
</h2>

the_time or the_date

the_time returns the all the date of your post. and the_date only returns the date of first post which is published in same day. I prefer you to use the_time

Code:
<small><?php the_time(?F d, Y?);?></small>
Check date time format from PHP.net


the_content


the_content returns the content of post. Optional parameter is used for showing read more link if the post used <!?more?>

Code:
<div class=?entry?>
the_content (?Read the rest of this entry?);
</div>

the_tags

the_tags function return the tags link of the post. It was implemented in wordpress 2.3. the_tags(?start?, ?seperate?,'end?);

Code:
<p class=?postmetadata?>
the_tags (?Tags:?, ?, ?, ?<br />?);
</p>

Wordpress uses header.php, index.php, single.php, page.php, category.php, search.php, comments.php, functions.php and footer.php for theme. Oh! you can use only index.php for your theme. But need to write more complicated codes when you?re using different style for different page. Let?s say, if you want main , single post and page different. You have to choose either conditional_tags or the page.

For example, the following code will show excerpt post while browsing the category, search, tags and main page. It shows full content when browsing ? ? ha ha single post

Code:
<?php if (is_category() || is_search() || is_tags() || is_main()) {
the_excerpt();
}else {
the_content();
}
?>

Now I expect that you got hints to copy the wordpress theme. I think I stop now, I can?t explain you in very detail. Please learn all the theme functions from wordpress Codex.
 
Well Done.

This is a bit of a tough task, but at least with a bit of php, css and wp theme skills
One should be able to duplicate the Theme very Closely...
 
At the very I least you can now give Anonymous's instructions from above to a designer and save yourself a couple hundred dollars. Now they can just rip all the css, etc. and not have to design it by hand, should cut WAY down on the amount of hours you need to pay for.

~UNdefy
 
Does this still work with the current version of WP? I don't have the skills to pull this off but really want a particulate template. Can anyone do this reliably and reasonably for me?
 
Alternatively, learn a wordpress theme framework and replicate as close to the the look of the theme.
 
Last edited:
its almost impossible that you can crack the server side of the theme especially with the new version of wordpress right now.
 
Thank you all.

I don't have the skills to follow the link with firebug, I have seen that before but it is beyond me. If I found a template I like I would buy it but none of them seems to do the job or I don't understand how it can be changed for what I want. Anyone I speak to about modifying one says "pick a template and I'll change it" but its $300-$400 then they tell me the template has a license or you can only change certain parts and I am stuck again. I'm interested in ...well I just went to get the correct spelling of the url and it seems the site has been moved? My page error is "



[h=2]This Site Has Been Moved to a New Server. [/h] It may be possible to restore access to this site by following these instructions for clearing your dns cache.




Hmmm, so trying to access this from 3 different IPs gives the same result. I wonder if they saw the httrack scrape? At least I can show someone a screenshot of what I want.

Can anybody recommend someone?
 
Most WP themes are GPL and the other are split GPL, so you can change any parts of it.

Show me the site you want to copy, I might be able to help for less than $300.
 
I use elegant themes... it's $39/year and I get enough variation for everything I do. I have about 30 WP running now... I'm not affiliated with them so don't send me PM. Just wanted to give folks a heads-up if you need good themes. I saw the OP said they wanted $300 to reproduce one... wow! That's too much, in my humble opinion.
 
I'm not sure how to clone a theme, but if you want to know what theme another site is using then go and download it you can use: http://whatwpthemeisthat.com/
 
You might be able to find the theme for free in the downloads section. :)
 
Most WP themes (even premium) can be found to download all over the web, just search for them. I've rarely had examples where I didn't find a theme.
 
Macthetrix,
My reply is for markdept's post above mine, and I'm sure he is still alive :)
 
Yes, I am still alive.

I Design1.jpg

I like this, the site is no longer live as stated above. There is a home pages that is a giant image but not a fan of that, I would be happy with a home page that has an image as above sized with some text about company under it. maybe even a slooooowwww slider. not a fan of too much or too fast movement.

left column under the child pages would be some news/blog articles 2-3 of the latest depending on the space available.

whaddya think?
 
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