# [Roots Starter Theme](http://roots.io/)
[![devDependency Status](https://david-dm.org/roots/roots/dev-status.svg)](https://david-dm.org/roots/roots#info=devDependencies)

Roots is a WordPress starter theme based on [HTML5 Boilerplate](http://html5boilerplate.com/) & [Bootstrap](http://getbootstrap.com/) that will help you make better themes.

* Source: [https://github.com/roots/roots](https://github.com/roots/roots)
* Homepage: [http://roots.io/](http://roots.io/)
* Documentation: [http://roots.io/docs/](http://roots.io/docs/)
* Twitter: [@rootswp](https://twitter.com/rootswp), [@retlehs](https://twitter.com/retlehs), [@swalkinshaw](https://twitter.com/swalkinshaw), [@Foxaii](https://twitter.com/Foxaii), [@c2foryou](https://twitter.com/c2foryou)
* Newsletter: [Subscribe](http://roots.io/subscribe/)
* Forum: [http://discourse.roots.io/](http://discourse.roots.io/)

## Features

* [Gulp](http://gulpjs.com/) for compiling LESS to CSS, checking for JS errors, live reloading, concatenating and minifying files, versioning assets, and generating lean Modernizr builds
* [Bower](http://bower.io/) for front-end package management
* [HTML5 Boilerplate](http://html5boilerplate.com/)
  * The latest [jQuery](http://jquery.com/) via Google CDN, with a local fallback
  * The latest [Modernizr](http://modernizr.com/) build for feature detection, with lean builds with Gulp
  * An optimized Google Analytics snippet
* [Bootstrap](http://getbootstrap.com/)
* Organized file and template structure
* ARIA roles and microformats
* [Theme activation](http://roots.io/roots-101/#theme-activation)
* [Theme wrapper](http://roots.io/an-introduction-to-the-roots-theme-wrapper/)
* Cleaner HTML output of navigation menus
* Posts use the [hNews](http://microformats.org/wiki/hnews) microformat
* [Multilingual ready](http://roots.io/wpml/) and over 30 available [community translations](https://github.com/roots/roots-translations)

### Additional features

Install the [Soil](https://github.com/roots/soil) plugin to enable additional features:

* Root relative URLs
* Nice search (`/search/query/`)
* Cleaner output of `wp_head` and enqueued assets markup

## Installation

Clone the git repo - `git clone git://github.com/roots/roots.git` - or [download it](https://github.com/roots/roots/zipball/master) and then rename the directory to the name of your theme or website.

If you don't use [Bedrock](https://github.com/roots/bedrock), you'll need to add the following to your `wp-config.php` on your development installation:

```php
define('WP_ENV', 'development');
```

## Theme activation

Reference the [theme activation](http://roots.io/roots-101/#theme-activation) documentation to understand everything that happens once you activate Roots.

## Configuration

Edit `lib/config.php` to enable or disable theme features and to define a Google Analytics ID.

Edit `lib/init.php` to setup navigation menus, post thumbnail sizes, post formats, and sidebars.

## Theme development

Roots uses [Gulp](http://gulpjs.com/) for compiling LESS to CSS, checking for JS errors, live reloading, concatenating and minifying files, versioning assets, and generating lean Modernizr builds.

If you'd like to use Bootstrap Sass, look at the [Roots Sass](https://github.com/roots/roots-sass) fork.

### Install Gulp

**Unfamiliar with npm? Don't have node installed?** [Download and install node.js](http://nodejs.org/download/) before proceeding.

From the command line:

1. Install `gulp` globally with `npm install -g gulp`.
2. Navigate to the theme directory, then run `npm install`. npm will look at `package.json` and automatically install the necessary dependencies. It will also automatically run `bower install`, which installs front-end packages defined in `bower.json`.

When completed, you'll be able to run the various Gulp commands provided from the command line.

### Available Gulp commands

* `gulp dev` — Compile LESS to CSS, concatenate and validate JS
* `gulp watch` — Compile assets when file changes are made
* `gulp build` — Create minified assets that are used on non-development environments
* `gulp images` — Lossless compression of PNG, JPEG, GIF and SVG images

## Documentation

* [Roots 101](http://roots.io/roots-101/) — A guide to installing Roots, the files, and theme organization
* [Theme Wrapper](http://roots.io/an-introduction-to-the-roots-theme-wrapper/) — Learn all about the theme wrapper
* [Build Script](http://roots.io/using-gulp-for-wordpress-theme-development/) — A look into how Roots uses Gulp
* [Roots Sidebar](http://roots.io/the-roots-sidebar/) — Understand how to display or hide the sidebar in Roots

## Contributing

Everyone is welcome to help [contribute](CONTRIBUTING.md) and improve this project. There are several ways you can contribute:

* Reporting issues (please read [issue guidelines](https://github.com/necolas/issue-guidelines))
* Suggesting new features
* Writing or refactoring code
* Fixing [issues](https://github.com/roots/roots/issues)
* Replying to questions on the [forum](http://discourse.roots.io/)

## Support

Use the [Roots Discourse](http://discourse.roots.io/) to ask questions and get support.