# [Roots Starter Theme](http://roots.io/)

[![Built with Grunt](https://cdn.gruntjs.com/builtwith.png)](http://gruntjs.com/)

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

* [Grunt](http://roots.io/using-grunt-for-wordpress-theme-development/) 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 Grunt
  * An optimized Google Analytics snippet
* Bootstrap
* 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
* Image captions use `<figure>` and `<figcaption>`

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

### Install Grunt

**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 `grunt-cli` globally with `npm install -g grunt-cli`.
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 Grunt commands provided from the command line.

### Available Grunt commands

* `grunt dev` — Compile LESS to CSS, concatenate and validate JS
* `grunt watch` — Compile assets when file changes are made
* `grunt build` — Create minified assets that are used on non-development environments

## 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-grunt-for-wordpress-theme-development/) — A look into how Roots uses Grunt
* [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.