PressWind WordPress starter theme with TailwindCSS and ViteJS

In this tutorial, we will cover how to use the WordPress starter theme PressWind, which integrates TailwindCSS and ViteJS for a fast and customizable development experience. This starter theme is designed to help you create beautiful and modern websites with ease.

First, let’s start by setting up a WordPress environment on your local machine. Make sure you have a development server like MAMP, WAMP, or XAMPP installed. Once you have your development environment set up, create a new WordPress installation and download the PressWind theme from GitHub.

Next, navigate to the themes directory in your WordPress installation and upload the PressWind theme. Activate the theme in the WordPress dashboard by going to Appearance > Themes and selecting PressWind.

Now, let’s dive into the code and see how we can customize the theme using TailwindCSS and ViteJS. Open the PressWind theme folder in your favorite code editor and navigate to the "assets" directory. Here, you will find the stylesheets and JavaScript files for the theme.

To customize the styles of the theme, we will be using TailwindCSS. TailwindCSS is a utility-first CSS framework that allows you to build custom designs quickly. Open the "styles" directory and locate the "main.css" file. This file contains the base styles for the theme. You can add your custom styles here by using TailwindCSS utility classes.

To use TailwindCSS classes, you need to install the TailwindCSS package. Open a terminal window and run the following command:

npm install tailwindcss

Next, create a TailwindCSS configuration file by running:

npx tailwindcss init

This will create a "tailwind.config.js" file in your project directory. Now, you can import TailwindCSS in the "main.css" file by adding the following line at the top:

@import 'tailwindcss/base';
@import 'tailwindcss/components';
@import 'tailwindcss/utilities';

Now you can start using TailwindCSS classes in your stylesheets. For example, you can add a custom background color by using the class "bg-blue-500":

.bg-blue-500 {
  background-color: #3b82f6;
}

Save the changes and refresh your WordPress site to see the updated styles.

Next, let’s optimize the JavaScript files using ViteJS. ViteJS is a fast build tool for modern web development. Open the "scripts" directory in the theme and locate the "app.js" file. This file contains the JavaScript code for the theme.

To use ViteJS, you need to create a Vite configuration file. Create a new file named "vite.config.js" in the root directory of the theme and add the following code:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'

export default defineConfig({
  build: {
    outDir: 'dist'
  }
})

Next, install ViteJS by running the following command:

npm install vite

Now you can bundle the JavaScript files using ViteJS. Open a terminal window and run:

npx vite build

This will create a "dist" directory in your project with the optimized JavaScript files. Update the "functions.php" file in the theme to point to the new JavaScript file.

function presswind_enqueue_scripts() {
  wp_enqueue_script('app', get_template_directory_uri() . '/dist/app.js');
}

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'presswind_enqueue_scripts');

Save the changes and refresh your WordPress site to see the optimized JavaScript files in action.

Congratulations! You have successfully customized the PressWind theme using TailwindCSS and ViteJS. Feel free to explore more customization options and build beautiful websites with this starter theme.