{"id":74404,"date":"2025-02-07T21:09:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/internet-business\/the-5-elements-or-components-of-wordpress\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T21:09:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T21:09:35","slug":"the-5-elements-or-components-of-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=74404","title":{"rendered":"The 5 Elements (or Components) of WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

A Captain Planet Metaphor for the 5 Components of WordPress<\/span><\/h2>\n

WorkPress is an open-source, dynamic, content management system (CMS <\/span>powering over one third <\/span><\/a>of the world\u2019s websites. To understand how WordPress works, we break down the 5 components that join to make the single most popular CMS in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what is the fun of learning if we can\u2019t use a Captain Planet metaphor to help us? Captain Planet is a superhero made up of 5 powers; earth, fire, wind, water, and heart (the arguably less cool power). When the Planeteers wear their rings and come together Captain Planet is summoned!<\/span><\/p>\n

Without any of the 5, Captain Planet would be incomplete. SImilarly, it takes all 5 components to create a WordPress site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get started! Connect to your WordPress site through the cPanel <\/span>file manager<\/span><\/a> plugin, or through an FTP client of choice. You\u2019ll see your WordPress root directory.<\/span><\/p>\n

NOTE<\/b><\/span>:<\/span> It is not recommended that any changes are made to files within the root directory, but if you do \u2013 make sure to <\/span>backup<\/span><\/a> your WordPress site prior.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

?\ufe0f Component 1 \u2013 WP Core files<\/span><\/h2>\n

When you download WordPress from WordPress.org you get a zip file that contains the core foundational requirements needed for WordPress to work. In it you will find the PHP and related source files responsible for the basic functionality and appearance of your WordPress site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"WordPress<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n


? Component 2 \u2013 The wp-content folder (themes, plugins and more)<\/span><\/h2>\n

This folder contains files added by the user that enable themes, plugins, uploads and language. You can work with all of these files through your admin user interface.<\/span><\/p>\n

Themes<\/b> : wp-content\/themes or through admin panel wp-admin\u2192 Appearance\u2192 Editor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Themes impact appearance. Each site runs one theme that references a stylesheet to determine how your site looks and how content is displayed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

NOTE<\/b><\/span>:<\/span> Editing a theme file is not recommended, as soon as you update to a new version release any custom changes are overwritten. Instead you can <\/span>create a child theme<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plugins<\/b>: wp-content\/plugins or through admin panel wp-admin\u2192 Plugins\u2192 Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Plugins impact functionality, rather than appearance for example, you can add SEO capabilities, contact forms, or site backup with different plugins<\/span><\/p>\n

Uploads:<\/b> wp-content\/uploads<\/span><\/p>\n

Any media uploads \u2013 images, videos, or pdfs that you add the site will appear here<\/span><\/p>\n

Languages<\/b> \u2013 wp-content\/languages this is where non-english WP sites are stored<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

?Component 3 \u2013 Configuration files\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

wp-config.php\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The wp-config.php tells WP how to connect to your database tables. This file contains MySQL settings, salts, unique and secret keys, the absolute path to the WP directory or ABSPATH, the database table prefix, debugging mode for developers and the WordPress database which contains these 12 tables:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n