At ThemeSupport we work with a lot of different WordPress themes. But the one we use more often than any other is Jupiter from Artbees. The reason we like Jupiter so much is because a large percentage of our WordPress development is custom development, using PHP, CSS, JavaScript, & HTML, and we find that Jupiter is one of the easiest themes to customize, extend, and develop for building amazing WordPress websites.
Jupiter’s Architecture For Custom Development
Jupiter‘s architecture is uncluttered in how it handles coding and customization. Some themes are broken into multiple different frameworks that all have to be edited individually and at times feel like you are having to manage and edit four different themes. Then there are other themes that are all centered around creating page custom options, which are more difficult to modify. Jupiter, on the other hand, is easier to maintain custom code. Jupiter is organized into minimal page templates (i.e., full-width page, posts, projects, etc.) and short code templates. When you customize Jupiter you first create a child theme (as you should with any premium WordPress theme), then you can copy one of the page or short code templates into your Jupiter child theme to modify. This more DRY architecture makes it more simple and clean to custom code Jupiter.
Languages for Custom Developing Jupiter
To custom develop Jupiter requires CSS, JS, HTML & PHP, depending on the customization. For front-end development we utilize CSS , JavaScript and HTML. For instance, to customize Jupiter’s header structure we mostly use HTML and CSS with some possible PHP modifications. Animation or movement is developed with HTML5 and JavaScript and style (colors, fonts, etc.) is updated with CSS.
However, where ever possible we take advantage of Visual composer for on-page edits. Visual composer is a powerful tool and plugin and we work under the adage that if it can be done in Visual Composer it should be. The reason for this is because Visual Composer is easy to understand for website owners and content creators, so updating or adding content can be a task a non-developer can do.
Jupiter’s Templates (aka Demos)
Outside of just being easy to customize, the other thing that ThemeSupport likes about Jupiter is the nearly 100 different templates / demos that are available to choose from. The whole purpose of using a premium theme is to decrease the effort involved in design. By having so many different templates to choose from, it makes it easier for us to recommend Jupiter to clients when they don’t have budget for web design. Instead, our customers can easily choose the template that they like best and we can develop their website against that template.
