The Theme Customizer API has revolutionized the way WordPress publishers set up their themes. In the past, theme settings pages were vastly different, making it difficult for users to navigate and customize their themes. However, since WordPress 3.4, the Theme Customizer API has made settings pages obsolete.
The Theme Options Gallery, which showcases the best and worst theme options screens in town, is now becoming obsolete due to the Theme Customizer. The benefits of using the Theme Customizer over old settings pages are numerous. It makes the theme setup process easier by providing a preview of changes in real-time, taking the blindfold off the user’s head.
The Theme Customizer has three main components: sections, settings, and controls. Sections are like rooms in a house, settings are like lights, and controls are like light switches. To interact with the Theme Customizer, users must hook into the customize_register action to load the WP_Customize_Manager class.
For those who don’t want to interact with the Theme Customizer, it’s already there in a blank theme. The built-in sections include Site Title & Tagline, Colors, Header Image, Background Image, Navigation, and Static Front Page. Existing controls include text fields, checkboxes, radios, selects, color pickers, file uploads, image uploads, background images, and header images.
WordPress currently has sixteen APIs, but the Theme Customization API is by far the most user-friendly and easy to use. If you haven’t switched from settings pages to the Theme Customizer yet, it’s worth considering for a smoother and more efficient theme setup process.
