ExtraChill WordPress Theme

A flexible, hook-based WordPress theme designed for music-focused websites. Features CSS variable customization, modular asset loading, and extensive filter/action hooks for plugin-based customization.

Overview

ExtraChill is a modern, performance-optimized WordPress theme designed for music journalism, artist features, and creative content. It works as a standalone single-site theme or as part of a WordPress multisite network.

Key Features

Music-Focused Content Management

• Custom Taxonomies: Artist, Venue, Festival, and Location organization with REST API support
• Homepage Content Delivery: Hook-based front page powered by extrachill_homepage_content action
• Share System: Integrated share buttons with clipboard copy and social sharing
• Notice System: User feedback system supporting multiple notices with cookie-based dismissal

Performance Optimizations

• Conditional Asset Loading: CSS/JS load only when needed based on page context
• Modular CSS Architecture: Page/component-specific stylesheets loaded conditionally
• filemtime() Versioning: Automatic cache busting for all assets
• Minimal Dependencies: No build step required for development

Modern Design System

• CSS Variables: Global design tokens in assets/css/root.css - fully overridable via filter
• Dark Mode Support: Automatic dark mode via prefers-color-scheme
• Responsive Design: Mobile-first layouts with accessible navigation
• Icon System: SVG sprite system for consistent iconography

Extensibility

• 67 Hooks: Filters and actions for complete customization via plugins
• Template Override System: Plugins can override any template via filters
• Graceful Degradation: Works standalone or with companion plugins

Requirements

• WordPress 5.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher

Standalone Usage

This theme works as a standalone WordPress theme for any music-focused site. When used without companion plugins, it gracefully degrades with sensible defaults.

Recommended Customization Approach

Use a plugin, not a child theme. This theme is designed with 67 hooks (filters and actions) that allow complete customization via plugins. A lightweight companion plugin provides cleaner separation of concerns and easier updates.

Extension Points

Override theme styling without modifying theme files:

CSS Variable Override (extrachill_css_variables):

add_filter( 'extrachill_css_variables', function( $vars ) {
    return array(
        '--accent'              => '#your-brand-color',
        '--accent-2'            => '#secondary-color',
        '--font-family-heading' => '"Your Font", sans-serif',
    );
} );

DNS Prefetch Domains (extrachill_dns_prefetch_domains):

add_filter( 'extrachill_dns_prefetch_domains', function( $domains ) {
    $domains[] = '//your-cdn.com';
    return $domains;
} );

Homepage Content (extrachill_homepage_content):

add_action( 'extrachill_homepage_content', function() {
    echo '<div class="my-homepage-content">Your content here</div>';
}, 10 );

Template Overrides:

add_filter( 'extrachill_template_single_post', function( $template ) {
    return MY_PLUGIN_DIR . '/templates/custom-single.php';
} );

See /docs/filter-hooks.md and /docs/action-hooks.md for the complete list of hooks.

Development

Local Development

Direct file editing with no build step required.

Build + Deployment

Production builds use ./build.sh (symlinked to /.github/build.sh).

Build artifact: build/extrachill.zip

File Structure

extrachill/
├── assets/
│   ├── css/                    # Modular CSS files
│   │   ├── root.css            # CSS custom properties
│   │   ├── archive.css         # Archive page styles
│   │   ├── single-post.css     # Single post styles
│   │   ├── taxonomy-badges.css # Base taxonomy badge styles
│   │   └── ...                 # Additional component styles
│   ├── js/                     # JavaScript files
│   └── fonts/                  # Local web fonts
├── inc/
│   ├── components/             # Reusable UI components
│   ├── archives/               # Archive page functionality
│   ├── core/                   # Core WordPress features
│   │   ├── templates/          # Shared template components
│   │   ├── editor/             # Custom embed handlers
│   │   ├── assets.php          # Asset management
│   │   ├── custom-taxonomies.php # Music taxonomies
│   │   └── template-router.php # Template routing
│   ├── footer/                 # Footer functionality
│   ├── header/                 # Header functionality
│   ├── home/                   # Homepage components
│   ├── sidebar/                # Sidebar functionality
│   └── single/                 # Single post/page features
└── style.css                   # Theme header + base styles

Architecture

Template Routing: WordPress native template_include filter via inc/core/template-router.php

Hook-Based Layout: Header and footer use action hooks rather than WordPress menus

Modular Assets: CSS/JS loaded conditionally based on page context

Security: Output escaping, input sanitization, nonce verification throughout

Custom Taxonomies

The theme registers four music-focused taxonomies:

• Artist (non-hierarchical) - Musical artists
• Venue (non-hierarchical) - Performance venues
• Festival (non-hierarchical) - Music festivals
• Location (hierarchical) - Geographic locations

All taxonomies have REST API support for block editor integration.

Filterable Defaults

Many theme behaviors can be customized via filters:

Filter	Purpose
extrachill_single_post_style_post_types	Post types that load single-post.css
extrachill_sidebar_style_post_types	Post types that load sidebar.css
extrachill_sidebar_recent_posts_content	Custom sidebar recent posts content
extrachill_filter_bar_category_items	Category-specific filter bar dropdowns
extrachill_related_posts_allowed_taxonomies	Taxonomies for related posts
extrachill_footer_bottom_menu_items	Footer bottom menu links

License

GNU General Public License v2 or later (GPL-2.0-or-later)

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Theme: Extra Chill Author: Chris Huber (https://chubes.net) License: GPL-2.0-or-later