Ignition uses npm and Gulp to automate quite a few tasks. This makes development faster and easier. Ignition uses WP Gulp by Ahmad Awais with quite a few changes. You can read more about WPGulp here.
With Gulp, ignition does the following:
- Compiles sass files
- Uses post CSS after css has been made.
- Allows you to use babel when writing javascript
- Concatenates js files in the folder ‘custom’ into one big custom.js file
- minifies sass and js files.
Installing NPM
You can follow the guide here to install NPM. You won’t have to do much except install it and check that it works. It’s quite easy.
Running WPGulp
Open terminal and make your way to the directory of the theme. Make sure npm is installed in the directory by running npm install. Then you can simply run npm start. If all was installed correctly it should run!
Gulp runs locally
Gulp runs locally and so you will probably need to be editing your files locally. You can decide to use something like local by flywheel to run your site fully locally, or just edit the files locally and upload them to the server to see your changes.
Make sure to upload the assets directory every so often because if you ever need to work on the project in months from now and you don’t have the up-to-date sass files and they compile you will lose your styles!
Installing ACF
The theme makes big use of the Advanced Custom Fields plugin. While you do not need it, it will greatly enhance your experience and give you the section and header abilities. So I would advise to install it.
Once you install it you can sync the groups that come with ignition. That way you can edit and add to them.