Thoughts:
There are some things I wanted to do with this theme that I did do and others that I didn’t. Mostly, I think it turned out all right. One thing I didn’t get around to was putting together a “Theme Options” page for the WordPress dashboard. This is something I definitely want to do in a future release. It would make it much easier to customize.
Another thing I wanted to do was create a theme that was better than Visionary. I had a lot of issues (personal) with that theme. I fixed many of those with the Structure theme.
The layout is set on an imaginary 3-column grid, with each grid around 300px wide. The reason I done this was so that a user could take different blocks of content and move them from the sidebar, to the bottom of the home page, and vice versa. There’s a lot of things you can play around with, and even add some of your own content in a custom content block. I originally had this idea with Visionary, but couldn’t really implement it in the way I wanted because of the size of the sidebar. That’s why you’ll notice that the video option is different.
You’ll definitely see the similarities in the two themes, but this one has much more potential for customization. I think it looks a bit cleaner too. Plus, I wanted to do something in blue. I’ve worked on this theme for the past month, but didn’t figure out what I wanted to do with it until last week. Since then, I’ve been working non-stop.
There’s more jQuery in the theme, and this could potentially be a bad thing for bloggers with a lot of users on slower connections because the jQuery is used to hide tabs. Under these tabs is a lot of information. This could take a little longer to load.
I’m sure there are a gazillion bugs that I need to fix, and I’ll get around to them at some point. This first week or so for the theme release is a debugging week. There are so many different options that it would be too hard and take too long to test them all myself.
Now, I’m going to bed. Feel free to report your bugs, complaints, and/or praise in the comments section below. Also, subscribe to the feed to be updated when new content comes out.
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This is so much better than the last theme. Visionary was a good starting spot, and I liked the theme, but something about it wasn’t cohesive to me. I played around with it, but in the end I gave up on it. This one just feels so much more complete and more professional. There’s speration and division where the other theme felt like everything was running together. It’s an amazing piece of work, and before long I fear that we will be paying for your work instead of having it given to us. Thank you for this.
Astonishing!
You have taken WordPress theme design to a new level of design, layout, function and excellence.
@Nick - I wouldn’t say it’s so much better than the other, they both are fantastic and easy to use.
This one actually doesn’t look right to me with Firefox, some of the tabs aren’t all on one line.
Thanks guys. Nick, I’m with you on this versus Visionary. I think this one feels more “cohesive.” I hope to keep free themes running on here for as long as WordPress is around. Of course, I might do a little freelance work here and there.
Skarld, I hope you voted for me.
Mike, I was afraid of that with the tabs. I assume it was the top right sidebar tabs that were messing up. I have no way of testing in other screen resolutions either. Can you tell me what screen resolution you have? Also, do you have your text resized? I’ve commented out the fourth tab in the top right sidebar in the demo just in case.
Justin,
I never noticed before that the visionary used a grey background in the domtabs and around the Flickr area as background. I have two monitors running on my computer. One of them is actually a 22inch HDTV and the other is just your standard monitor. The HD is a lot brighter and the light shade of grey shows up white so there is no division, when I dragged it over to the monitor I saw that it is grey. A lot of people are probably using brighter screens, and it may not show up everywhere. In the Structure theme the colors show up on both. I used to think everything just ran togheter without dividers in the Visionary theme.
Still, the division that is set up in the new theme is so much better and it makes it more appealing. When it isn’t present, something about a theme feels incomplete to me. If that makes sense. I used to run Adii’s premium news theme, and it drove me nuts that everything just kind of ran toghet without it being broken up. I loved the theme, it was flexible, packed with features, but it drove me because there were no breaks. I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I thought you should be aware of the way the colors appear. This is probably one of the best theme’s I’ve seen come out this year.
I’m going to download it now and store it away just incase you decide to put that 100 price tag on it… (You so could, and it would sell)
Absolutely awesome, Justin. Definitely made much more of a visual impact upon me than Visionary.
Incredible. You have really outdone yourself this time. You are really up there with the top WP designers and without the cockey attitude and high prices.
You could probably even throw a $20 price tag on this and make a killing, although it is worth MUCH more.
Thanks.
Digg it if U like it!
Digg it if U like it!
@Justin - I’m running Firefox on Ubuntu, but I don’t think that matters. My resolution is 1280×800…the page fits nicely inside my browser, so it’s not the width that I can see.
The tabs on the upper right look fine now that you commented one out, I just see three. But the second area of tabs below the main story go to a second line now. The World tab is the one on the second line now.
Structure: WordPress Theme
Another new theme from Justin Tadlock, who is putting out some really great stuff.
I am using his Visionary theme after some major tweaking and it’s been awesome and well-received. He uses custom fields to make some of it work but it really adds some…
continuing with the the crazy series of comments urging you to charge for this theme, is there at least a paypal account in your name that I can donate to? Or maybe a charity you’d like donated to in the spirit of the season? Seriously, I already download too many things for free in an ethically questionable manner, I’d rather not feel like I’m ripping off a hard working teacher/wordpress rockstar too. Anyway, Thanks for the great theme. I was already excited about using visionary, Structure is just ridiculously good for being free.
Wow Justin this theme is excellent! As much as I love your Visionary theme, I may just have to switch over to this new one…
You really have taken themes to a new level with your latest themes. I’ve seen many premium themes which don’t look nearly so good, and yet you give these away for free! You’re truly a credit to the blogging community. Thank you and bravo!
Nick, I totally understand what you’re saying. I think I either used the color
#f7f7f7or#eee. Both of these are pretty light, so different monitors show different shades.That’s one thing I don’t like about being here in Korea — I don’t have the testing environment that I’m used to. I just have my one little laptop. Thanks for pointing this out though. I might just change those background colors for Visionary in the next update. Thanks for your comments. I’m not sure that I’ll sell it though. I’d rather do freelance custom designs.
Armen, thanks. I think getting away from the red colors of Visionary and my last theme for this site really changed a lot for me, not only in terms of style, but in overall layout too.
Mark, thanks for Digging it. You can always vote for it at WP Themez too. It’s a Digg-like site for WordPress themes.
As I told Nick, I’m not sure about putting price tags on anything yet. Maybe some future “premium” themes because I’m not labeling this as premium just yet.
Mike, that seems so weird. I thought for sure that it’d only be the top right sidebar tabs. On my screen and in every browser, I have room for an extra tab in the category spot. I’m also running a 1280×800 screen resolution.
The Internet was out at work today too, so I couldn’t see what it looked like on those computers. Maybe it’ll be back up tomorrow.
Josh, you can definitely make a donation. Maybe I should put a button up. Thanks for your comments.
Amanda, you should take a look at my old themes. They’re not so good. I don’t think I’m at the level I should be at yet, but I’m working to get there. There are some really good premium themes out there though. To me, part of providing a premium theme means giving a lot more user support than usual. Right now, I’m only willing to do so much support because I have a lot of other things to get done. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I don’t actually want you to switch over. I love what you’ve done with Visionary, and you must’ve put a lot of work into it. Of course, you may do what you like.
Looks like another great theme Justin.
The blue is a nice touch. I’ve got a modified version of Visionary that uses blue on my test server. I haven’t decided if I’m going to deploy it or not.
The dividing lines in Structure help it somewhat. That’s one of the feedback things I’ve gotten on Visionary and another thing I’ve played around with on my test box.
I did discover what was causing the tab pop thing and that was the MyBlogLog widget holding up things during the page load. It’s an important social widget but I’m considering getting rid of it due to page load issues.
Absolutely stunning theme! To date, the best news/mag WP theme I have seen is Brian Gardner’s News Revolution but your creation is just as good. (and he charges a hundred bucks)
Absolutely stunning!
I can’t wait to get into the code and swim around a bit.
I am having a problem with the video, though. I took out the \\ in the sidebar file, but for some reason the video is “trying” to show in two places on the homepage. And when it tries to show, it shows in the wrong places and is just a green box.
Any ideas on that?
Thanks for the theme! I’ll be sure to donate when I get a little extra cash this Friday.
Frank, thanks. I’ll have to run some tests before the next update with the MyBlogLog widget. It’s so hard to test for everything, so thanks for the feedback on that. Theme authors really do depend on their users to help build better themes.
Len, I don’t know if we need to go saying I’m as good as Brian.
Honestly though, he’s a great designer, and even being compared to him is an honor.
Eric, it seems that you’ve put the wrong URL as the Video custom field. This is an easy mistake to make though. You put:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cT-ur8sDlA
It should be:
http://www.youtube.com/v/2cT-ur8sDlA
I can’t stress enough how strictly you need to follow the video section in the “readme.txt” file. Take note of the embed code on the YouTube video’s page. Don’t grab the URL in your address bar.
Also, you’ll have to comment out the video part in “home.php” if you want to use it in your sidebar. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
In other news: I’m actually sitting down working on a theme options page for the WordPress Dashboard right now. I hope to have it released in an update sometime this week.
[...] Live Demo | Visit & Download [...]
Nice job Justin. I rarely comment on theme releases so you already know wassup
I’m doing a test for a possible online magazine with your theme but I can’t get anything to show up in the right sidebar. I want to get rid of the “recent additions” and put up the tabs, ads, and custom blocks. i’ve read everything and i must have broken something.
The link is in the ‘website’ part of this comment.
thanks and you’re friggin awesome,
:: efrain
One more question and I’m good to go.
On the custom boxes, what would be the best way to get the content two split in to two smaller columns.
Example:
I might want a box that has a blogroll on the right half and a list of archives on the left. I know the php needed to call those two lists, but how would I get them to split in the box?
And thanks for helping on the YouTube issue. oddly enough, I DID post the URL that was supplied in the “share this” part of the page, not the browser. But it still needed to be edited down, obviously.
Anyway… I got it working.
Thanks again!
I know, I bought Gardner’s magazine revolution theme, and this shows up a day later. I’m pissed!
Very nice job on this one! I changed themes on my blog earlier this summer, but this one has given me reason to think about changing again. Very clean and well organized. Keep up the good work!
[...] Structure is a news/magazine-style theme with built-in video and image features and re-arrangeable content blocks. (No Ratings Yet) Loading … Sphere: Related Content [...]
You have freakin’ totally outdone yourself….. I was working my way through the gorgeous Visionary theme when I spotted this little gemstone…. *kiss* *kiss* I fell in love with it even more!
Ok…. this is a really basic stupid newbie question….. y’all don’t laugh….. *grin* so far, I’ve managed to get everything to show properly….. *grin*
But now I want to change the top navigation bar….. I need one of the links to be a link to another site and NOT a link to a page…. I’m afraid of screwing up the code and breaking something…… what’s the proper code to replace the current code with….. I know WHERE in the main-nav.php to do it…… I just need to know what to put there….. thanks….
*sneaks back in*
Never mind!!!! I played around with it and after a few go arounds, managed to figure it out!
[...] Structure: WordPress Theme Japanische Messer [...]
Great! Just great! I will try to use it on my blog, in place of the Visionary theme! Thanks.
Thanks for this theme Justin! I have try your previous visionary theme but found some errors or is it just me that is sooo stupid so I can’t handle it
Will give this one a try as I think my current blog layout is look messed
Cheers!
Another good professionally designed theme that is practical enough to use on ones blog. Thanks.
Justin, this them just rocks!!
Justin, I just finished personalizing Visionary on my domain. And you bring out an even better theme. Well, I will just have to use it on another site.
David
SP
It’s always an honor when you grace us with your presence here at my blog.
Efrain
Are you using Widgets? You can’t use widgets and use the custom sidebar things at the same time. Remove any widgets you might be using and see how that works.
I’m trying to make the custom sidebar blocks widgetized, but am having some problems with the video and tabs. Look for updates on this within a week.
Eric
That’s a really good question. I need to hash out that part in the “readme.txt” file for future updates. Open “home.php” and find these lines:
You can add new things within the blocks by putting them in between the divs. Example
I hope this helps, and thanks for pointing it out. I’ll definitely update the documentation in the future. Also, I’m trying to make each block widget-ready too, and am hard at work trying to figure out a few bugs with that. You might want to look out for updates.
Nick
Brian’s theme is great. The rest of us are just trying to keep up. I don’t think you have a great loss or anything.
Kayecee
I wish I would’ve saw your second comment before I was halfway through writing a mini-tutorial on that. I’m glad you figured it out. This is something that needs to be better documented too. Sometimes, what seems like simple things to theme developers, can actually be confusing to others. It’s easy to forget that.
EarnBlogger
Everything is looking great over at your blog. I actually like this theme better on your site than the last one.
Shearyadi
This theme can be hard to customize too. I am hard at work on creating theme options at the moment though. I actually designed this theme around the idea of easy customization, but I still have a few bugs to tweak with it. Be on the lookout for updates soon.
Jomark
Thanks for the comments. I really like the “Excerpts” style for personal blogs. I’m thinking of using something similar on this blog’s next design.
Steve
Thanks. I hope to continue creating themes that make people use phrases like, “This theme just rocks!!”
Offshore Incorporation
Please do. I like what you’ve done with Visionary too. It looks like a completely different theme now. I hope more people take your route and lay some custom designs over both these themes.
[...] currently experimenting with the Structure theme from Justin Tadlock. The theme appears to be a rather robust magazine style theme, and most [...]
Kudos … lovely.
A long time ago (shortly after the earth’s crust had cooled) TimBL and I exchanged a few email. One thing we talked about was how so many early web pages were hugely long. We agreed that, ideally, pages would be 1 screen high … or maybe 2. (Neither of us anticipated AJAX, of course.) It looks to me that you’ve done something like that, and with real style. Congrats!
wow wow and wow! I like the categories tab feature.
Now I don’t know what theme to use, there’re so many GREAT WordPress themes.
Awesome theme! After tweaking Visionary’s CSS for 3 hours today, I’m going to give it up! Structure is just an amazing successor to Visionary and just sums up all my requirements!
If I actually did earn from my website, I wouldn’t think twice before paying you for this! Probably someday, I will pay you.
Getting an error message:
Any idea where I should be looking to resolve this?
Hey, nice upgrade, now I can rip out a bunch of my custom code
you have me confused though with one modification, in particular to recent.php
you changed the function calls for getting the post custom data, thats fine… however, when you compare later on for empty string, you are still using the not identical comparison operator which will fail the comparison for diff types… doesnt that happen all the time now? shouldnt you just be doing a != comparison now? I dont see how to get to the_excerpt() call…
Thanks…
i think the template is beautiful. We’re trying to test it for a couple of domains. I looked at demo.justintadlock.com on a few machines. On MSIE 6 on three different machines the Latest/Popular/Sections etc. tabs are not clickable. same machines work beautifully in firefox.
I also checked out http://civicsgeek.org/2007/12/11/give-it-structure/
(saw it in your pingbacks). It also works great in firefox 2.00.11 but tabs are static in msie 6.0.
Kamza HamNidah (almost the only Korean I know).
[...] Source / Download / Demo [...]
Found the problem… never mind. It was due to having upgraded 2.3.1 using binary FTP instead of ASCII.
Justin, this is another fantastic theme. I’m using the Visionary theme on one of my other blogs, but I’m going to have to find a use for this one. Well done, sir!
[...] Structure: WordPress Theme - A very nice, clean WordPress theme. It looks like it has a lot of the “premium” theme features without the cost (donations accepted). [...]
Ben
Thanks. Ajax can do some great things. I’m just using a little bit of jQuery on the page to make things a little more readable.
Nice from Thailand
Thank you for your comment. I’m sure you can find something to use.
Manoj
Thanks. Payment is totally optional. Actually, it’s not expected at all because this is a free theme. Feel free to use it, and I hope you enjoy it.
Aaron
I’m glad you found it. I was beginning to wonder. It seemed like it’d be a hard problem to fix.
Howard
That’s weird. It’s working on my IE6. I’ll check at work today if I have time. My school is still using it, so I should be able to see what’s going on. Do you have Javascript enabled in your IE6?
John
Thank you. Maybe you can start a new blog!
Hi Justin,
This is a great theme and you’re giving it out for free!
I have a rather newbee question. How can I make the single.php become three columns i.e. two sidebars.
Thanks for youe help in advance.
What a great theme, already using it on my blog!
I used ‘Structure’ on my site and I am very impressed. The setup was quick, easy and allows for a lot of individuality. Justin, thank you very much.
[...] Justin Tadlock recently released one impressive Structure. [...]
So many comments and downloads over the past few days. You should be proud of this theme, Justin, your designs are taking the world by storm!
I’ve recently started (yet another) new blog and will be using this theme as the basis, though once again I hope you don’t mind some customization? I promise it won’t be pink this time!
Thank you once again for offering your wonderful and utterly professional-looking designs for free download. If I’m ever asked advice about premium wordpress designs, I will certainly recommend you! In fact I’m surprised that you haven’t yet offered a premium design service for those who are willing to pay for one-off template designs…
Best wishes,
Amanda
[...] Structure: WordPress Theme - justintadlock.com Another nice newspaper/magazine-style WordPress theme. Fans of Brian Gardner’s News Revolution theme should note that this one is free. (tags: theme wordpress) [...]
Hello Justin,
Apologies for the double comment! After having some troubles showing excerpts for “recent.php” on the front page, I thought it best to let others know that you may need to create a custom field with the key of “excerpt” containing the excerpt you would like displayed in each post.
I know you have written this in the readme file, though after working with your Visionary theme I had expected the excerpts to show on their own, and had to re-read the readme a couple of times before I finally figured it out! :oops!
Aside from this, everything is wonderful. Thank you!!
Amazing job, beautiful theme and it’s Free: you’ve done an very cool job on this one!
Amanda/Justin, the excerpt problem is cleared up by correcting the check to see if their is a custom excerpt in recent.php. Change the !== to != and if you dont have a custom excerpt, it will use the standard wp excerpt. You do not have to have a custom excerpt.
Great work Justin! donation on its way…
It is a great theme and I am trying to play with it! Can we stop a video post from appearing in the recent section? In Visionary, it was easy. Well, can you add a theme live preview window?
Mr. Papa
Sorry I didn’t reply to your comment earlier today. I was in a hurry and only had a few minutes before work. I have changed a few things though, like with recent.php and video.php to make them work with widgets.
That’s a good call though. I forgot to test for that. You can change this line in “recent.php:”
To this:
I’ve updated the theme now. You can download it again and just replace the “recent.php” file or use the code above. Thanks for pointing this out.
Howard
I’ve tested it on several computers with IE6 now. I’ve tested my demo site and your site. You should definitely make sure you have Javascript enabled.
Yoichi
Thanks for the comments. Making a double sidebar will take a lot more work than what I can explain here in the comments section. It will take theme template XHTML editing and CSS editing. It’s not one of those things that can be easily done.
I regretfully say that I can’t help you completely rebuild the theme. I can, however, answer specific questions you have if you come across any. Building the two sidebars with this theme would take a lot of work. It would be like making an entirely new theme. Of course, you can always hire me for fairly cheap to do custom work through the contact page.
Dennis
I’m already planning on putting you in my next “great uses of my themes showcase.” I noticed your site earlier today. You’ve done some great work with the design.
Arnold
Thank you for using the theme. You current feature image almost seems to jump off the page a little. Everything’s looking good.
Amanda
I’ve fixed the “recent.php” file. Mr. Papa pointed this out earlier. I had changed a bit of code in the update, but didn’t change one line that I should have. I explained the code to Mr. Papa earlier in this comment. It now shows “the_excerpt()” or your custom “Excerpt.”
You can customize any way you like, of course. I like to think of my themes as a foundation for designers. What’s the point in using a free theme if you’re not going to make it your own in some way?
I am working on a business model for custom designs in the near future. I’m just working on a lot of different projects at the moment, so things are moving kind of slow. I am working on some paid jobs, but I’m not really advertising it yet. I don’t want to “bite off more than I can chew,” you know? I’m taking it one day at a time.
Milo
Thanks. Just trying to give a little back to the WordPress community.
Mr Papa
You beat me to it. You must’ve answered right before I started answering comments. I haven’t tested what you’ve done, but it looks like it should work. I’d be happy to take a donation too.
EarnBlogger
I’m glad you like the theme. You can change your recent posts easily by adding a little extra code. Change the “recent.php” query to look like this (ID is your category ID number).
I’m not sure what you mean when you ask me to add a theme live preview window. There’s a demo of the theme right now.
Thanks Justin… will grab the udpates… busy trying to customize and relaunch one of my sites with this by Christmas…
Thanks for your reply. I got it! Well, I was trying to tell you about a live preview window in my admin panel. It helps in viewing the page, without opening a new window. I think, I need a plugin for this. Thanks.
EarnBlogger
You do need a plugin for this. You can try out the Preview Theme Plugin or the Theme Switcher Plugin. I use the theme switcher for the demo page. I hope this helps.
Hey, I’m having a weird problem. After I activated the theme, no other plugin which uses javascript (I’m not sure if its due to jQuery) works!
Right now, I’m troubled because, two important plugins which I definitely need don’t work. Please reply soon if you have a solution for it. While I’ll break my head a bit too.
The plugins are:
Advanced Admin Menus (http://www.stuff.yellowswordfish.com/admin-drop-down-menus/)
WP-Ratings (http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming.php)
Justin,
Another comment or issue perhaps… With the way you have changed recent.php, won’t it always duplicate the feature post in the left home (despite the comments in the code)?
I got around this by simply changing the new query instantiation to be:
$r_query = new WP_Query(’showposts=3&offset=1′);
Was that a desired change in operation, or have I missed something?
Justin - You use a visionary plugin on the Visionary. Will it work with this theme?
Steve
This is a very impressive theme. I’d love to see this with the first column being fluid. What do you think?
Hi justin,
I’m probably just being user stupid. Still working on modifying appliance.net to use the structure template. updated to 2.3 the tabs all work great in firefox but not msie. You are right that its not the theme itself, cause i the tabs work on your demo site, just not on my site. any hints on what i’m missing? it seems shows the floating alt text on the tabs when you hover over them, it just doesn’t execute a link on click. all works fine on firefox.
Manoj
I’m not sure what’s going on at the moment. I tested both of these plugins (already had the Post Ratings plugin activated), and both of them seem to work fine. This theme has “
jQuery.noConflict();” in “tabs.php,” so that it won’t conflict with other Javascript.One thing you might try is moving the two calls to the jQuery files below:
I can see how there might be some conflict with the Post Ratings plugin, but I don’t see any reason the theme itself would mess up Advanced Admin Menus.
Mr Papa
I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do this. I’ve used this code before. Under:
Add this:
This will make the number of posts displayed in “recent.php” drop down one if your feature posts has been in the last few posts. If you use “offeset=1,” then you will always offset your first post, whether it’s a feature post or not. Honestly, this is one of the gripes I’ve had with WordPress. I haven’t found a better way to skip over a post.
This is one of those things I changed, but forgot to update the comments.
Steve
Definitely. It’s just an easy way to add custom fields. I do believe I used all the same custom field names, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
David
I don’t see that as a viable option with this theme because of the way the “content blocks” are set up. A fluid-width column would really throw things off.
Howard
I’m viewing your site in IE6, IE7, and Firefox right now. It’s working perfectly fine. Usually, I would say it’s a browser problem, but you said that my demo site works fine. I’m at a loss as to why you can’t click your own site’s tabs.
Does anyone else around here want to give it a try in IE6?
Actually, Mr Papa, I think I may have come up with an idea. It’ll be a day or so before I can implement it though. If you know your way around PHP well enough you can try fiddling with it a little.
I’m thinking that we should check to see if the post is duplicated, then decide how to run the query:
This would take a little more code than I’d like, but it should do the trick.
Justin,
thanks for the feedback on appliance.net I’m glad to hear you can see it properly.
we want to try to use BBPress to run forums so we’d want to integrate it into your theme. any thoughts on bbpress-ifying the structure theme?
howard
Justin, if I get a chance, I will give your suggestion a go… no problem with mucking with php and css
might just concentrate on the customization I am doing first since I likely wont have a case where the last post isn’t a feature…
[...] happy to say (again) that the search is over, I came across Wordpress Theme Structure by Justin Tadlock. I came across Justin Website thanks to Weblog Tools Collectio