WordPress updates and stuff of interest

I think some of you have already noticed that I didn’t release the latest version of the Options theme by the end of the week.

Don’t fret. I’ve been hard at work. Really, really hard. Now, that should excuse me from releasing this thing, right?

When will I release it? Very soon.

My official plan is to have it out in two days. Basically, I’ve just got to do some stylesheet tweaking and testing. I could probably release it at this moment (aside from some stylesheet things that need updating) and be okay, but I’d rather hold it back a day or two to make sure everything is running smoothly.

I’ve been working very hard, so if I’ve missed any emails lately or forum support questions, I’ll try to get to you. I haven’t even checked my inbox in the last three days. My feed reader has 292 unread posts.

Look on the bright side — this way, I’ll squash a few more bugs before putting it in the hands of the users. That means less work for you all.

I figured I’d at least update you a little on the development.

Win an iTheme

Before I move on with the rest of the post, I’d like to add that a friend is holding a contest over at his website. If you haven’t checked it out yet, there’s still a little time to join in.

Ian Stewart has gotten his hands on seven themes from iThemes and is giving them away. Okay, not “giving.” You do have to work for a prize by answering a simple/not-so-simple question — “What should we look for in a WordPress default theme?”

I’m a few days late on posting this, and there’s still a day left. So, hurry over there and put in your opinion.

New config file for the Options theme

Since I haven’t released the theme, I’ll write about a few of the differences that you might see in the upcoming release. I think one of the more noticeable things other than the admin features I showed last time is a new config.php file. This file will let you control several elements of the theme without having to mess with the core files.

Let’s take a look at some sample code from this file:

/* Single Posts (single.php)
***********************************************************/
function op_single() {
	$arr = array(
	// Edit here
		'default_img' => false,
		'custom_fields_display' => true,
		'custom_fields' => array('Video','Image','Feature Image','Thumbnail Large','Thumbnail'),
		'author_box_display' => true,
		'author_box_title' => __('About the Author','options'),
		'navigation_links' => true,
		'breadcrumb' => true,
		'byline_display' => true,
		'meta_display' => true,
	// Stop editing
	);
	return $arr;
}

There are several things you can edit here. Almost every file that displays something is controllable through this one config file. For example, you can turn off the breadcrumb menu for single posts by inputting this code.

'breadcrumb' => false,

Or, you can set an image to display if you’re not using custom fields by setting this.

'default_img' => '/user/media/example-image.jpg',

Of course, this is all stuff that you never have to touch. I just wanted to give users that like to tinker some easier stuff to work with. Other than that, it’s totally useless.

There’s also a file named config-advanced.php. Can you guess what and who that’s for?

Version 1.1 for CSS masters

I’ve seen many different customizations of the theme thus far. Some much better than the original. Some others…well…

I wanted to go ahead and give those of you that like to do customizations a heads up on some of the changes because these are major CSS changes.

Here’s some of the classes and IDs that’ve changed.

#category-tabs
// Changed to:
	#post-sections

#category-list-tabs
// Changed to:
	#post-list-tabs

#category-thumbnail-tabs
// Changed to:
	#post-thumbnail-tabs

#category-sections
// Changed to:
	#post-sections

#category-blocks
// Changed to:
	#post-blocks

img.feature
// Changed to:
	img.feature-image

// Added for Gravatar functionality
	#comments-template ol li img.avatar

Why so many major changes? Because I didn’t think far enough ahead. Plus, it’s better to change them early on. It’ll save a load of trouble in the long run.

The biggest thing you’ll notice is that category has been changed to post. This is because many of the previous features were category-controlled only. Some of them are now controlled by category, tag, or author. So, I’d rather not go on calling something Category Tabs if they can display posts in many different ways.

There’s also the Gravatar functionality, which is built into WordPress 2.5. Don’t worry though. It’s completely backwards-compatible with the Gravatar plugin for older WP versions and works for users that don’t use Gravatars at all.

Maybe this will help prepare some of you for the coming release.

Give me my theme already!

It’s coming. I want to work out a few things before the release though. Most of the work has been on the backend, but it’ll make controlling the theme much easier. It’ll also make updates run smoother.

This release is all about preparing for much greater “options” than what we have now. I want to be able to easily extend it with stylesheets and new goodies.

One cool feature I want to mention before going to bed is that users can now upload new stylesheets to their styles folder. This will make sharing styles much easier. So, anyone can just drop a new style in and switch it from the admin panel.

This is a much longer post than I had planned for, and I’ve got to get a few hours of sleep. I promise the theme will be released soon.