Got options?
No, this isn’t another post promoting my Options theme. It’s about theme options pages.
Anybody that’s used one of my themes knows about the all-important theme options page, or, as I like to call it, the theme settings page.
Theme options pages have been around for quite some time, but only recently have more and more theme developers started taking advantage of this. This also pulls the competition a little bit closer as users have more choices.
For the last few days, one of the numerous things I’ve been working on is creating a new theme options page from the ground up. So, I started with one of my themes that’ll soon be updated: Visionary. It was my first magazine theme that really hit the spotlight in the WP community, and it’s about time for a major overhaul.
(Click on the image for a large view.)
What do you think?
Basically, I’m just trying to do an entire rethinking of how I set up my theme settings pages. And yes, each of those boxes is collapsible. All it took was a few lines of jQuery and some WordPress admin CSS classes.
I completely built this thing up from a blank Notepad file to what it is. Well, I had a little help from the WordPress Codex on adding administration menus.
I’m sure I’ll write a tutorial for you other theme authors looking to add a few options to your themes in the near future.
The new administration menus will be coming in my new themes and the next major releases of my old themes.
What I really want to know, especially after you’ve looked at the screenshot, is what options should be available?
Hey, that demo page is giving internal server error
Yes, that would be the reason for the bold text above the demo link:
You seem to have got most bases covered Justin, and it looks really neat.
A few suggestions for you:
Add a Comments Section. With options to:
– number comments;
– display in reverse order;
– highlight post author’s comments;
– display gravatars, and their various options;
– display tackbacks below comments, above, in chronological order, or not display.
In General Settings, add:
– option to set a different base font type and size;
– options to display date and time in various formats.
In Single Post, add:
– option to display or hide sidebar(s)
In Header and Footer Settings, add:
– a new text box for additional CSS rules to be added.
Hope that’s the sort of thing you’re looking for, and it’s of some help to you. I, personally, wouldn’t necessarily use all of them, but could see some real value for some sites in them.
I’m still looking forward to getting a look at your new “Average Joe Theme” — even more so having seen this and the kind of work you’re putting into your themes.
Excellent production! I found of the credit removal tracker. If you didn’t, I’d suggest to encrypt the entire credit function plus several other functions, so it would be difficult to remove without permission, though it’s not a barrier to an advanced user.
Another suggestion is a feedburner email subscription form widget, which grabs the user’s feedburner id from the feedburner id input box you have in the theme options page. And if the id isn’t available, makes the widget inactive. Haha, this needs loads of code though.
Yet another suggestion would be an option to enable sidebar login form.
Your creations rock, man. Looking forward your future promises.
Thanks.
Smart idea, using the admin CSS for collapsible sections. Very nice.
Hi Justin,
looks great at the moment and I think paul gave you a lot more options. I think we need only more options if they not increase the loading of the pages. Otherwise it would be better to go into the stylesheets or php files…
I really wonder how many hours your day has. Great support in your forums AND new ideas AND fast releases…
Thanks
Matthias
paul
My newer themes have all of the suggested comments stuff, except for displaying trackbacks and pingbacks below the comments and Structure doesn’t have the author highlight.
Thanks for all the input. This is the type of stuff I’m looking for.
My “Average Joe Theme” has been put on the backburner because I started work on a one-column theme (no sidebar but widgetized footer). I wanted to really work with typography and the open space you get without a sidebar. I think it’s pretty cool so far.
J Mehmett
The credit removal tracker isn’t all-important. Anybody that really wanted to remove the credits could figure out a way to do so. With the key system, I’ll be able to tell instantly whether a blog has purchased credit removal though.
I’m thinking of revamping the Subscribe Widget a bit. I’d like to make it a multi-widget with options for a forum or normal hyperlink.
A sidebar login form would be a nice widget addition too. I wonder if there’s any out there…
Ian
All this neat stuff is already there for us in the WordPress dashboard. We just have to unlock its potential.
I’ll definitely be putting together a tutorial on this, so maybe a few other theme developers can start playing around with their theme options pages a bit.
matthias70
To tell you the truth, I’m the worst person in the world when it comes to time management. I really need about 30 hours in my day. If that was the case, I’d have Project M up-and-running already.
The theme options page isn’t going to really add much extra load to your theme. The main thing, especially with the magazine-type themes, is optimizing images and JavaScript, which is something I’ve been working toward with all my themes. For example, with the Options theme, JavaScript is only loaded on the pages that it’s needed.
My biggest concern is making sure each file isn’t a mess. I wouldn’t want to add an option to the theme that would require me to add a bunch of stuff into the main theme files. I want to keep those relatively clean.
Great options Justin. Somedays back I was thinking of diving into the theme building to cover nearly all of the features your option theme covers.Now I am glad that I dont have to build that theme.
Is there any thread where we can put the wishlist for the theme. I would like to put some suggestions.
I really wonder how much time you have. It seems that you have even more then 30 hours
You work is always great Justin!
What about the possibility to manage the sidebars in a way to have one or two of them, both on the right, on the left, or divided like in a three column theme?
Is it possible?
Maybe managing also the sizes in a easy way…
Thanks!!
Hi Justin,
I posted it already in the options feature request thread, but I hope you don’t mind a second time
Would be great to have an option to modify the footer, so we can put in some widgets perhaps in 3 or 4 columns…
Thanks
Matthias
kamal
I have a thread stickied in the Options theme support forum for future features.
Also, my upcoming Project M site will have a fully-features “ideas” forum, so users can post ideas for themes and such.
edoluz
I might do something like this for a theme in the future. I’m personally not a fan of having that much sidebar content though. I think that if you have much content that needs to go in a sidebar, that it’s time for a little cleaning.
As I’ve said though, it might be a feature in some theme in the future.
matthias70
I’m sure I’ll add something like this to a theme in the future. I don’t see it as a good solution for the Options theme because it’s just adding too much.
I do have an upcoming theme that does have something like this. I’m calling them widget sections for now. Different stylesheets will place the widget sections in different places.
Hi Justin,
the idea of the widget sections sounds great.
Another thing.
I know that you call the visual editor in wordpress crap
But I have a multiuser blog and not all users can work with the html editor.
So I have to use the visual editor
Is there a way to let optios theme work with floated images?
I don’t want to change the class of every image to class=”left”…
Thanks
Matthias