CSS Naked Day!
In case you are wondering what happened to the site’s design, or rather why many sites do not have their stylesheets on: it’s CSS Naked Day!
The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words.
Announcing the Buffet Framework
When I first started on developing the 1.2 update for Arras.Theme on December, I had a thought on developing a framework that the theme could run on.
Now finally, after four months of research and work, I present to you the Buffet Framework, a yet another WordPress theme framework. And yep, this site is running it (as well as the default design). It’s another one of my little experiments with WordPress theme development.
The idea behind the Buffet Framework is that it’s designed for news and magazine blogs, not only for the theme developers who will be using the theme actions and filters to create the child themes, but also for the end users who would be able to add and remove what they want.
Download the Buffet Framework
You can download the theme through here: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/the-buffet-framework
I will try to post up the theme actions and filters reference soon. If you have encountered any bugs or have any suggestions about the framework, I would appreciate it if you could post it up at the project page. You can also svn checkout the trunk to keep up with the development of the theme (might be unstable).
I hope this framework can be useful for others!
More Information
Arras.Theme Site & Arras.Theme 1.2 Update Live!
Arras.Theme official site is now live, check it out at http://www.arrastheme.com/!
A reminder to affiliates, I have sent an email on updates to the affiliate program. If you have not receive it, please contact me.
Arras.Theme 1.2 update will be issued to existing customers in a few hours, with instructions on how to activate the site account and get your update.
Arras.Theme Update: Sidebar Widgets
Another important change that I have made for the upcoming version of Arras.Theme is the sidebar widgets. Here’s a screenshot to begin:
As you can see, the tabbed sidebar, banners, latest previews and latest reviews have been widgetized. That means, you can move and arrange them like you would on a sidebar widgets, without editing the code manually. Most of the widgets are completed, except the banners, where I am figuring out a new way to do ad management, which I believe is one of the first thing the user wants to work with once they downloaded the theme.
Also, the options page is being redesigned, with tabs to organise and group the theme options. Personally, what makes WordPress a great platform to use is its simplicity of the admin interface. I’m not really a fan throwing 30-40 options in one page, especially those with fields that require you to enter the number of pixels of a certain element. Here’s the progress of the admin interface:
And here’s same look of the whole index page (almost):
Arras.Theme Update: Single Post
I know that it’s been a really long time since Arras.Theme has an update. I had to put aside the theme development due to school work and now that it’s done I’ve started development on it again.
For the upcoming version, you will see a lot of changes in terms of both the backend code, as well as the visual frontend of the theme. The CSS and theme library files are more organised now (no more throwing everything into one file).
Another important aspect I hope to achieve is to ensure that theme is easily customizable, and at the same time users are able to apply the theme updates easily without breaking their blog. One of the solutions would probably be using the parent-child theme structure as post here. Using action hooks might be the way to go, but this will definitely give a problem to those who do not know PHP.
Of course, the other issue that needs to be addressed is the compatibility with WordPress 2.7. So far, I have completed the new comments template, with has comments threading and paging introduced in the new version. The pingbacks and comments are separated, and the overall design has changed.
Oh bother, I’m not really a fan of writing a lot of stuff, so I will just let the pictures do the talking (don’t mind the layout, it’s still being experimented!):
