How can I display WP themes to customers?

[Karl1]

Hi,
I'm wondering if it's (even) possible to display WP themes to my visitors like a templates site, where the user can navigate trough the theme as it is a real website.
Is this possible or should I create an html version?

thanks

[danix]

of course it's possible, you could use MultiSite to give each theme its own domain, or you could add just one site and use a plugin to switch the various themes you have..

[Karl1]

OK, thanks
I should have thought about the multi site idea ;)

[danix]

Since it's part of the same topic I won't open a new thread, but I wanted to ask.. is there some kind of plugin that allows you to add a frame on top of a subsite (MultiSite setup) like those you see on various portfolio sites, where in the frame you have the opportunity to buy the theme while seeing a live demo??

I hope I made it clear enough.. :)

[Karl1]

did you found something for that? I guess that's what I'm looking for too

[danix]

Sorry Karl1, I'm still looking for something like that.. if I can't find something I think I'll have to write a plugin myself...

[PressedIn]

That I know of, the ones like on ThemeForest and WooThemes (which is what I suppose you're looking for?) are custom-coded. There may be a few tutorials online that will show you how to do it, though I've not seen a plugin that'll do it for you.

[danix]

Thanks PressedIn..

I think I'll have to look for some good tutorial.. ;)

*jumps on google looking for tutorials*

[PressedIn]

You should be able to do what you need using a DIV and positioning it at the top of the page and then utilizing a form to automatically submit the theme or URL change thus avoiding the use of frames altogether.

[jeremyjared74]

You could always set up sub-folders and install WordPress in sub-directories. One sub for each theme. You could then add a Colorbox see the (Outside Webpage (Iframe)). Another alternative is to use the built in WordPress Thickbox script to open the links in a "pop-up" window. I'm not exactly an expert on the subject, but I was able to accomplish this while assisting someone on a support forum. I'll post the solution in-case you want to try this method.

Step 1

add this to your functions.php file:

 add_action('init', 'init_theme_method');
function init_theme_method() {
add_thickbox();
} 
  

That will allow us to access the thickbox effect.

Step 2

Create the link to the URL that holds the theme:

To make the thickbox link work, it needs to have a class of thickbox. For this we just need to wrap the link like this:

<div id="sign-up"><a class="thickbox" href="http://wordpressexpression.com/contact-me/?KeepThis=true&amp;TB_iframe=true&amp;height=&amp;width=">Click Here to Sign Up</a></div>

I left the height and width empty since it only allows fixed widths. You don't know the screen resolution of the potential viewers, so I'll size the window with a little CSS.

Step 3

Add the CSS code to your themes stylesheet:

#TB_window {
width:90% !important;
height: 93% !important;
position:absolute;
top:4% !important;
left:4% !important;
right:1% !important;
bottom:1% !important;
border:18px solid white !important;
border-radius:12px;
}

#TB_iframeContent{
width:100% !important;
height: 95% !important;
position:relative;
}

There's probably a better way, but that will work. My javascript skills are beginner at best, but a pro could probably give a more elegant solution. You can view a demo of the effect here:
WordPress Expression (It's my development "Playground", so the theme isn't quite finished but it should do for this).

I hope that helps.
Regards,
Jeremy Jared