Roots is a starter theme for WordPress based on HTML5 Boilerplate, Blueprint CSS or 960.gs and Starkers. One of the cool features of this starter theme is the implementation of CodeMirror into the HTML post editor which spruces things up. While not extensive, their gallery shows a couple of nice looking sites built on Roots. ∞
My Thoughts On The Atlas Theme Framework
A few days ago, Donal MacArthur of Cranes And Skyhooks reached out to let me know about a new framework he’s developed called Atlas. After playing around with the theme for about an hour, I have a couple of suggestions for Donal.
Out of the gate, Atlas and it’s first child theme Elegance are clean and simple. In fact, I didn’t have to open the Readme file to figure out what to do although I couldn’t if I wanted to since the theme didn’t ship with one. Atlas is still in the testing phases and that could explain why there is no documentation either within a Readme file or a section dedicated to support on the website. I hope this changes prior to the frameworks official launch or some people will be left scratching their heads and ditching Atlas before giving it a real chance.
One of the nice things about Atlas is that its option pages blend right in with the UI back-end of WordPress which is always nice to see. Custom back-ends developed my theme authors usually look messy and out of place.
Various Option Pages In The Back-end
For the layout of the site, users have a few options to choose from for their index, single, archive and attachment pages as well as single posts. Selecting a specific layout for a page is as easy as using the drop down box but it comes with a price. After using the visual editor by Headway this approach to viewing changes feels old school. It’s like the old days of making a change, uploading the CSS file, clicking refresh, possibly clearing out the cache, refresh again and if you don’t like the changes, revert to the old CSS file. It’s not as difficult as I describe but you do end up having to select a layout and refreshing the page to see if you like it or not. There is no way around this except to use some sort of live preview.
For themes that give end users the ability to use a custom logo for a header, the method I like best is an upload box that will upload an image using the WordPress media library. This is completely feasible and is much easier than providing a logo URL box.
Best To Use WP Media Manager For Custom Logo
The other area of Atlas that made me screech in pain are the text area boxes that require me to know the ID numbers for Pages and Categories that I wanted to exclude from the drop down menus. I hate this technique. Please don’t make end users go through the pain of trying to figure out those ID numbers even if they are somewhat easy to discover. Instead, provide some UI such as check boxes or selection boxes that support multiple choices.
Death To Knowing ID Numbers
One of the nicer points of Atlas which I’m sure other theme frameworks are going to adapt despite plugins being available is a way to disable the admin bar for all users, disable the admin bar for all non-administrator level users or enable the Atlas info panel on the WordPress admin bar for logged-in Administrators. The Atlas info panel shows the total number of database queries executed on the page with the total page generation time.
Conclusion:
Other than the pain points I discovered, Atlas is not a bad Parent theme for its first version. However, if it’s going to have a chance to succeed with the big boys, it’s going to have to step it up in terms of ease of use. Also, support and documentation for some are the most important aspects of any theme and if it’s not available when this thing launches to the public, I doubt it will gain any traction.
For a limited time you can get free copies of both Atlas and its first child theme, Elegance, by becoming an Atlas beta tester or more aptly, a feedback provider. Donal is looking for feedback and is willing to give you the framework as well as the first child theme for free to thank you for that feedback. So if you have a spare moment or two, give Atlas a spin and let him know what you think.
Review Of Headway – Where SquareSpace Meets WordPress
At A Glance:
Headway is a WordPress theme framework that makes it easy for both end-users and developers alike to create killer websites. Headway is no ordinary framework however as you’ll soon find out. The theme is split GPL licensed where as the PHP code is licensed under the GPL v2. If not otherwise stated, all images, cascading style sheets, and included JavaScript are NOT GPL, and are released under the Headway Themes Proprietary Use License v1.0 unless specifically authorized by Headway Themes. Elements of the themes released under this proprietary license may not be redistributed or repackaged for use other than those allowed by the Terms of Service. The Headway personal option costs $87.00 while the developer option costs $164.00.
At the time of this review, the purchase page for Headway themes has two options, Personal and Developer. Further down on the page is a section on what you can and can’t do. The what Can’t You Do section screams anti-GPL but I’ve followed up with Grant Griffiths who has notified me that that particular page will be be updated to reflect the licensing changes that have occurred recently.
The theme version which I’ve reviewed is 1.7 Beta. The current as of August 19th stable version of Headway is 1.6.6.
Configuration And Use:
I’m really happy to see that Headway Themes is at least split licensed GPL now because this theme needs more exposure. Configuration of Headway was a breeze and contained the usual selection of options such as the Feed URL, favicon location, etc. Headway also has a comprehensive search engine optimization configuration panel where if you were to use something like AIO SEO with Headway, it might be over kill.
Headway Configuration Panel
What do you notice missing from the following screenshot? Most themes have options in the back-end that allow you to configure the number of sidebars, which side of the site those sidebars will appear on, header uploader, etc. That’s all missing from the Configuration page of Headway because this particular framework contains a Visual Editor. The visual editor has taken the place of the visual display options normally configured from the back-end of WordPress allowing the configuration page to be strictly tied to the behaviour of the theme. This is a great way to solve the dilemma of hundreds of options to configure for the theme.
By far, the visual editor is the bread and butter of Headway. The only thing I’ve seen that I can compare the visual editor to is SquareSpace and the editor they provide for creating designs.
For at least the past two years, I’ve talked about the idea of being able to visually design a WordPress theme with something like a WYSIWYG type of editor. Drag a content box here, drag a sidebar there, etc. I’m really excited to see this idea see the light of day thanks to Headway. After going through the editor wizard which allows me to select a default layout e.g. sidebar right content left or sidebar left content right, color scheme of the major elements of the site, the ability to upload a header image, I’m then ready to start editing the various elements that comprise the site. I could go on and on about how awesome the visual editor is and what it entails you to do but the following video illustrates it much better than 1,000 words can.
If that type of versatility is not enough, welcome to Leafs. Leafs are sort of like widgets but more powerful and flexible. For example, Headway ships with a Text/HTML/PHP leaf that is like a WordPress Text Widget on steroids. Leafs are content boxes that exist between the header and the footer. For example, in the following screenshot, I’ve created a new Content leaf.
Instead of the default mode of a Page or single post, I’ve selected the option to use a Custom Query. This allows me to use filters and configure additional options that take the default content leaf to new leaps and bounds. This also illustrates that the developer types can have fun with the visual editor as well. Speaking of developers, Headway contains something called Easy hooks. Headway Easy Hooks provides you a simple way to add content to your site that would otherwise be impossible (without hacking, of course).
Easy Hooks For Developers
Headway has done a great job of modularizing aspects of the design such that things are broken up to the point where you can export configuration settings for specific sections and import them into another site using Headway. Among the various items that can be exported are the Headway Configuration options, SEO Settings, Visual Editor: Header, Footer, Navigation, and Site Dimensions, Visual Editor: Style, Visual Editor: Leaf Templates, and a full export/backup of the configuration of the theme which does not include leafs, layouts for any pages and widgets. This is great, especially for those that purchase a Headway developers license as they have made it incredibly easy not to repeat development work such as a cool Leaf.
Support:
Support for Headway is handled by free documentation available to anyone who wants to read/watch it located here. Highly recommended before playing around with the theme. There is also a support forum available to members only. Also note that in order to receive automatic updates of Headway, you’ll need to have a valid registration which includes a Headway Username and Password.
Conclusion:
I was head over heels when Builder by iThemes was released because it brought me closer to the concept of the WYSIWYG apporach to building a WordPress theme. However, Headway has made my vision a reality. In fact, Headway makes it FUN to design a WordPress theme/skin. Instead of editing CSS, dealing with FTP to over write files, etc, the visual editor approach that Headway provides is something I would love to see WordPress in the future get a grasp of for a default theme instead of the same old approach. I’d also love to see the Headway visual editor or something like it to end up on WordPress.com.
I don’t think I’ve said a bad thing about Headway because there was very little to find wrong with the theme. The headway team should be very proud of themselves for creating such a kick ass product.
Which Theme Framework To Use?
Although Paul Cunningham wanted to hear experiences by those who have used the Genesis theme framework, he ended up starting a conversation that discussed the other frameworks as well. One of the common threads within the conversation is that Justin Tadlock has done a great job with Hybrid as the code is clean with excellent inline documentation. Now that Headway has gone split licensed, I think it’s only a matter of time before it’s included in the list of recommendations from some of the notable consultants within the community. At any rate, check out the discussion if you’re currently in the middle of choosing a theme framework for your next project.
Interview With Brad Potter
In what I hope will be a regular occurrence, this is an interview with a featured member of the WPTavern forum. I hope to put the spotlight on at least one forum member per month. The member I choose to interview is random but in order to be in the running, you only have to be a member of the WPTavern forum. All the images in this post are briefs so they are subject to change. Without further adieu, here is the interview I conducted with Brad Potter.
How long have you been using WordPress?
I’ve been using WordPress for 2yrs. The first year was mostly spent experimenting with the software and various themes while I used other well known CMS solutions. I really became serious about using WordPress in the second year.
A year ago, you were just getting into the thick of things regarding WordPress themes. Now, you’re creating them on your own. How did you go from point A to point B?
I think that involves numerous resources really.
One book that helped me early on was “WordPress Theme Design” by Tessa Blakeley Silver.
Themes – I’ve purchased Unlimited or Developer packages from StudioPress, WooThemes, Press75 and Elegant Themes. I’ve also purchased individual themes from ThemeShift, Pro Theme Design and ThemeForest. While that might seem excessive to some, it’s given me the ability to analyze and experiment with a wide variety of themes built by some of the best developers in the commercial WordPress industry.
Websites – Some of my favorite websites for learning about WordPress development are themelab.com, digwp.com, wpengineer.com, wprecipes.com, themeshaper.com, justintadlock.com, wphacks.com, nettuts.com and of course wptavern.com.
Frameworks/Starter Themes – I’ve spent some time studying frameworks like Ian Stewart’s “Thematic“, Justin Tadlock’s “Hybrid” and Ptah Dunbar’s “WP Framework“. There are also some great starter themes that can help point a person in the right direction as well. “Starkers” by Elliot Jay Stocks, “Gravy” by Darren Hoyt, “Starter Theme” by Dan Philibin and the recently released “BLANK Theme” by Chris Coyier are a few.
WordPress Codex – While it’s not the easiest to navigate and search, I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading the Codex.
Considering the large amount of themes you’ve worked with in the past year, what are some of the trends you noticed?
I’ve seen more and more theme developers building in a greater number of sophisticated theme options and widgets making it easier for end users to get setup and running in a shorter amount of time. While a ton of theme options won’t always appeal to the more hard core developers, they certainly help newer users and likely cut down the number of support issues.
I’ve also begun to see more targeted solution based themes appear which I think is definitely a step in the right direction. Real Estate, Job Boards, Classifieds, Restaurant and Travel themes are a few examples.
Better design. I’ve definitely noticed the level of design being stepped up a notch. I think that can be attributed to several things. Theme developers hiring established designers, in-house designers improving their skills and increased competition in the marketplace.
In your opinion, what makes a good theme?
There are a lot of good themes but a “great” theme is one that has well structured code & style sheets, nicely integrated theme options, polished design, detailed documentation and equally important, competent support.
Out of all the theme frameworks available, have you found one that suits your needs?
Lately, I’ve really enjoyed using the Genesis Theme Framework by StudioPress which is available for free to all Pro Plus members. I was active in the beta testing period and hopefully I provided some valuable feedback to Brian Gardner and Nathan Rice. Genesis has great appeal to me for various reasons but I especially appreciate some of the built-in custom widgets like the Featured Page and Featured Posts. The Featured Posts in particular has tremendous flexibility and is very handy for building out the home page of various sites. I also appreciate the six layout options that can be used with either posts or pages. Most of all, you can really tell a lot of thought has gone into what’s under the hood. I would say Genesis definitely meets my criteria for what makes a great theme framework.
I’m also very impressed with “Canvas“, the latest theme offering by WooThemes. While the WooCrew says they are hesitant to label Canvas a “theme framework“, it contains all the goodness of the WooFramework2, is clean with a minimalist design and is much more advanced than your typical theme. Canvas has a huge amount of theme options that allow you to modify just about everything including layout, size, colors, borders, font sizes, font families and more. One other really useful feature is the new integrated WooNav which is being built into the core of WordPress 3.0. Canvas also has a liberal amount of hooks so you can basically transform it into just about any design you may desire. I had the opportunity to do some early beta testing on Canvas with Magnus Jepson and appreciated how he really took the time to listen to everyone’s feedback during the development cycle. Whether you call it a framework or not, Canvas can definitely form the basis of a superb WordPress theme.
What tips can you offer for those aspiring to be theme designers/creators?
While I’m brand new to the game on theme development, I can only share what’s working for me thus far.
Don’t be afraid to spend a few dollars buying a theme even if it’s for learning purposes only.
Get plugged-in. Follow, study and learn from the leading developers and designers in the industry. Many of them post valuable insights and information on their commercial blogs, private blogs and via twitter.
Participate in WordPress related forums and don’t be afraid to ask questions even if they appear to be dumb.
Read. I’m buying two more books myself, the “WordPress Bible” by Aaron Brazell and “Digging Into WordPress” by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr.
If anyone tries to tell you the market is saturated, don’t listen to them. Chances are you have something unique to add to the marketplace and community. If you fail at first, that’s fine. Many times failure precedes the path to success. One of my favorite quotes is “The greatest risk in life is not taking one”.
Has the WPTavern site/community helped you at all in your quest to be a theme designer?
I joined WPTavern in January 09 right about the time I was becoming serious about using WordPress in client website development. WPTavern.com is definitely one of my “go-to” places on the web in order to stay current with a large variety of WordPress topics, theme development included. I’ve enjoyed interacting with and learning from people in the WPTavern forums and WordPress Weekly is with out a doubt one of my favorite podcasts.
Where can we go to keep an eye on your work?
I’m working on a new site to showcase my themes that are currently in development. In the meantime Twitter would be the best way to follow me as I’ll make any announcements there. http://www.twitter.com/bradleypotter
Genesis Under The Scope
At A Glance:
The Genesis Theme Framework is built on a simple vanilla blog-type parent theme, and can be extended with the use of child themes. Each child theme comes with its own home file, that makes extending the parent theme very easy.
License:
Genesis like all the other themes StudioPress.com offers is licensed under the GPL.
Installation:
Installation was as easy as any other WordPress theme. However, things become slightly more complicated when you want to use a child theme. The Genesis theme will need to be installed but deactivated for child themes to work properly since the child theme relies on the Genesis theme to function.
Configuration And Use:
This is the nuts and bolts of any theme and Genesis doesn’t skimp on options. There are options to configure post content, whether or not to display a post author box on a single post, primary as well as secondary navigation, where to display breadcrumbs, header and footer scripts, disabling comments on posts or pages, and how the blog page will be displayed. It’s important to note that the settings not only control the Genesis theme by itself, but also child themes. For example, if you install a child theme that looks better with post excerpts instead of the full post, you can configure that from the Genesis options panel. This makes changing a themes behaviour convenient.
For the SEO junkies out there, you’ll love the flexibility Genesis offers out of the box as there are a wealth of SEO specific options to configure. You can configure Doctitle settings, search engine indexing, link no follow, homepage, and canonical tag settings. I have no idea what half of these settings do so I’ll put my faith in that the default selections will work best. The option panels each have a note that provides more detail with what the group of settings does, but I found myself scratching my head as I’m not knowledgeable in SEO.
If that were not enough, there are even more SEO options when creating a post or page. I have a feeling that with all this SEO stuff built into Genesis, that having All In One SEO installed would be overkill.
When it comes to flexibility, Genesis offers six different layouts to choose from.
- Content/Sidebar
- Sidebar/Content
- Content/Sidebar/Sidebar
- Sidebar/Sidebar/Content
- Sidebar/Content/Sidebar
- Full Width Content
This should be enough for most use cases but one thing you’ll notice is that there is no way to configure widgets in the footer. Whether or not widgets can go into the footer has been delegated to child themes. If you like widgets in the footer, make sure you use a child theme that has them built-in. Genesis also gives users the chance to give posts or pages a layout that is different from the main site. The same six layout options are available when creating or editing a post or page.
Speaking of widgets, Genesis comes with a few custom-built ones.
- My Tweets – displays an unordered list of your latest Tweets
- User Profile – displays the Gravatar of a user, as well as their biography and a link to an about page
- eNews & Updates – displays an opt-in box for users to sign up for delivery of your posts by email
- Featured Posts – displays post excerpts and a thumbnail to be used in a homepage featured section
- Featured Page – displays page excerpts and a thumbnail to be used in a homepage featured section
However, I think the one widget that will get exceptional use based on its large amount of configuration options is Featured Posts. Users can place this widget into a sidebar and configure it to show an author gravatar next to the post, a post image, which category to display, and finally, the order in which the posts can be shown. This also includes the random parameter so you can place it on your front page and upon reload, it will display random posts which is pretty neat.
Genesis does not come with any child themes but there are currently two available to choose from, Mocha and Executive. Mocha is a fantastic looking child theme that combined with the flexibility options in Genesis should please quite a few customers. Executive provides more of the business look as the name implies. The most important part of child themes is that they give Genesis a completely new look and it’s almost all CSS/Image based while still retaining the configuration options in Genesis. If you’re wondering about what will happen when it comes time to upgrade, Brian states that:
While the current StudioPress “classic” themes have required folks to load updated versions from scratch, and meant that customizations had to be redone – the Genesis Theme Framework should end that. We have spent an enormous amount of time and energy on the parent theme, and the emphasis we made on semantics and careful naming of CSS elements should mean that most (if not all) theme updates will not affect your customizations.
On the same topic of child themes, the other part of the story around Genesis is the launch of the child theme marketplace. The marketplace idea is a win-win situation for both designers and customers. Designers can send PSD designs to StudioPress who will then code them to work with Genesis or developers can provide full child themes that are then reviewed for code compatibility, efficiency, etc. Since developers don’t need to worry about writing PHP code to handle the layout aspects of the design, it enables designers to concentrate on creating beautiful designs.
One of the slickest things I discovered within the Genesis theme is the Purchase Themes area. This is where users can preview child themes before they make their purchase. The purchasing of a child theme can be completed without leaving the back-end of the site since the shopping cart pops up in lightbox fashion. This will be really convenient for users once more child themes become available.
Support:
StudioPress stands behind their products 100% and offers excellent support. Customers get access to the StudioPress forum which is filled with knowledge not only from the SP Team, but from the very active community around their products. In fact, the Genesis Theme Framework support section already has 184 threads with over 1,000 posts.
Final Thoughts:
The Genesis theme is a solid product. It works well out of the box and has just enough options and flexibility to fit the needs of most publishers. I’m interested in how the child theme market place will shake out. I’m in love with the Mocha child theme which I feel has set the bar. But considering the amount of designer talent that uses StudioPress themes for their clients, I think that bar won’t have a problem being raised. The best part about reviewing Genesis is that I didn’t have to touch any code.
Last but not least, Brian Gardner has announced that prices for the All Theme Pro Plus membership price will rise on Monday, February 8th from $199.95 to $249.95. This membership gives you access to all current and future themes that StudioPress releases as long as your membership is active. This also includes all the child themes that will soon be available for Genesis.
BuddyMattic – A Myriad Framework
There is a new framework in town, this one is called BuddyMattic. Developed by Ron Rennick with help from Daisy Olsen, BuddyMattic is a theme framework based on Thematic that can be used on WordPress, WordPress MU, and BuddyPress. The unique feature of this theme is that BuddyPress functionality is included in the framework and is activated whenever BuddyPress is detected. I had the chance to ask Ron a few questions regarding BuddyMattic.
The designs for BuddyMatic, do they have to be child themes based on Thematic?
No, buddymatic includes a sample Buddymatic child theme and child themes can be created by changing the sample child theme. For example, in creating the Coffee with Friends child theme that is included with Buddymatic, Daisy Olsen started with the Buddymatic sample child theme.
In a WordPress or WordPress MU blog without BuddyPress enabled, Buddymatic and Thematic are interchangeable and any child theme can be switched from one to the other by changing references to the template (and any includes) from one to the other.
Could you go into a little more detail regarding the BuddyPress detection/activation and how the design incorporates that functionality?
After returning from WordCamp NYC I added an explanation to the BuddyPress codex showing how BuddyPress could be detected and conditional code executed based on it’s presence : http://codex.buddypress.org/how-to-guides/checking-if-buddypress-is-active/.
Buddymatic relies entirely on WordPress / BuddyPress hooks & templates to add the BuddyPress functionality. In every function added via hooks, there is a check to see if BuddyPress is active.
Anytime BuddyPress updates, does that mean the framework has to be updated as well?
Generally, no. An example of where a new version might be required would be custom content support in WordPress themes when that functionality is added in 2.9. That type of change should only be on major releases of WordPress and/or BuddyPress.
Prodigy Framework Needs Beta Testers
Nathan Rice has been working on his own framework for a few months now to help give iThemes a solid base to work from. His framework is called Prodigy and the first public developer beta is out and ready to be tested. As it stands, this theme is not for the faint of heart in that right now, it’s developer centric. However, once the beta period winds down and the bugs are squashed, Nathan plans on publishing a series of tutorials explaining the purpose behind the framework, its capabilities, and how to use it.
Head on over and help him out if you’ve got the time.
Justin Tadlock Releases Hybrid 0.6
Justin Tadlock announced on the ThemeHybrid blog earlier this morning that version 0.6 of the Hybrid Theme Framework was released to the public. This is a big release for Justin as the new framework has been coded from the ground up with modularity in mind. One of the most important things to take notice from this release is that 0.6 is NOT compatible with versions of WordPress earlier than version 2.8.
Unfortunately, with so many new features in WordPress 2.8, I couldn’t make the theme backwards compatible. It’s something I wanted to do, but it wasn’t a viable option.
Along with bug fixes, leaner code and removing unnecessary files, this version also contains an assortment of new page templates. This puts the total number of templates inbetween 55 and 60. But, Justin has a valid reason for providing all of these:
I want things to be easier to overwrite with custom modifications. I want people to be able to take my ideas and branch from these ideas with new, cooler things. Most of these deal with different types of archives and may not be used by everyone. But, I wanted them available for those people that do need to use them.
As most of you know, WPTavern is using a child theme of the Hybrid Framework called Hybrid News. Once I get a few kinks straightened out, I’ll be upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Hybrid.
SitePoint Gives Primer On Parent Child Themes
SitePoint.com known for their in depth articles on trends on the web and in design has published a short and sweet primer on how to create WordPress themes the easy way using Child themes. As in most other articles that discuss the subject of Parent/Child themes, this one uses Thematic as the framework example and proceeds to tell you how to install a theme framework, how to start designing, and finally how to install your child theme.
The author actually took some flack in the comments since it didn’t provide a complete overview on how to create a WordPress theme but if you look at the article title as well as the section called What’s Next? near the end, the article delivers on what was promised. A to the point article that gets you started and then provides links if you decide to continue down the road.
Perhaps it’s just me, but in the WordPress theme framework race, Thematic appears to be winning the publicity race in the community. I’ve never worked with the framework so I can’t comment on it but I’ve been fairly pleased with the Theme Hybrid framework and my Hybrid News child theme. I’ve been thinking about developing my own child theme but when I think of support, I quickly push the idea back under the rug as I don’t have time to allocate to support.