As previously announced, we are working on the themes that will be released soon, most likely by the end of January and middle of February. But, I would like to present different aspects and features of the themes and the customizations you can control for each theme.
First theme that will use xScape framework is almost completed, and is called baseScape. Â This theme is now used to develop framework, and is very, very simple. Templates are all without single image, they will load very fast. Most important thing for this theme is clean design, typography and use of BluePrint CSS framework. But we will try to incorporate as many xScape features possible so that you can see what you can expect from the future themes. Anyway, here is what will be part of the xScape framework core:
- Ajax powered theme settings control panel
- Export and import settings
- Centralized upload of images
- Module for SEO optimization
- Controls for the header content
- Integration support for GD Star Rating
- Integration support for GD Affiliate Tools
- Additional Widgets (Twitter, Flickr, Ads and few more)
- Banner ads controls
- Support for multiple color styles
- Superfish based menus
- JavaScript powered menu builder
- Post editor integration widget
- Load control to minimize theme memory footprint
- Localization support
- Different additional page templates
- Auto-sizing images to thumbnails
- Cross browser compatible
- W3C Compliant XHTML & CSS
- Multiple sidebar control and management
I am sure that I have forgot some things in this list, and that it will be expanded over time based on our ideas and your needs to make customization as simple as possible. And if you have any suggestions right now, please leave a comment. By the end of the week I will post first screenshots from the Control Panel, and maybe some examples from the theme frontend.
As for the plans, right now there are several themes in the planning and design stages:
- baseScape
- StarScape II
- photoScape
So stay tuned for more.
Yes, please tell us.Waiting for some time now.
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This promise to be very interesting.
Can you tell us more about the Pro vs Free status of the future themes ?
The integrated widgets (twitter, ads, ..) and the SEO optimization will surely allow me to drop two or three plugins which will save some memory ressources.
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Both free and premium themes will use the same framework, and both will be regularly upgraded. Main difference between them will be that free themes will have limited support, and that premium will be released with much more color styles. Also, there will be number of widgets build, and I can confirm different ads spaces, twitter widget, flickr widget as well as tight integration with all my plugins. More info will follow soon.
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I hope you will have many options to easily control the layout within a post. The WordPress themes with many user controls that I have seen focus on 1) the headline section, 2) the sidebar section (e.g., ads, feeds, and widgets) and 3) additions to the post section (e.g. social media and ratings options). Those are the glitziest parts of a WordPress theme and so perhaps deserve the most attention. But I’d like more controls on the post layout. Mostly, I’d like the ability to simplify and compress default theme post options. From my perspective, less is more. For example, I want to be able to control my white space between the various parts of a post, not have a theme designer mandate it for me.
I’d also like the option to include a link from a post title to the object to which it refers (such as a newspaper article), if such an object exists. Google’s blogger provides this option. But for reasons I don’t understand, it’s not part of the standard WordPress theme configuration. To reiterate: Google provides such links as an OPTION, not a mandatory field to be filled in.
Apple is brilliant in how it recognizes that less-can-be-more in the design of user interfaces. Allowing users to mix a feature rich headline and sidebar section with a sleek and efficient post section is an option that I hope you’ll consider providing.
Thanks for all the great work you have done.
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I can confirm that xScape will allow layout manipulations from the control panel: multiple sidebars, content elements… You will be able to mix and match different elements in every template from the control panel (within reason
). Also, xScape will have very advanced social links built in with choice of icons size and many other things (alpha version of that social code is now part of TVScape website: http://www.tvscape.net/). And full integration of all my plugins is also part of the framework.
There will be many, many things possible with xScape, and I plan to add typography controls also, but maybe it will not be with the first release. But, once new xScape is released all themes will get it, and all themes will get new features from it.
Can you explain better what you mean by link from the post title and object. Can you give me a example of that, and I will try to include it. Any idea is welcome.
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In answer to your question about Google’s Blogger, I’d recommend that you create a free blog on Blogger (it’s free and very easy) and then go to create a post. You’ll see directly under the title field another field for a title link and then below that the post description field. The title link field is optional. If you enter a title link, then when the title is clicked, the title link URL is used for navigation; otherwise, navigation defaults to the WordPress-type mode: you see an entire page devoted to the post. I think you’ll recognize that if you’re using posts to list articles (let’s say you’re commenting on articles in other publications), then adding a link directly to the reference source is the only elegant way to present the information.
Thanks for your interest in this interface proposal, and I’m glad to hear that you’re considering options to simplify as well as add features to the post section of your WordPress theme.
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Great, I will make a test blog and try it.
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Yes, I see what you mean. I will add this to the list of features, but I am not sure if I will include it right away. I will need more time for this, and more testing, but the idea is really good.
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That’s music to my ears.
Another feature that would be really nice is more in-context help along the lines of the tooltip pop-ups that so many user-friendly applications now have. Such pop-ups allow you to provide in-context help without cluttering up the screen.
Related to the pop-up help idea, I’d encourage you always to provide an example when you use an abstract term. Consider your very useful “gsSW recent posts” widget. Accompanying one of the fields, in tiny, tiny text is a tip: “comma separated list of category ids.” Now that is a very useful in-cohtext tip to have. The problem is: I have no idea what you mean by a category id. WordPress doesn’t use such terminology when it defines categories. It refers to names and slugs. And then elsewhere it combines slugs into URLs. And even if you’re referring to a URL, it is not clear if it’s a relative or absolute URL. Probably there is a place where WordPress describes categories as “ids,” but I don’t off-hand recall where that is. If I could see an illustration of a “category id,” I wouldn’t have to remember so many arcane terms.
Again, thank you for all the wonderful features you have added to WordPress.
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Each options panel, options group in each panel and each option is documented, and documentation will be expanded as needed. Also, I plan to record at least 10-15 video tutorials covering everything, with examples and screenshots of all features.
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There is no need to reply to me here. I just want you to know that I checked the documentation, tutorials, and screenshot links on the GD Simple Widgets page on http://www.dev4press.com and didn’t find an explanation of “category ID.”
I look forward to your video tutorials when you are able to make them.