bbPress is a big step in bringing forum into the WordPress powered website. There are several other forum plugins available, and over the past couple of years I have tried all of them. But, even with plugins to choose from, I have still decided to use old bbPress standalone installation on Dev4Press. It was still easier to implement and merge into WordPress than any of the plugins I tried. Most forum plugins use own templates system that can’t be simply added to any theme, and they always look out of place, unless you want to spent a lot of time to rebuild these templates.

But now, bbPress plugin changes all that, and plugin uses standard WordPress templates approach to integrate with any website and any theme. Even if the theme doesn’t have bbPress specific templates, its very likely that templates built in with the plugin will work fine. Plugin is not very complicated, and it doesn’t have all the features like phpBB or other standalone solutions, but as with anything WordPress, I expect that many plugins will be released to expand current features.

bbPress with R8 theme

To make bbPress work with xScape themes, we now have a module to handle templates and styling. Each theme can add own styles for color schemes, and practically change anything. Right now, basic styling is same for all themes, except for the colors and some minor elements. Fully restyling everything is a big task, but you can expect stying improvements for individual themes over time.

But, unlike original bbPress theme, module in xScape will allow for some interesting customizations to allow for different forum table layouts and visible columns. More customization options and better templates will be added, and all suggestions are welcome.

Right now, xScape module uses latest bbPress code that is more recent than latest Beta 2. Current development version of the plugin has most of the templates related code done, and all that is used in the xScape module templates. So, to use xScape themes with bbPress, you need more recent version of bbPress. You can get it from official SVN, but I have packed the latest code version, and you can download it from link bellow:

Download: bbPress 2.0: Beta 2011-06-03

Over the weekend I will publish 2 bbPress related tutorial to help set up plugin, theme and website to use new forum features. I would also like to announce new plugin to add new features into bbPress plugin. More details and features for that plugin will be released soon, but I can confirm that plugin will be available for free.

Suggestions for xScape module and also upcoming plugin are welcome. Use comments or forum to discuss this great new addition to WordPress.

Maintenance Mode

New versions of lightScape themes includes updated xScape framework 1.5.3. There are many changes in this version, and they include GD Press Tools Pro maintenance mode template, support for new layout manager options, improvements in styling and many minor fixes and changes.

Maintenance mode is on the screenshot on the right. Theme will use settings from the framework: logo, ads and color style as the case was with previous themes that got this template. Many layout elements are improved and got new settings, new filters and actions to help with customizations. Slider is now much more flexible with post selection.

Promo coupon

Starting now, until the December 14 2010 you can get 25% discount for individual xScape themes and xScape Theme Club Membership. For this discount you need to use coupon: LIGHTSCAPE.

xScape Theme Club:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/purchase/

And more

To see the theme and framework in action, visit the WordPress MultiSite powered demo website and get your own blog to see who the framework back-end works:

Demo Site:
http://xscape.info/

lightScape 1.2 will be released first, later tonight. Tomorrow, newsScape 1.0.6 and FrameFX 1.0.1 are to be released. Until Monday, all other themes are coming also.

Bugs Fixed

There was a problem with category filtering in both recent posts and recent comments widgets. Several issues with rendering menus are also fixed. And many minor things are tweaked and fixed on the interface pages.

Menu Item

Changes

Images and thumbnails functions are improved and expanded with more parameters. Recent posts and comments widget have new filtering options. Menu rendering is improved and expanded with new filters for items. Also, many menu items are expanded with new features. Most importantly, visibility settings for each menu item has new option for setting the user roles, so that only users with certain, selected user roles will be able to see the menu item (on the image on the right).

I have started changing some things in the base classes, transitioning to PHP5 object format. More such basic level changes will be added in coming versions, leading to 1.6 where all code should be fully updated.

New Features

Major change in this version is improved Layout Manager. You can now select custom template file for any template, and when making new template, you can select existing template and copy settings from it. This is main method to make all custom pages on Dev4Press. Other new features include: meta box for xScape settings for custom post types, share buttons for LinkedIn, function to generate thumbnail from any local file and many more other custom functions.

Test all themes, and try them with a free test drive, for both front end and back end before deciding what is right for you. Free registration is disabled, so you need to send the request for the test account using the contact form.

Demo Loader: http://xscape.info/load/
Demo Home: http://xscape.info/

Promo coupon

Starting now, until the December 14 2010 you can get 25% discount for individual xScape themes and xScape Theme Club Membership. For this discount you need to use coupon: LIGHTSCAPE.

xScape Theme Club:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/purchase/

Customizations of the new theme will include many changes and improvements and some of them will be part of lightScape 1.2 theme that will be released on monday with new xScape 1.5.3. Also, new version of bbPress forum will be on the new website (1.1-alpha-2539), with new theme that now integrates with lightScape. This also means that a new theme, only for bbPress called bbScape is in works, and this theme will include integration steps that will allow full integration with any of the xScape themes. This is still some time away (2-3 months). This theme will be free for all that have any of the xScape individual themes or club membership.

Forum will still go through styling updates over the next 2-3 weeks so that it can be integrated better with WordPress theme running the website.

airScape

Theme has 6 preset color schemes, with more to come in the next versions, but you can set all colors from control panel and make your own unique look. Theme has support for two sidebars that can be resized and moved left or right or completely disabled depending on the template needs.

To see the theme features and read more about it check the main theme page:

airScape Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/airscape/

airScape Screenshots:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/airscape/screenshots/

To see the theme and framework in action, visit the WordPressMU powered demo website and get your own blog to see who the framework back-end works:

Demo Site:
http://xscape.info/

airScape:
http://xscape.info/airscape/

Expanding the theme

Theme will have over 100 actions allowing you to tap into almost everything and add your code, expand some things and more. To allow all this, theme features very advanced loader that controls inclusion of CSS, JS files, adding jQuery on load statements. Every module in the theme uses that loader to activate based on the settings.

Framework is isolated from the theme, and in theory it can be updated without messing the theme. Theme actually extends the base framework classes and adds own settings, additional modules and other things. Visually, each theme will contain different styles. They will change colors, images and fonts and that will be isolated for use in the separate style files. So, changing things will be very easy, and will allow us to include many different styles with each theme.

Plugin will support Post Thumbnail (WP 2.9), and will be expanded with anything new added to WP 3.0, and I will soon start testing with WP 3 development version.

Widgets & Modules

Number of widgets built in is not yet final, but for now there are several: Flickr, Twitter, Video Player, Search, Ads, Feedburner.

As for the modules, right now framework include: Breadcrumbs, Pager, Contact Form (AJAX powered), two different types of menus, SEO module, integration with GD Star Rating and more. SEO will allow you to add and control many important SEO elements without need for complex SEO plugins. Still, SEO will not be as elaborate as with specialized plugins, but for most uses will be enough.

As for the requirements, xScape requires WordPress 2.8 or newer. Right now I am developing with PHP 5.2, but I will test with other versions. Since framework needs JSON, I have added JSON php implementation for PHP older than 5.2.

What’s next?

During this week I will post completed designs screenshots for first premium themes: baseScape and photoScape. Also, as soon as baseScape is done, GD Star Rating website will switch to that new theme (most likely by the end of next week).

Plugin will have several administration panels. Main one will contain theme settings. And there will be one additional with framework settings. Framework settings are general options that deal with integration of the framework in WP and other general things. One more panel will be used to export and import all the settings. Best thing is that settings will be cross-theme compatible and can be reused on different themes.

Header Settings

Unique and never before seen features in any of the currently available themes and frameworks will be kept under wraps, but believe me they will be very, very interesting and useful.

Theme and xScape settings panels will look the same and will use ajax to save data. Image uploader (you see logo upload on this image) can handle uploading files, linking local files and even downloading remote images to be used for resizing. To resize images we are not using awful TimThumb script, and all resizing will be done with WordPress built in functions. And also, plugin can use brand new Post Thumbnail added in WordPress 2.9, but also allows you to upload images for posts and pages. For color changing of some elements, plugin uses color picker. And there are many other standardized elements for any number of settings.

Framework can also handle settings specific for different versions of WordPress. So, already mentioned Post Thumbnail option would be available for WP 2.9, and not for older WP versions.

Right now designer is working on different color schemes for first upcoming themes, and I hope that I will be able to show you previews of design next week. Also, important thing to mention is free and premium themes difference. We are making primarily premium themes, but we will offer number of free themes. First two we are making will have free versions. They will lack some of the settings and elements, and will have only 2 color schemes. Each premium theme will have at least 6 color schemes or even more, and we will be able to add more of them if you need them. Premium will also have PSD source files for designs. And free themes will have no support, except for reporting bugs. More will be announced soon.

First themes are expected in February. So stay tuned for more previews.

First theme that will use xScape framework is almost completed, and is called baseScape.  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.