How To Create A Tab Widget In WordPress

‘How To Create A Tab Widget In WordPress’ is my new article published on Smashing Magazine for WordPress. Article covers practical side of creating the Tabber widget: widget that can turn a sidebar into a single widget that uses tabbed navigation to save sidebar space.

Article contains detailed explanation on how the sidebar shows widgets, how to change the widget output and layout and how to use JavaScript (jQuery powered) to grab widgets and arrange them as tabs. Most important parts of the code and process are described, and code analyzed to help you understand what the example plugin does to create tabber interface.

You can download the example plugin with widgets in the article. To read the article, visit WP Smashing Magazine:

Simple Contact Slider

Plugin cost only $8.00 and includes documentation,support (via CodeCanyon comments or official website forum).

Simple SMTP Tools

Plugin cost only $12.00 and includes documentation,support (via CodeCanyon comments or official website forum).

Smart Cleanup Tools

Plugin cost only $20.00 and includes documentation,support (via CodeCanyon comments or official website forum). All widgets demo is also available on official website.

Simple Snowfall Effect

Plugin cost only $8.00 and includes documentation, support (via CodeCanyon comments or official website forum). All widgets demo is also available on official website.

Smart Market Widgets

Plugin cost only $11.00 and includes documentation, and support (via CodeCanyon comments or official website forum). All widgets demo is also available on official website.

Smart Navigation Widgets

Plugin cost only $11.00 and includes documentation, dummy data generator and support (via CodeCanyon comments or official website forum). All widgets demo is also available on official website.

SMART Plugins

SMART Plugins is my new project: simpler and more front-end oriented WordPress plugins that will be distributed through Envato Marketplace – CodeCanyon. Right now, one plugin is released, 2 plugins are in development and 2 more are in early planning stages.

First plugin released so far is Smart Market Widgets. Using this plugin you can add files and authors information and links from any Envato Marketplace to your website. Files can be displayed in different ways (thumbnails or details), with author information. Data can be retrieved from file collections, popular files, latest files. Featured authors and files are also supported. This plugin costs only $11.00.

New plugins will be announced on Dev4Press when released.

Discount coupon for the next 13 days, for 20% discount is: HALLOWEEN2012. Coupon is automatically applied to all pricing tables on Dev4Press and individual plugins websites, and checkout links will have coupon applied for any quick purchase or shopping cart checkout. If it is not for some reason, you can enter coupon manually on the ShareIt checkout page.

Coupon can be used for any plugin or theme, for plugins pack or themes club membership or GD Star Rating support licenses. But, further more, some purchases will be eligible for additional gifts:

• Purchase plugins pack (standard, developer) license and you will get 2 theme licenses for free.
• Purchase plugins pack enterprise license and you will get themes club membership (standard) for free (will remain active for as long as the plugins pack license is active).
• Purchase any plugin (standard, developer) license and you will get one theme license for free.
• Purchase any plugin enterprise license and you will get two theme license for free.
• Purchase any two plugins (standard, developer or enterprise) licenses and you will get GD bbPress Toolbox Pro or GD Simple Widgets Pro standard license.

All gift licenses will be awarded automatically up to 24 hours after the purchase is processed and activated.

Happy Halloween!

Notice: Gifts are awarded only if you are eligible for them, they can’t be exchanged for something else. Gifts are not transferable to third party.

GD bbPress Attachments (latest version 1.8.2) got some fixes for saving plugin settings, Portuguese translation, and improvements when saving attachments. GD bbPress Widgets (latest version 1.0.1) got some minor fixes. GD bbPress Tools (latest version 1.2.3) got some loading improvements and code reorganization to match more closely our Pro plugin.

If you decide that you prefer more powerful GD bbPress Toolbox to replace all these 3 free plugins, check out its features here, and don’t miss the discount deal:

New Settings Panel

This version fixes several reported bugs, including problem with saving templates, loading obsolete files and few other minor problems. Plugin now uses same interface and color styling as all the other Dev4Press plugins.

Other than this, there are no changes in widgets. But, just in case, please check if everything is OK and if you find any problems, report them in the support forum. Also, plugin development continues, plans for it are below.

Main new feature in this version is use of modules. But, beside that, there are many bugs fixed: potential problems with downloading large backup files, minor problems with displaying settings on some panels, Google Storage problems for backup, few more minor issues with jQuery 1.7, broken counting of posts for archives posts for Sitemaps generator, Facebook image tag problems with some themes and missing Database panel from network mode, and broken cleanup tools in the network mode.

Modules

Some of the plugin features were related to both individual sites and whole network (when WP is in multisite mode). So, best way to deal with that is to have control on both levels. So, some of the plugin features that were network controlled only, or site controlled only, are now available as modules. In normal WP installation, all modules are available as expected and set through Modules panel. In multisite mode, through network admin you can control how the features are available to individual site admins.

Modules panel with network controls

Modules are: Maintenance Mode, Admin Bar, Debugger, Email/SMTP. If you use network mode, you can set up who can control it. Network controlled module and individual sites can’t control it, you can leave sites the control, you can set up list of sites to have control, or leave control to main site only. Each module has activation checkbox and the rest of the settings is mostly the same as it was before this version. If you don’t use network mode, you will not see network control options.

Network Maintenance Mode

Modules changes added one important new feature for all those who use WordPress in multisite/network mode: you can set full network, main site, all but main site, or all but selected sites into maintenance mode.

Changes to scope for some settings

Some of the plugin settings are moved around to allow for better flexibility in network mode. Email sender data is not site controlled (and moved to main Settings panel), plugin capabilities are moved to global Settings, and same goes for user activity options. All this, with module changes caused to have less tabs on both Settings and Global Settings panels.

Posts Dashboard Widget Example

Two more dashboard widgets

Recent posts and recent drafts widgets are added. Both use expanded display that includes post type and data, and also has 3 controls for each post: edit, view and duplicate. If you want to use these widgets, it is recommended to disable WordPress default recent posts widgets to avoid duplicated content. All these is controlled from Integration tab on Settings panel.

Other new features and changes

CDN FTP transfer allows for use of non-blocking FTP connection method that can help with broken copy to FTP for large files with implemented retry procedure (thanks to Frank P. Walentynowicz for suggesting this and providing some examples). This is added to settings for each FTP connection. Debugger tracker class can be now loaded through wp-config.php to allow more details tracked during the loading of WordPress. Expanding RSS feed items now allow adding PHP code that will be executed, and mixing it with HTML. Email/SMTP module directly supports Yahoo email servers.

Database panel shows storage engine for each table. Also, a change in the database support is made to take into account InnoDB specific features (no overhead). SEO Robots meta tag is expanded with additional meta tag values, and also now supports custom post types and taxonomies, allowing for better control of this meta tag. Cron panel now shows the source for the cron job. Plugin has a list of jobs (this will be expanded with future versions to support more plugins). This way you can identify obsolete jobs after you have removed some plugins from the system.

SEO: Robots Meta Tag Control

Plugin loading has been optimized, plugin now needs 15% less memory than before. Also, modules help with this, because they are loaded only if set to active. Sitemaps loading is rewritten and much more flexible than before. Several obsolete functions are removed from the plugin. And, gdr2 library updated to latest 2.5.5 version.

As always, please report in the forums any bugs you find, and I will get on fixing it.

Notice: Due to the massive changes in handling settings, it can happen that in multisite/network installations some of the individual sites options get lost and reset to default. Check your sites settings to make sure that it is all OK.

Links and Resources

Here is the list of tutorials that you might find useful:

How to backup and restore your website
Using GD Press Tools 4.2 Backup
Using GD Press Tools Auto Tagger

Comparing GD Press Tools Pro versus BackupBuddy:

GD Press Tools Pro versus BackupBuddy

To see the list of plugin features, overview and to buy the plugin, visit these pages:

GD Press Tools Overview
GD Press Tools Main Page
GD Press Tools Frequently Asked Questions
Buy GD Press Tools Pro

Rewriting Options

Image on the right shows new settings for custom post type permalinks rewriting options. As you can see, single post permalinks options remained the same, but for archives intersections, things are much different. There are two methods of archive intersections: simple (added in 3.2.0) for one taxonomy term intersecting custom post type. Advanced is new one, and you can specify order of taxonomies to include terms for filtering in the URL. For this one, you can set permalinks structure and taxonomies order.

Function with example is available in documentation. To get more info, posts is published to explain limitations and concerns when using permalinks for intersections. URL is at the end of this post.

New intersections links are used for terms widgets now, so if you have enabled them for custom post type you are using in the widget, you will get new links with widget also. As for the other changes, some of the rewrite rules have changed order to avoid some rewriting issues. Several bugs are fixed: duplicated view option for terms, minor issues with permalinks archives, saving some of the post type settings, several minor issues with meta boxes.

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools Pro:
http://www.dev4press.com/gd-custom-posts-and-taxonomies-tools/
Enhanced custom post types URL rewriting:
http://www.dev4press.com/2011/tutorials/plugins/gd-taxonomies-tools/enhanced-custom-post-types-url-rewriting/

Warning: Plugin is not yet completed, and it is not recommended to use it on the live websites. Right now, from all the planned features for 1.0.0 release, admin side is 95% done, and front end is 60% done. Main goal of this version is to get feedback on features and start with testing, plugin is not fully usable yet and many features are not finished.

Export / Import

With 0.7.5, plugin is already usable and most of the features completed. One rendering template is missing (related posts), and advanced filtering is not done yet, widgets are in starting stages. These missing features will be added in the next 10 days, and by the end of the month we will be very close to stable 1.0.0 release.

Import and export tools are added (image on the right), users reviews templates finished, once uploaded, images will be attached to products/post also, allowing you easier manipulation and reusing them in the product review, default styling is imporved, few new tags and directives for rendering added.

Over the weekend, plugin images, descriptions, video overview will be added, and in the middle of the next week, 0.8 version can be expected.

If you want to test the plugin before buying, use contact form to ask for the demo website at xScape.info, where all Dev4Press plugins and themes are available for testing.

Promo coupon

If you decide to purchase plugin now, while still in development phase, a coupon is available that will give you 25% discount. This coupon is: PRODUCTSCBETA. To purchase plugin, visit the plugin editions page.

Resources

Theme Templates Integration:
http://www.dev4press.com/2011/tutorials/plugins/gd-products-center/theme-templates-integration/
Product Type Editor:
http://www.dev4press.com/2011/tutorials/plugins/gd-products-center/product-type-editor/

Plugin Info

Planned Features:
http://www.dev4press.com/2011/blog/development/planned-features-for-gd-products-center/
Plugin Information:
http://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-products-center/
Editions & Purchase:
http://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-products-center/editions/

New Icons

Plugin already supports custom icons for the post types used for admin menu, but for that you need to prepare and upload image you want to use. And the way WordPress uses that image, it will never look like a built-in menu icon used by default. So, now plugin allows you to select from the icons that are built in with the plugin. There is a selection of 100 icons available from the great Fugue icons set created by Yusuke Kamiyamane. On the image on the right you can see few custom post types using these built-in icons.

To support WPML plugin and translation of custom fields names and descriptions, all print and echo functions used to render the meta boxes now use translation functions that WPML can pick up and filter.

Rest of the changes include improvements to widgets rendering, changes to JavaScript used to attach images to terms and loading and initialization of plugin. Export settings options is fixed to allow selecting parts of the data to export.

Please, report any problems with new icons or with attaching images (old code was causing problems in Firefox 6 and Opera 11), in comments or in the forums.

More about GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools:

http://d4p.me/gdtt

xScape has come a long way in the past year and a half, and now has reached major 1.7 version with a lot new features, many of which can’t be found in any other WordPress theme framework or even individual theme on the market. A long, long list of features include support for bbPress plugin, integration for Google Web Fonts, advanced layout manager, advanced menu designer, integrated upgrade backups, more additional modules, social networks integration, 15 widgets and much, much more. Before deciding on themes purchase, check this out first:

xScape Home: http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/
xScape Features: http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/features/
Purchase Page: http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/purchase/
Themes List: http://www.dev4press.com/themes/list-themes/
xScape Demos: http://xscape.info/

For the limited time, until 1st September 2011 you will get a chance, if you are fast enough, to buy Theme Club Membership or individual themes with discount coupons listed bellow. Both coupons have limited number of uses, and they will expire at the end of this month. Coupons apply to both standard and development licenses.

Coupon(s) can be entered on the checkout page. To purchase single theme or club membership, start from the xScape purchase page: http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/purchase/.

More custom fields in meta box

New plugin version includes several improvements: more widget options and more rendering changes to widgets used functions, color custom fields for meta boxes with easy to use color picker control and several minor changes and fixes with more updates for WordPress 3.2.

For all 3 widgets there is an option for adding ‘current’ class to currently active term page or post type (archive or single). With this, if you have terms cloud displayed, and you are on the term archive page (any taxonomy), that term will be marked with current class in the cloud, and you can style it differently. This works with terms list and post type list. For terms drop down, such term will be selected in the list.

Custom fields are expanded with 3 more fields: color, select using radio buttons and select using checkboxes. Also, custom fields editor has option copy to duplicate any field definition so you can easier add more or similar fields. Few more fields are coming, including: rich text editor, Google Maps for addresses and embedding, time selection field, autocomplete fields (for users or some other things).

Preparations for 3.2 version of the plugin are in motion, and I will update roadmap soon. New major revision is epxected in about 3 weeks.

More about GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools:

http://d4p.me/gdtt

From now on, WordPress requires PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0.15. All respectable hosting companies are already up to date with PHP and mySQL (some even running latest PHP 5.3), but you better check to make sure that your hosting company is upgraded, or you will be surprised when after upgrade you end up with broken website. All modern browsers will do fine, and from what I have seen IE7 will work for the most part with some minor problems, IE8 is also fine.

Image below shows the new WordPress admin dashboard. New interface uses space on the page a bit better and widgets and other elements are looking more compact and cleaner. For the most part I like the new look, with exception of the top header section, I think old one was better. On the image here you can see pretty much standard dashboard content with addition of GD Press Tools Pro widget and execution stats in the footer.

WordPress 3.2: Dashboard

Interface changes also include improvements to post editor that now supports new full screen Just Write mode. Editor expands to the full browser window with toolbar on top. Once you start writing, all controls will be gone leaving only empty space with no distraction. I am not going to use it much, but I am sure that many users will welcome this clean and simple approach.

WordPress 3.2: Just Write Editor

New theme replaces TwentyTen, and its called TwentyEleven. Theme is HTML5/CSS3 based, and its faster than earlier one, but I don’t like it very much to be honest. I think that it would be better to improve on TwentyTen than go with new theme, but here it is.

Admin bar is improved with more options and menus added. It would be nice to have some extra control over what is in the admin bar, but plugins will take care of that. Next GD Press Tools Pro will have more options for admin bar control. Other changes are many minor visual improvements: login form changes, new links in the footer and more. jQuery is updated to 1.6.1 with jQueryUI to 1.8.2.

But, the most important change in this version is performance improvement. WP 3.2 is faster than previous versions (especially 3.1), and you will feel this difference as soon you upgrade. Better JavaScript code make loading of pages faster, and this is most noticeable if you use fast browsers like Opera or Chrome. All upgrades will be faster (especially if you use FTP for uploading upgrades, that was very slow before). Other optimizations include improved functions, partial cleanup of PHP4 specific code and more. During next week you can expect 2 posts with benchmarks of WordPress 3.0.4, 3.1.4 and 3.2 for both admin and front end side.

WordPress 3.2: Post Editor in blue

But, as with any new WordPress there are some downsides. Many of the updates will for sure break many plugins and themes that use jQuery due to changes in jQuery 1.6. I hope that plugin and theme developers are going to check everything and fix potential problems. I have tested my plugins and they are all OK, with some Lite versions coming next week to make sure everything is OK. Some users I talked to recently expressed their disapproval of new interface, but that is expected with any interface change. For me, I like the new WP look (for most part).

What’s next for WordPress? Now that requirements are sorted out, and interface improved, there are still several areas where WordPress is lacking. Most important problem is content management. I have said it before 2.9 and 3.0 and 3.1, and I am saying again, WordPress is not equipped to work with large amount of content. If you have few hundred posts and 20 categories, it’s not bad, but for large websites that use custom post types and custom taxonomies, this is a real problem. Changing taxonomies for large number of posts in the same time is slow using current batch approach, and still impractical. We need better, and easier to use drag and drop interface for handling posts and taxonomies with AJAX filters and pagination. I really hope that this will be one of the things we can expect in 3.3, and I will try to push the suggestions once the WP 3.3 gets in development.

For now, WP 3.2 is great upgrade to the platform, and I strongly recommend that you switch to it as soon it is released. Speed of the new WP alone is reason enough. Add better interface and other minor changes and WP 3.2 is the version to use. All core developers and contributors deserve big thanks from the growing WordPress community for all the work to make this new version.

xScape Core will be released today, with also few of the themes with bug fixes. For the rest of the themes, you can download and update framework only. Again, best to use Dev4Press Updater to take care of that for you.

Two new widgets are based on existing code for Facebook Like Button and Twitter Follow button. Many users asked for the widget versions allowing to add both outside of the post. Facebook Like Button allows using of custom URL to Like that can be even your Facebook page.

bbPress 2.0 Beta 3 is out, and adds many changes to templates structure. bbPress module in xScape again follows that development closely and same functionality is implemented here for seamless transition to xScape theme that can use bbPress without changes. Once again, a big thanks goes to John James Jacoby and all people involved with development of bbPress plugin. For more info about the plugin visit its website: http://bbpress.org/.

To use updated bbPress module in xScape Theme Framework, you must use latest bbPress 2.0 Beta 3 or newer nightly builds.

As for the future releases, focus now is improving the layout manager and allowing conditional layouts settings: with this you can have different layout for each post, category and archive. Layout manager will allow you to create rules and apply different layout to these rules. This will take some time, and its expected over the next 2 months while we are getting closer to the next major 1.8 version planned for September.

Promo Codes

During this month, you can take advantage of big summer sale and 40% and 50% discounts. Hurry up, offer is limited: xScape Themes Big Summer Sale.

Demo Website

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/

If you are using Dev4Press Updater plugin, you will be able to update themes with new framework, and also, you can download it from your account dashboard download page: http://www.dev4press.com/user/download/.

Layout Copy

Layout manager is improved and new option is added allowing to copy settings from one template to another as long as the templates are same type. Dialog displayed for settings copy will show compatible templates you ca copy settings from. Also, list of templates can show additional help info, so you see that some of the templates are marked as bbPress. Blue icon will open copy settings dialog.

Other changes are mostly behind the scenes to make it able to work with the upcoming bbPress module. Several bugs are fixed in this version including regression from 1.6.3 that caused Facebook widgets to disappear from the Widgets panel. There are also few fixes in handling the saving and loading of some xScape settings.

R8 theme is updated to 1.0.3 with few extra changes. I have also uploaded Beta versions of R8 1.0.9 and newsScape 1.2.9 that have inside bbPress module and additional templates needed for bbPress plugin. You can get current development version of bbPress and test it with xScape module (bbPress plugin branch SVN: http://svn.automattic.com/bbpress/branches/plugin). Styling for the module is not yet done, but it’s functional and usable even in current state. Both themes now add 13 new templates managed by bbPress module. Many bugs are to be expected, so use these beta version only on development and test installations.

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/

bbPress

bbPress plugin version is quite different than normal bbPress, now it uses post types for forums, topics and replies and adds topic tags as taxonomy for topics. One of the features finished plugin will have is to convert data from old bbPress into new format so that the switch will be done easier to a new plugin based version.

Current version of bbPress plugin uses default TwentyTen theme to add extra templates and rendering elements. I am using same approach for xScape, and framework will contain bbPress elements that will be shared across all themes, and will have a module that will add templates and control other settings as needed. If you use bbPress, this module will add extra templates needed by bbPress and allow for same level of customization as with normal WP based templates. Biggest issue is to create template elements that will use CSS BluePrint layout that will be save regardless of the theme and theme specific BluePrint settings. Also, theme will include styling for bbPress added widgets. Another great thing about this is that upcoming GD Star Rating 2.0 will support bbPress plugin also.

Theme R8 will be used for first integration tests and I will release development snapshot for testing next Monday, but it will take some time to sort it out, and also bbPress plugin is not yet done, so changes will be added along the way. xScape Roadmap is updated, and the integration should be fully done for final release of xScape Theme Framework 1.7.

R8: Front Page

This is a bit out of the blue, but, here is the brand new theme called R8. Theme features new xScape Theme Framework version 1.6.2 and 8 built-in color schemes and has a third top navigation menu under the header. Also, it uses Nivo slider with even more customization options.

R8 is the theme I am developing with GD Star Rating 2.0 to integrate and test all new plugin features. But, I managed to assemble theme very quickly, and it’s a shame to leave it waiting for next two months, so here it is. Right now, theme is fully functional, and over time it will get specific GD Star Rating 2.0 features as the plugin development progresses.

Theme has 8 color schemes built-in, it uses Nivo slider with wide range of settings per template basis, 3 navigation areas in the header (extra menu are is added above main menu). As with all other themes, all xScape features are implemented, there are 2 sidebar areas (only one is on by default) and footer widgets area.

xScape Theme Framework 1.6.2 will be available for download later today, with all themes updated in the next 2 days.

To see the theme features and read more about new R8 theme or watch introduction video, check the main theme page:

R8 Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/r8/

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/
R8:
http://xscape.info/load/?theme=r8

With GD Star Rating 2.0 development getting back on track, a theme is needed to develop and test new plugin, and one of the new themes will be made for that purpose. It will be rating and review oriented theme, first one to fully support new GD Star Rating 2.0. This new theme (still without name) will be developed with own branch of xScape Theme Framework, and once it’s done, new things added will be moved into main xScape version. This rating theme and beta version of the plugin are expected to be done in the next 6-7 weeks.

Another new theme that will be photo/media oriented will be released in by the end of May 2011 and it will be different than previous themes because it will use pseudo fluid design. Making fluid design work is very, very hard and very rarely done. What this new theme will attempt is to use several predefined widths with a method of auto-detection to load layout that will fit the current browser window. Templates in this theme will focus on displaying images and videos. It will have footer widgets area, 2 header/menu areas and one sidebar area (that will be disabled by default). It will also features slider (once again it will be Nivo jQuery Slider).

Third theme in development is again going to be different with no headers as previous themes have. Instead of header with menu, this theme will have vertical navigation (left or right). This navigation block will also serve as the sidebar. There will be optional small top header area for secondary navigation. This theme should be done by the end of June 2011.

All suggestions on the theme features are welcome, please leave a comment.

Discount coupon can be used to purchase Dev4Press Plugins Pack, xScape Themes Club and individual plugins: GD Affiliate Center, GD aZon Fusion, GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools, GD Press Tools and GD Simple Widgets.

Promo coupon:

To get 25% discount (applied to initial payment), on checkout use this coupon: EASTER2011. Coupons is valid until April 27 2011. Happy Easter!

Focus: Front Page

Theme number 8, Focus is released. This is first xScape theme to feature new jQuery powered highly customizable Nivo slider. Theme has 14 color styles built in, allows for control panel background control and has different templates for both normal blog or magazine style layouts.

Focus Slider Settings

Theme has 2 menus, top menu can be moved bellow the main menu. Nivo slider has tons of options to set and use thumbnails, numbers or bullets for navigation, many transition effects and also if the slider is full width or same as content. Categories posts area can have 2 or 3 blocks with different categories and adjustable number of posts. Content has two layouts: block (like on the image) or listed. As with all other themes, there are two vertical sidebars areas and one footer widgets area.

Background settings are same as in the previous FrameFX theme and allows you to set image or color as background with many ways to set it up. To see the theme features and read more about it or watch introduction video, check the main theme page:

Focus Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/focus/

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/
Focus:
http://xscape.info/focus/

Slider / Sidebar

New xScape Theme Framework based theme called Focus is very close to release, and here is a small preview of how the theme is gonna look like. Currently, only one style is available using gold/red colors, but more than 10 styles will be available with built in color style switcher.

Focus uses jQuery Nivo Slider with wide range of settings to control navigation, transitions and animation of slides. Theme has two menus, with top level navigation can be on top of layout or between main menu and content. Header area where logo or site name is displayed can have background image. And, all colors can be set through theme settings as a custom theme style.

Footer / Widgets

Theme mixes news/magazine, normal blog or photo layouts so it can be used for a lot of different things. There will be several different layouts available for archives and individual posts, including brand new template for images, that will be added to other themes also.

Focus will be released with xScape Theme Framework 1.6.0 that will have several new features and number of improvements and fixes. Theme beta version will be released on Tuesday, with final version to be released by the end of the next week.

Intro

Many parts of the page don’t change often, but require many SQL queries to be executed. If you have complex menu that combines categories, pages or posts and it can take more than 20 or even 50 SQL queries to make. For instance, all 3 menus on Dev4Press take about 30 SQL queries to get URL’s or structure. Similar situation is with widgets that don’t change every day, but can take a lot of SQL queries.

Cache method that I want to describe uses database to manually store rendered HTML into the wp_options table using transient records that can have expiry time, allowing you to set how long the cached data will be valid. In multisite mode, for rendering that is related to all websites you can use wp_sitemeta table with transient records. I will note the different functions for this later.

Cache Functions

We need 2 functions, one to store and other to get data from cache. You can store: objects, arrays, rendered HTML, anything really.

function dev4press_get_cached_data($name) {
  return get_transient($name);
}
function dev4press_set_cached_data($name, $value, $ttl = 43200) {
 set_transient($name, $value, $ttl);
}

• $name: name for cached object, this needs to be max 45 characters in length due to the limit of database table structure.
• $value: object/array/string to store.
• $ttl: time-to-live, how long the cached value will be valid, in seconds

$name must be unique for the element you are storing. After the $ttl time expires, stored element will be invalidated. Also, functions up there are very basic, but they allow you to expand with calculating stats about the hits or misses, or whatever you might need.

Best way to use this cache is for caching complex operations that require more than couple of SQL queries or uses one or more very complex SQL queries. Transient cache requires 2 simple SELECT queries that are very fast. You can always measure operations to determine if the cache will give you performance boost or not.

Example: WP Menu Cache

Here is the example how to use this cache method for WordPress menu. WP theme to display menu is wp_nav_menu(). So, if you have menu named “my_menu”, it’s usually added to theme like this:

wp_nav_menu(array("menu" => "my_menu"));

To use cache, code will change to this:

$menu = dev4press_get_cached_data("cached_my_menu");
if ($menu === false) {
  $menu = wp_nav_menu(array("echo" => false,"menu" => "my_menu"));
  dev4press_set_cached_data("cached_my_menu", $menu, 86400);
}
echo $menu;

Line 1 attempts to get stored menu from transient cache by key “cached_my_menu”. If the result is false, than we build the menu as before (using echo parameter set to false, so that menu is not displayed) on line 3. And when the menu is built, we need to store rendered HTML to transient cache using same ”cached_my_menu” key on line 4. And than display menu on last line.

First time the menu needs to be displayed, cache will be empty, and lines 3 and 4 will execute making menu and caching it. Next time, line 1 will get the menu from cache skipping rebuild part. After 24 hours (86400), menu will be invalidated, and first line will again return false, and menu will be rebuilt again.

Same principle can be used to handle any type of data to cache.

gdr2 Library

My gdr2 Library used in all my premium plugins and themes has own Cache class that is based on this method. Cache class supports statistics, unique name building and other things. It’s used to cache widgets in plugins and to cache widgets and menus in xScape themes. On Dev4Press website, powered by lightScape theme, widgets are cached and also main menu and the footer links map. Top menu items depend on the user, so it’s not the same for everyone, and caching it is not good idea.

Conclusion

I will search further for more things you can do to optimize websites, so more posts like this will be added. If you have some more suggestions on WordPress speed improving, please leave a comment.

Settings panel is displaying info on WP version for custom post type archives, so change it depending on version of WP you use. Still, you can enable type based archives for post types for WP 3.1 if you need them, but be careful so that rewrite rules don’t clash with something else. Custom post types registration procedure is updated a bit, and also new filters are added to override the settings and options plugin generates for post types and taxonomies. Terms list and term cloud widgets are updated with random and  slug added for ordering terms beside names and counts.

gdr2 library is updated with latest version that has some improvements to widgets, core classes and functions.

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools:
http://dv4p.com/gdtt

Themes are yet to be updated with new xScape, lightScape is coming tomorrow, and the rest of the themes will follow in the next 2-3 days. Sorry about the delay, but GD Press Tools 4.0 is to be released tomorrow.

Slider with Video

Sliders and all other themes elements that support preview images, now support embeding videos. Each post has a new meta setting allowing you to specify the URL to a video from the website that is supported by WordPress oEmbed.

Plugin now allows to cache menus, and that is turned on by default and set to 7 days. Caching is done based on the menu name and the user logged status, since menus can depend on the user being logged in or out. Widgets can be set individually to use cache and you can set number of hours for cached data to be valid. Also, there is a override to force all widgets to use cache regardless of individual settings. ShareThis and Facebook widgets can’t be cached, first one because it will generate different output on each page, and second one because it’s pointless, data is always the same.

Dev4Press is using lightScape theme, and here is the improvement with cache on. Home page without the cache needs 78 queries run in 0.2 seconds. With cache for menus and widgets, 60 queries are run in 0.05 seconds. Single post without cache runs 107 queries in 0.22 seconds, with cache it takes 86 queries in 0.09 seconds. How much will you gain on your website depends on number of widgets you use and on how complex menus are, but it’s best to test and see if there is an improvement or not. Cache is implemented with gdr2 Cache class, and more on how that works is coming soon in form of a tutorial in the next few days.

Internal base Widget class is removed, and all widgets now use gdr2 Widget class. New version also supports new debugger implemented by GD Press Tools 4.0, and xScape adds whole panel with various useful info about theme running.

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/

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools Pro 2.6 already includes this latest version. Today, GD aZon FUSION will be updated and GD Affiliate Center 1.2.0 will be released over the weekend. GD Press Tools will get new library with release of 4.0. And Beta 1 of this plugin will be released on Monday. xScape 1.5.9 will be released sometime next week, also with gdr2 2.2 library and that will introduce some very significant performance improvements.

Core / Log / Fnc / Cache

Main file and class of gdr2 is called gdr2_Core. This file will load additional base files with shared functions (many of the overrides for older versions of WordPress), gdr2_Log class and one more file with gdr2_Cache class. This is the new class added in this version allowing use of WordPress transient options as a cache storage method. APC support for this class will be added at a later date.

New cache system allows storing of rendered blocks in the database allowing significant speedup of rendering operations that need large number of queries. xScape menus will use it, and preliminary tests show that for 3 menus used on Dev4Press, number of SQL queries now is 24, with new cache system is only 6. Not only that, these 6 are only basic select queries that are executed almost instantaneously. GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools Pro 2.6 uses cache for all 3 widgets.

Widget

This gdr2_Widget class is much improved in the new version and has built in support for new cache system, built in support for displaying widget to users, visitors or both. Registration of widget and few other things are also improved. I have few more ideas on further improving this class, but for now there will be no more updates.

UI / jQueryUI / Grid / Utils / Img

First three classes are used for rendering interface elements, mostly for admin side. Many parts of these classes are not yet done, and it will take a while to make them full, but they are usable in this version also. Utilities is a new class with only few functions, mostly for checking system requirements at this point. Image class is not changed in this version, but it’s a very powerful class that can handle uploading, resizing and other operations.

How to get the library?

Right now, you can’t download it freely. It’s distributed with plugins and themes, and it’s also GPL2 licensed. If you are interested in getting and using the library in your projects, please contact me.

If you still use WordPress 2.9, do not update to this version of GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools Pro. If you need new features added by the plugin, you will need to updated to WordPress 3.x to be able to use them.

Updated Interface

Plugin interface is refreshed with latest jQueryUI 1.8.9 and new color scheme as you can see on the image on the right. Same color scheme will be used in upcoming GD Press Tools 4.0 Pro.

New features in 2.6 Pro include Export Terms on Tools panel, that can export into text file all terms in a taxonomy (with hierarchy), in the same format as used for import.

Taxonomy Filter

Taxonomies now can be added as a filters to the post edit panels similar to categories filtering, as displayed on image on the left. Other improvements include updated context help to include list of relevant tutorials, brand new version of gdr2 shared library is added, and some changes are made to taxonomy terms edit panel columns adding.

Updated gdr2 adds some very interesting features, and plugin widgets now use gdr2_Widget core class that implements 2 more options for each widget: display (to all, visitors or users only), and cached (allowing use of gdr2_Cache class to store rendering results in database).

Number of bugs are fixed including: minor problems with saving simple override options for default post types and taxonomies, problems with displaying post template meta box, registering of some custom taxonomies special features and several PHP warnings.

If you have any more problems, please report them in the forum or in comments. Always include exact version of WP you are running, especially if you are using development versions of WP.

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools:
http://dv4p.com/gdtt

xScape Context Help

Context help shows a list with links of tutorials that are relevant to that panel. List of tutorials will be updated with each xScape version. Next version of xScape will add context help extensions for some native WP panels like Widgets or Posts.

Experimental support is added for upcoming WordPress 3.1 post formats. Right now, you can enable it from Global Settings panel, Integration tab. If active, xScape will register theme support for all commonly used post formats. Formats add CSS styles to post blocks, and it can be used to style them differently. On a later date, I will rethink the way xScape can use post formats in full capacity.

Widgets are improved, and now each one includes the option for displaying widget to everyone, logged in users or visitors only. This way you can have ads widget hidden from registered and logged in users. Similar option is added to Ads Manager and each ad space can control display in the same manner. Also, video widget is improved allowing display of more than one video in the same time. Contactable module now can include URL of the page from where the contact message is send in the message, with new template tag. Other widgets have updated options to include display option as all the other xScape widgets also. Images icons used by xScape  interface are now merged into a single image for better reuse and a bit faster loading of the interface panels. CSS files are also improved and optimized.

Main update in this version is change in layout manager blocks that allow display of thumbnails (sliders for instance). Before, you could choose only xScape custom field image. Global settings could be used to override it and display post featured image or first image from the post. Now both these options are allowed as a choice in the layout manager, making the use of images much easier and comfortable.

All themes will be released during the day with new framework. Some of them have some fixes and improvements also.

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/

I always hated McAfee AntiVirus software. At one point I used it, and I can’t remember any other program that gave me so much problems, performance issues not to mention great many false virus reports. Well, today I have one more reason to hate it. Few days ago, with latest update to McAfee, main JavaScript file in GD Star Rating is marked as Trojan by McAfee. McAfee seams to have a lot of trouble detecting content of the packed and compressed JavaScript files compressed using great algorithm developed by Dean Edwards. So, GDSR main JS file is now compressed using YUI Compressor.

If you find anymore bugs, please report them via comments or in the forums.

GD Star Rating: http://www.gdstarrating.com/

Plugins

Dev4Press most successful premium plugins without a doubt are GD Press Tools and GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools. Both plugins went through several major releases and got tons of new features  and they are absolutely most powerful tools in its class available for WordPress. GD aZon FUSION is a new plugin that is still in Beta phase, and will soon get first stable release. GD Affiliate Center development was a bit slower, but many more exciting features will be added to the plugin in the next couple of months. GD Simple Widgets development was also slower, but 3.0 version is already in works. With work continuing on GD Star Rating 2.0, next year will be very busy.

xScape & Themes

Most important development project this year on Dev4Press is creation of xScape, the most advanced theme framework for WordPress. Over the past 9 months xScape went through several major releases and countless number of features are added. xScape offers several unique features that allow you easy layout manipulation, ads integration, several modules and many widgets to use.

So far 7 themes are created, 3 of them are designed by my friend Vladan Vasic (Peexon Design), and he will contribute few more designs in the next year. I am in talks with 2 more designers to contribute few more themes in 2011.

Publishing

More than 70 tutorials are published on Dev4Press in 2010, and almost 200 other posts regarding development, releases and updates. Documentation Central is growing with some 80 entries available so far. About half of tutorials are videos and that similar trend will continue next year. As the Dev4Press premium users already know, many tutorials published in the recent months are requested by them, so if you need something made into the tutorial, feel free to leave a request in the forum.

Forum & Support

Over 200 topics and almost 1000 posts in the forum are best starting place to get premium support for themes, plugins and WordPress. Also, almost 100 premium support email tickets are opened by premium users, and all solved successfully. Most of them were for GD Star Rating premium support.

I am very grateful for the constant support for all the premium users on Dev4Press. We still don’t have a huge user base, but it’s growing, and your influence on the development progress is simply great: ideas for new features and help in finding bugs are immeasurable and there are still many suggestions that will be added to both plugins and themes in the coming months. I will always try to incorporate most (if not all) ideas into the development process and provide features that users need the most.

Final words…

So, 2010 is ending today, and I must say that I am very satisfied with the work done this year, and I can promise that intense development will continue in 2011. I wish to all Happy New Year!

jQueryUI loading is changed, and divided into more minor parts. So, if you have other jQuery library that depends on jQueryUI widgets, it will not work anymore, since widget library needs to be loaded now. So, check out all plugins that do that and make sure that everything is loaded as it should.

Here is the table of Dev4Press plugins and current minimal version supported. It includes upcoming versions of plugins that will be updated this week to support upcoming WP 3.1:

New versions of GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools and GD Press Tools are coming very soon. Same goes with GD LinkedIn Badge and GD aZon FUSION. I am testing with latest development version of WP 3.1 and I will make imporvements if needed in the coming weeks leading to the final release of 3.1.

More info on new WordPress is coming. Also, expect another benchmark post as soon as final 3.1 is released to compare it to WP 3.0.

There are many minor fixes in both, but most important is the issue with category filtering in some of the widgets that is now taken care of. Also, 2.0.5 is the last version of Pro edition with current features, work on 3.0 will start soon, and will include new templates system and new widgets.

Plugin Page:
http://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-simple-widgets/
Free Download:
http://www.dev4press.com/free-downloads/

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/

FrameFX: Home Page

Theme number 7, FrameFX is released. This is a bit different theme than before, not having scape in the name is just one of the differences, even so, the theme uses xScape Theme Framework. This one focuses on special effects for background, logo and posts.

Theme features

Theme comes with 10 color styles. None of the styles have background images, just a solid color by default. Background image and color can be set in the theme settings, and that includes effects for background (stretched to cover the screen automatically) with additional overlay image effect. Title (if left as text, not image logo), can contain several CSS2 or CSS3 effects.

Posts in the archive or home page, set as boxed layout allow several ways for displaying posts, all based on image. Effects are used to display info about posts. FrameFX comes with latest xScape Theme Framework 1.5.2.2 and can use all the new features added to this release.

To see the theme features and read more about it or watch introduction video, check the main theme page:

newsScape Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/framefx/
newsScape Screenshots:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/framefx/screenshots/

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/
FrameFX:
http://xscape.info/framefx/

xScape 1.5.1

New framework version fixes some minor interface issues with miss-aligned elements, and very important recent posts and recent comments widgets bugs causing problems with some of the widget settings. Many key functions and classes are updated and improved including generating thumbnails and main layout Blueprint class for calculating elements sizes in the layout.

Creating pages using custom templates is expanded, so you an create new page template under any name and files needed will be made automatically and ready for use on actual pages.

The only remaining theme to be updated still is photoScape, and it will be released late tonight.

Promo coupon

Starting now, until the end of November 2010 you can get 40% discount for xScape Theme Club Membership (includes all current and future themes) and GD Affiliate Center plugin (both with yearly recurring payments only). For this discount you need to use coupon: XSCAPE15.

xScape Theme Club:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/purchase/
GD Affiliate Center:
http://www.dev4press.com/plugins/gd-affiliate-center/editions/

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/

FrameFX: Header

Previously announced theme called FrameFX is close to completion, and the beta is expected during this week, and as usual will be available for testing on xScape.info. Several templates are still unfinished, but main focus is in creating special effects for blocks and layouts.

Theme has (as usual) 2 vertical widgets sidebars and footer widgets blocks. Posts lists will be available to display as standard lists, and as boxed. Boxed display will use before mentioned special effects powered by CSS and jQuery. There will be no slider, but there will be something called focus posts block that will be used to display featured posts from selected categories, and will also allow for use of special effects.

FrameFX: Widgets

Theme will have at least 10 different color styles built in. Background color and image can be set from the control panel, and you can upload any image, but also, there will be set of filters to change background on any page you want. Theme will also have several unique banner ads positions.

xScape framework has gone through some changes to fix several issues, and improve work with custom page templates, and all other themes will be updated with it soon.

FrameFX will be completed in about 2 weeks, after the period of beta testing that has proven to be very useful with 2 previous themes.

newsScape

Theme number 6, newsScape is finally here. It took more time than first planned, but I think that you will find the theme looking good and is also packed with many very useful features and layout blocks that will allow you great control of displayed posts.

Theme features

Theme comes with 12 color styles, but you can always use any color you want to change the way the theme looks. One color is changeable. Theme also uses new xScape feature that allows changing of font size, so you can try that also. Design for newsScape is clean, it doesn’t use any large images for background, but the layout allows a great freedom in arranging elements and displaying content using many available layout blocks. By default some blocks like second sidebar and footer widgets area are disabled, but you can use them if you want.

newsScape comes with latest xScape Theme Framework 1.4.9 and can use all the new features added to this release.

Default tabbed widget uses recent posts and recent comments widgets. Second sidebar and the footer widgets are disabled by default. Featured slider can be configured in several different ways allowing for full width configuration, getting posts from specified categories or latest posts from nay category. Main content area for news layout allows for up to 9 category blocks.

Video will be released tomorrow showing different layout options in action.

Promo coupon

And during this whole month you can save 20% on xScape themes (both single themes or club membership) by using the coupon XSCAPEOCT.

And more

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

newsScape Info:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/newsscape/
newsScape Screenshots:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/newsscape/screenshots/

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/
newsScape:
http://xscape.info/newsscape/

Widget: Recent Comments

New xScape Theme Framework version 1.4.9 is released, many new and interesting features: new widget for recent comments, expanded some existing widgets, many new social sharing options, framework settings for theme font family and sizes and few more things.

New widget Recent Comments supports similar options and display as Recent Posts already are. Example of this widget as used in newsScape theme is on the image on the right. Also, recent posts widget is expanded with some more tags and options including sorting of posts.

Design tab in settings is now available for all themes, and by default contains new options for setting font family and font sizes. Font sizes will depend on the theme, and some might not support it initially. Breadcrumbs are improved (and some things fixed), including added options to change the way breadcrumbs are rendered.

Twitter button is added to post content buttons for integration, and all that is moved to another new tab in the theme settings called Social, with addition of the new sharing feature.  New sharing feature is share group that uses small buttons for major social networks (Google Buzz, Twitter,  Facebook and Digg). They are displayed like on the image bellow.

Share Group

All themes are updated to support new features. Also, all themes are updated to fix some templates issues and few other minor problems caused by last update. And newsScape is also very close to a release, just a few more hours.

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:

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

My Collection

My Collection is my new website that is made as a demo for several of my plugins and one theme, and in the same time for tracking my collection of music, videos and books I got from Amazon. Here are some more details about the website and plugins used.

Website uses lightScape theme (based on xScape Themes Framework) with custom style. But, real power behind the website are two plugins. One is used to actually get products from Amazon and display them (GD aZon FUSION Pro) and other to set up custom post types and custom taxonomies, add widgets (GD Custom Posts and Taxonomies Tools Pro). Also, GD Press Tools Pro is there, universal “don’t go anywhere without it” plugin.

GD aZon FUSION

GD CPT Tools

GD Press Tools

Website has 4 custom post types (Books, Movies, TV Series and Music). Also, there are additional taxonomies for each of the post types. And all of them use categories. As you can see on the website menus made using xScape Menu Designer (native WordPress Menus are not used), support both post types and taxonomies, and also support filtering of terms, and support custom templates for post types archives.

Widgets from GD CPT Tools Pro are used extensively on the website. Also, new widget from GD aZon FUSION is there for single product in the sidebar. Amazon product templates are customized for the theme also.

Whatever new is added to each of these plugins will be added to this website. So, visit it and check out what you can do with these plugins.

myCollection, Amazon Products:
http://my.gdragon.info/

GD aZon FUSION promo coupon

If you decide to purchase plugin now, while still in Beta phase, a coupon is available that will give you 25% discount. This coupon is: AZONFBETA. To purchase plugin, visit the plugin editions page listed bellow.

GD aZon Fusion, Editions & Purchase:
http://dv4p.com/10g

First plugin to use T3 is GD aZon FUSION (currently in beta). Beta 0.7 version to be released next week will use T3. After that, GD Simple Widgets 3.0 will go into development, and will use T3. GD Star Rating 2.0 will also use T3. So, here is what T3 will bring and improve over T2.

Templates will be stored into files (T2 was using database). One of the problems with database approach was problems storing PHP code also and having templates combine HTML and PHP. This time T3 will have templates in files, and each template will be able to have PHP in it. This part is already done for GD aZon FUSION 0.6 and it works very well. Default templates will be stored in a folder, and there will be function and filter to add new templates from any location. In each template there will be some required elements to identify the template.

Special tags will be more powerful than in T2. Each template will allow for arguments to be passed. And there will be a special template for translations. This tag will allow for multi language templates display through default WP translation system.

Editor panel will be also created for editing templates from the control panel, with list of supported tags, similar to one used by T2.

If you have suggestion on what else to add to the system, please leave a comment.

Custom Post Types Widget

New widget is very simple, and result is on the image on the right. You can change widget title, display of posts counts and select post types to include in the list.

I am working on the demo website that will showcase changes and customization to a xScape based lightScape theme, this plugin and GD aZon FUSION. It will be ready by the end of this week.

Please, test new features and report problems in the forum or in comments.

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools:
http://dv4p.com/gdtt

Control Panel: Settings

This is a random (and not so random) list of reasons why xScape Theme Framework for WordPress and themes based on it are deserving your attention.

1. Control Panel Settings: all theme options are divided into several panels allowing changes to design, typography, content, logo and title, footer and header options without changing a single line of code. Add tracking code for Woopra, Google or Clicky fast. Optimize WordPress header, upload default avatar and much, much more. AJAX powered, with interface using jQuery/jQueryUI for best user experience and rich controls for adding images, choosing colors and more.
2. Menu Designer: Create menus with many options to choose from with full support for custom post types, custom taxonomies, special menu items for admin or user pages, external links… Control menu items visibility with CSS, user/visitor switches and more. Themes can render drop down menus, menu lists or sitemaps from the menus designed with xScape Menu Designer. And you can still use built WordPress Menu, xScape supports that one too.
3. Framework Modules: Many features that are usually needed on the website are made into modules that can be enabled if needed. Add contact form on each page, integrate Google Maps into posts, add Facebook Like button or widgets, add links for sharing on the social networks websites. Modules are loaded when needed, and minimize the need for tons of plugins that you always need to additionally integrate into the theme. More modules are in development.
4. SEO options: Control title for pages, add descriptions and keyword tags to header the way you need it with many options to allow you control over it. Or, if you use specialized SEO plugin, set the theme to allow full SEO control to these plugins.
5. Images handling: Forget about slow and problematic TimThumb most themes use. Images handling is built in the framework and it doesn’t require use of PHP for each image request. Images are uploaded, resized and cached directly and rely on already built in functionalities in WordPress. Your website will not slow down if you have many images displayed in the same time.


Control Panel: Layouts

6. Layout Manager: Need to move sidebar to the right on a single page only? Or to change some settings on one page only? No more going through theme code, messing things up and forgetting what you changed in the first place. Use simple to use layouts manager and adjust settings and layout visually. Enable or disable some of the content blocks, create multiple widgets areas for different parts of the website and use the in sidebars, footer widgets areas and more or control menus on individual pages. Create new templates on the fly for taxonomies, or custom pages.
7. Integrated upgrade: Use our Dev4Press Updater plugin to stay up to date and always have latest version of the theme. Similar to WordPress built in upgrade, our plugin will check twice each day for new versions of our premium plugins and themes.
8. Backup before upgrade: If you have made some changes to the theme, or maybe added new files, custom templates or new style, simply make a list of files you want to be kept safe, and before auto upgrade starts, these files will be saved and restored after upgrade. That way you have latest version of the theme and your modifications. No other free or premium theme offers something like that.
9. Valid and optimized content: Minimzed JavaScript and CSS files, optimized use of images in layouts, clean HTML markup. Both CSS and HTML are compliant with W3C rules and validate 100%. All xScape themes use Blueprint CSS framework for better grid organization of page.
10. Focus on the content: Create WordPress templates without thinking about sidebars or where is the footer or where the menus go. xScape templates are for the content only, and framework will than use layouts settings and make a final page you can always change from control panel.
11. Built in widgets: xScape comes with many widgets built in and optimized. With widgets added by xScape modules, there is total of 12 widgets right now, with more to come. Widgets for Twitter, Flickr, website authors, easy to use tabbed widget, social network links, ads…
12. Export and import settings: If you run more than one website using same theme or even different themes on xScape, you can export settings from one and import into another. This includes settings, layouts, menus and everything else. Backup whole theme or only some files to transfer them to another location.
13. GD Star Rating integration: Already built in are some of the GD Star Rating features: integration with comments for review websites, improved styling specific for each theme. Also, all other of our plugins can be used directly: GD Custom Post Types and Taxonomies, GD Affiliate Center and all the others.
14. GPL: All our themes are 100% GPL licensed. No dual licensing for code and design, no worries about number of websites you can use a theme once you purchase it.
15. Premium Support: All themes are fully supported with fast response time in the forums, or even with email support for membership licenses. Many tutorials are available for all premium users, most of them videos explaining every aspect of the xScape.
16. Free Test Drive: Not sure if this is for you? Test drive each theme for free on our xScape.info test website. All latest versions of all xScape themes are there. You can sign up for a free blog, and for 48 hours test each theme. When you do that, be sure to check out our premium plugins also.

I am sure that there are more reasons, but these 14 are enough for now. xScape is always in development, with new versions released weekly, with new features and long list of planned features yet to come.

List of xScape Themes:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/
Buy xScape Themes or Club Membership:
http://www.dev4press.com/themes/xscape/purchase/
xScape Test Drive Website:
http://xscape.info/

All the changes bellow are only for Pro version. As I said before, Lite version will only get maintenance releases, and will be updated when new WP is released if there are changes in custom post types or taxonomies.

Custom post type URL rewrite

WordPress custom post types implementation has 2 major flaws: there is no template for custom post type archive and rewrite rules are incomplete to support all needed elements like feeds. Maybe we will see this fixed in WP 3.1, but until that happens, our plugin implements that now. For archive, you have new template called: type-$post_type.php. If you have post type named book, you will get (if the rewrite slug is also set to book):

Archive page: http://www.website.com/book/
Paged archive: http://www.website.com/book/page/3
Feed: http://www.website.com/book/feed/

Feed link will be added into page HTML header also (if supported by the theme). xScape Theme Framework now also supports this (new version will be released in a day or two), and if the GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools Pro is installed, you can generate and use archive template and you can add these pages to menus through menu designer.

This features are activated automatically, if the custom post type you created is set to allow rewriting (it’s on by default). You can disable this if you want from plugin settings panel.

Improved widgets

Taxonomies widget now have very important new option to set post type. This will get you only terms for a taxonomy belonging to posts for a selected post  type (or you can still choose to see all). To make this happen, I made a new function to replace default get_terms(), and to add new post_type parameter to it.

And more to come

Few bugs are fixed, some functions and files rearranged. And, in the next day or two new tutorials will be released to cover new features. Demo website that will showcase power of GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools Pro and GD aZon FUSION Pro plugins is coming, powered by lightScape theme.

Please, test new features and report problems in the forum or in comments.

GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools:
http://dv4p.com/gdtt

xScape 1.4.5 is in works with one major new option, called Theme Upgrade. Theme will still be updatable only through Dev4Press Updater, but this new Upgrade panel will allow you to set folders and files you want to keep after upgrade. This way you can add templates or whole folders with code and after upgrade all will be safe.

To see themes and framework in action, visit the WordPress 3 MultiSite powered demo website and get your own blog to see who the framework back-end works:

Demo Site:
http://xscape.info/
lightScape:
http://xscape.info/lightscape/

xScape 1.4.3 features new set of icons for ShareThis module, and also new widget. Facebook module is expanded with LikeBox widget allowing customization of page to like, and all settings supported by Facebook widget control. Rest of the themes will be updated in the next couple of days.

lightScape theme had some styling issues, problems with ad in the header and problems with displaying widgets with the front page layout template.

To see themes 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/
lightScape:
http://xscape.info/lightscape/
airScape:
http://xscape.info/airscape/

Articles panel is expanded with different filter for custom post types. Some of integration functions are improved. Readme file is updated with more FAQ entries. Database Tools panel got one more tool you need to be very, very careful about because it will remove all stored rating data from database.

TinyMCE button and plugin are fixed to support taxonomies changes in WP 3.0 and custom post types. Same goes for Builder panel, and for the widgets that had problems with grouping by taxonomies. Few more problems with the meta boxes integration on post edit page are also fixed.

If you find anymore bugs, please report them via comments or in the forums.

GD Star Rating: http://www.gdstarrating.com/