Options Framework + Theme Customizer

By Devin

One of the great new features in WordPress 3.4 is the Theme Customizer which allows you to modify options for a theme and instantly preview them on the site.

I’d encourage you to try out the Theme Customizer, but first upgrade to the latest version of the Options Framework (1.3). Earlier versions explicitly checked for $_POST[‘update’] in the request before saving anything to the database, which doesn’t allow options set via the Theme Customizer to save properly.


Continue reading →

Theme Customizer Default Sections

By Devin

I kept having to hunt through wp-includes/class-wp-customize-manager.php to see what the default sections in the theme customizer were registered as.

To save you the trouble, here they are:

title_tagline

[gist id=”e182d64246dd579b089836cbe4473808″ file=”customizer-default-sections.php” lines=”3-6″ show_line_numbers=”0″]

colors

[gist id=”e182d64246dd579b089836cbe4473808″ file=”customizer-default-sections.php” lines=”8-11″ show_line_numbers=”0″]

header_image

[gist id=”e182d64246dd579b089836cbe4473808″ file=”customizer-default-sections.php” lines=”18-22″ show_line_numbers=”0″]

background_image

[gist id=”e182d64246dd579b089836cbe4473808″ file=”customizer-default-sections.php” lines=”24-28″ show_line_numbers=”0″]

nav

[gist id=”e182d64246dd579b089836cbe4473808″ file=”customizer-default-sections.php” lines=”30-35″ show_line_numbers=”0″]

static_front_page

[gist id=”e182d64246dd579b089836cbe4473808″ file=”customizer-default-sections.php” lines=”37-42″ show_line_numbers=”0″]

If you’re not sure how to add options to these default sections, give Otto’s post a read.

How to Modify the Look of a WordPress Site with CSS

By Devin

If you want to make a few design tweaks to a WordPress theme (and don’t see an option for it in the Customizer), you’ll likely need to use some custom CSS. Thankfully, WordPress has a great built-in Custom CSS module that allows you to safely add CSS code or override existing styles. This gives you almost unlimited design control over a site!

This video explains how to find the selectors in your theme using the Chrome developer tools and then add your own custom styles in WordPress.

Automatic Accounts on WooCommerce Checkout

By Devin

There are a lot of good reasons to require a customer account on checkout:

  • It’s easier for customers to manage their orders and get support.
  • It’s for customer to purchase again (all their details are saved).
  • It’s easier for store manager to track life time value of customers.

However, the checkout process for first time customers should still be as seamless as possible. This is why I like to create accounts automatically if the email hasn’t been used before. WooCommerce has this functionality built-in. Continue reading →

Theme Repository Data

By Devin

Aaron Jorbin just released a script called the “WordPress Theme Directory Slurper“, a command line PHP script which downloads the latest stable version of every theme in the WordPress.org theme repository. You can find more information about it in the GitHub repository.

I had a number of questions about the themes on WordPress.org, so I ran the script this morning a slurped all the themes. It took 112 minutes to run and downloaded nearly 4GB of theme code. Here’s what I found out. Continue reading →

Theme Process: Cascade

By Devin

I released a new version of the Cascade theme with DevPress a few weeks ago, and I thought it would be worth writing about the process.

cascade

I learn a few new lessons with every new theme I build. This one was especially interesting because I was able to study the existing codebase, analyze all the choices that had been made by the previous author, and also learn a few new good tricks. Continue reading →

Anders Norén

By Devin

Anders Norén is one of the most prolific theme developers I know of. In 2014 he released a total of 8 themes into the WordPress.org repository- all of which are excellent. A total of 4 made the Tavern’s top 15 free themes of 2014.

If that wasn’t enough, Anders announced a brand new one this morning:

As with any great theme, I really like the attention to small design details. For instance, look at all the subtle icons and design that went into a simple author comment:

comment Continue reading →