Night Royale

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This theme has a lot of options to change the colors and style very easily as well as include icons and links to many of the most popular social media websites.

Simply Ornate

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Simply Ornate lets you switch out the background colors with some other pre-defined colors, and the use of AJAX for the sidebar makes this theme awesomes.

Several3

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Simply put, this theme is gorgeous because of its perfect balance with whitespace as well as the simplicity and subtlety in typography, shadows and colors.

Zeke 1.0

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Zeke is a very trendy theme using Web 2.0 styles mixed with a wood background. I recommend changing out the background and banners is all.

Night Trans.

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Night Transition is Web 2.0 all the way, but with a very sexy and not-overdone layout. This theme has great colors and form while still being really functional.

JS Box

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If you want unique, this theme will fit you like a glove. With many color options available for download, this theme totally reinvents the layout of a blog.

Brilliance

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This is actually a typical blog layout design-wise, but the design elements are very clean and professional looking while still being stylish and unique.

PocketT

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Want a theme that works in all browser windows and looks good on a phone? This theme is for you then. Simplicity and usability first, design second.

Overstand

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This modernistic theme rocks and makes 3 columns look really good. The colors are a little bold though, you may consider changing those.

Enter the existence of theme frameworks.

What are Theme Frameworks?

According to WordPress Codex:

“A theme framework is a theme that is designed to be a flexible foundation that can serve as a parent theme for building child themes. The use of WordPress theme frameworks may ease theme development by reducing the volume of work which may be needed in creating a backbone for your theme”

In my personal view, a theme framework is just a clean coded, standards compliant theme, stripped of any unnecessary codes  while retaining enough flexibility for expansion and styling.

As with most framework author’s, the underlying reason for creating a framework stems from the frustration of re-typing the same base code over and over again. Having a framework would thus cut down the time needed to write the base code and get to work on the functionality immediately.

The Concept of Chile Themes

Theme frameworks make use of WordPress’  child theme functionality, a new feature (in WP 2.7) that protects already installed WordPress themes while allowing customization to be built onto it. Customizations are storied separately in the “child” theme. Thus, this have an effect of creating a sandbox around the “parent” Theme.

So for example, if “index.php” was requested and a child theme has only the following files: “archive.php”, “style.css” and “functions.php”, WordPress will then load “index.php” from the “parent” theme instead.

Current Offerings:

Currently, the more well known frameworks are:

• Sandbox
• Thematic
• Hybrid

The WordPress Codex lists a few more like the WP Framework.

I am currently a Thematic user, but that’s just preference. Most frameworks offer almost the same base functionality, and the only difference is that some frameworks offer extras like built in dropdown menus.

Further thoughts:

That said, theme frameworks are not without their problems.

Being a framework is a benefit as well as a source of problem. As frameworks have to be generic, there is also a certain inflexibility towards it.

In the course of developing my personal website, there were many times when I wanted to insert codes into specific parts of the parent theme but were unable to do so. As such I ended up creating an entire new template file again just to get round it.

Thus, the bottom line: whether or not to use a framework is highly dependent on what kind of website/project you’re working on. However, in general, frameworks are a good start to theme development as most of them are already quite well developed.

A multi-author blog isn’t as simple as setting up a blog, creating author accounts, and then let bloggers free on the website as I thought it was. It requires more careful attention.

Multi-Author Plugins

We have included a list of some of the plugins that could be used on a blog with multiple authors. There are a number of sites which use these plugins, and I will be sure to check them out.

• Author Exposed - Adds a full featured display of the authors profile.
• Role Manager Plugin - Allows you to control what the various WordPress user roles can and cannot do.
• Author Advertising - Plugin that allows you to share Google AdSense income or other advertising between multiple authors.
• Blog Metrics - Collects blog metrics based upon the author of the posts.
• List Authors Widget - Displays a list of authors in your widgets panel linking to the authors.php page.
• Multiple Authors - Allows multiple authors to be listed for an individual WordPress post, automatically keeping track of who has edited the entry.

As well as using plugins, wordpress bloggers can hack into the main WordPress code and change the way author details are posted.

Multiple Author Hacks

Here are a few WordPress hacks that I have stumbled across at the WPHacks website. They help you hack your WordPress theme to be more multi-author friendly:

• How to Add an Author Page to Your Theme
• How to Change the Author Archives Permalink
• How to Single Out Author Comments
• How to Link Author’s Gravatars to Their Posts
• How to Add Bio Information to Your Posts
• How to Point Author Links to the Authors Website
• How to Create a Maximum Size for Your Images
• How to Use Multiple Stylesheets

I’m sure there are more WordPress plugins or WordPress hacks which I haven’t listed above. Since I am almost positive that there are more plugins than I have included, please leave a comment sharing the ones that you have found or used, and we will update the post!

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment, or sending an email.

What are Custom Fields?

Custom fields are a predefined function within the Wordpress system. They allow you to insert data into every post, and on the development side, pull that data and use it in whatever way you see fit. This allows a user to “program” their blog, without being a programmer. All you have to know is how to pass a parameter to the function and how to receive data back. Though there is great documentation for custom fields in the Wordpress Codex, to a new coder, this documentation can be overwhelming. Instead, let’s breakdown and look at a very specific piece of the function..

In this example, we’re going to create a thumbnail image to append to the beginning each post on the homepage. We are going to do so by creating the custom field in the admin, and then editing the loop on the index page, having to our code pull in post data (with a limit on how many words) and our defined custom field.

Custom Fields in the Admin

Custom fields are located under the “Edit Post” mode on each blog post, towards the bottom of the page. To create a new custom field, simply click “Add Custom Field” and define the key and value. I this example, let’s create a new custom field called “imagethumb”. After defining the imagethumb “key” once, I can then use that custom field on each blog post by selecting it from the dropdown field, and all I have to do is specify a value of the key, which in this case will be the imagethumb url. So the custom field should display as:

Name: imagethumb
Value: http://yourimage.url

Then we will need to edit the index.php file and add the thumbnail variable to the post loop and set two modes for posts with or without images:

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<?
// Start the post loop
while (have_posts()) : the_post();
?>
<div class="date">
  <span class="day"><? the_time('j'); ?></span>
  <span class="month"><? the_time('M'); ?></span>
  <span class="year"><? the_time('Y'); ?></span>
</div>
 
<h1>Title Goes Here</h1>
 
<p class="postmetadata">
  <? the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?>
  Posted in <?php the_category(', ') ?> |
  <? edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?>
  <? comments_popup_link('No Comments;', '1 Comment', '% Comments'); ?>
</p>
 
<div class="entry">
<?
// Get custom field by passing the parameter to get_post_custom_values() function
$values = get_post_custom_values("image");
 
// If custom field is set, format the image with the content
if (isset($values[0])) {
?>
  <img class="alignleft" src="<? bloginfo('url'); ?>/<?=$values[0];?>" />
  <p class="alignleft"><? the_content_rss('', TRUE, '', 100); ?></p>
<?
}
 
// if not set, pull in the excerpt instead
else {
?>
  <p><? the_excerpt(); ?></p>
<?
}
 
// end loop
endwhile;
?>

You can go one step further in the automation process and use a cropping script to automatically crop the image to the desired size. All you’ll need is timthumb and to set the parameters you want on the image.

Parameters
----------------------
w: width
h: height
zc: zoom crop (0 or 1)
q: quality (default is 75 and max is 100)
 
example:
<img src="/timthumb.php?src=&w=300&h=200&zc=1" />

I hope this helps you learn a new trick. For comments and questions, feel free to ask any of our wordpress bloggers, and we’ll be glad to help!

Code has been updated.

Normally in websites, the usual practice for adding JavaScript files is by including:

<script type="text/javascript" src="somescript.js"></script>

directly into the theme files.

However, in WordPress, a better way would be to make use of the built-in WordPress function: wp_enqueue_script().

The function works by putting your script “in queue” for inclusion. When the function is called, it checks if the script have already been included by plugins or other scripts beforehand. This effectively ensures that the script will only included only once.

An example of its usage will be:

<?php wp_enqueue_script('jquery'); ?>

Common frameworks like prototype, jquery and Scriptaculous are already pre-defined. In fact, they even have thickbox (a JavaScript lightbox) available natively.

The function even allows you to specify dependencies for your own scripts. Lets say you have myscript.js which requires prototype. Instead of linking to prototype and then linking to your own script via the usual <script> method, try using this:

wp_enqueue_script('myscript', '/pathto/myscript.js', array('prototype') );

This particular piece of code would check if prototype is included before myscript.js and if it isn’t, it will load it first. This saves the hassle of looking back into your code (which may be broken into multiple files), just to ensure you did not include double instances of the same code.

For a list of included scripts, check out: Function Reference/wp_enqueue_script (via WordPress Codex)

Some troubleshooting regarding scripts :

Question: “My script was working fine before I activated (this) plugin. What happened?”

In some forums I take part in, it is common to see similar questions like this. I have also come across this problem in my theme developments.

Various plugins make use of the wp_enqueue_script feature and thus, if you had included the same JavaScript framework (eg: jQuery) using the usual <script> method, it will not detect its existence and include the script again, causing a conflict.

The solution is either to remove your direct link to the your JavaScript framework totally or replace it with the wp_enqueue_script. The latter is recommended as it will safeguard your custom scripts in the event you don’t use the plugin that includes the necessary files anymore.

Question: “Why isn’t normal codes working with the WordPress included jQuery?”

This may be due to the “jQuery.noConflict()” option set in the default included jQuery.

The noConflict option was set to allow jQuery to operate side-by-side with another JavaScript framework with minimal problems. Thus, in order to define a code that will be parsed by jQuery, just wrap the following code around your original code:

jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
 
Orignal code
 
});

Cheers.

Clayton and Gerald will be joining myself here at WPThoughts.com, and will be bringing us their thoughts and ideas about WordPress, themes, plugins, and tips and tricks to help you with your WordPress installations.

We plan to keep you upto date with the latest developments of WordPress, themes and plugins.

So please, leave a comment on any of our posts, and share your ideas about WordPress, themes, plugins, and anything else WordPress related. If you would rather your comments remain anonymous, at least in public, feel free to contact us via the contact page here at WPThoughts.com.

The plugin is easy to install as most 2.7 version and above in WordPress can be incorporated with a simple click. WP125 includes the ability to enter how many days to run the banner ad , and how many banners are desired for viewing. When the banner campaign is finished, a replacement banner will fill the spot, making it easy for the administrator to not lift a finger other than to either re-activate the ad or replace it with a different campaign. It even has the option to alert the webmaster that a banner is expiring!

Summary
Althought this plugin is great, the only thing off is that there should really be the ability for the user to be able to give a live link for their advertisers to check the progress of their campaign. From experienced, I have been told that a site receives so many hits, when in fact later on when checking their Alexa rank and such, I was sure I was not getting the ad impressions that could have been. Never mind the click through rate, but when given a screenshot and putting it to the referrals in my stats, I was lied to.

This is not to say webmasters should not use this plugin as it can be handy, but it is best to put on the advertisement contact form definite stats to uphold the integrity of the blog. As for the creators of WP125, perhaps adding this ability will take this plugin to the next step. Although I bring up this point, I do recommend it as it is a good resource for webmasters to have in-house banner advertising. Of course, the plugin has been download over 16,000 times and even Weblog Tools Collection has reviewed the plugin too and can be found in the WordPress Plugin repository!

If you answered yes, to any, or all of those questions, then head on over to the site to find out details about how you can boost your website’s traffic, simply by writing a plugin review, a post excerpt, and then emailing those details to the team at WLTC. How hard can that be to receive good quality, WordPress plugins traffic?

The plugins they are asking for your reviews on are the following nine plugins:

• Simple:Press Forum
• Referrer Detector
• WP Greet Box
• WP125
• MailPress
• Yawasp (Yet Another WordPress Anti-Spam Plugin)
• Post Avatar
• Improved Plugin Installation
• Feed Reading Blogroll

I’m still not sure which of the plugins I’m going to review, however I’ll be sure to review at least one or two of them. So we better start cracking.

1. You are keeping your visitor within the site and giving them an alternate way to find what they are looking for.
2. The search engines will not frown as much on your custom 404 page as you are being courteous to your user, and once again, giving them another way to find what they want on your site.

A lot of themes come with the 404.php file, but there are some that do not. In the case you are making your own theme, or if you have downloaded a freebie, then you can make your own.

1. You need to know where to get the code for the 404 page, which can easily be found in the WordPress Codex. In the case of this tutorial, it will be using the basic code.

<?php get_header(); ?>
   <div id="content" class="narrowcolumn">
     <h2 class="center">Error 404 - Not Found</h2>
	</div>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

2. Sure, you have a 404 page that will say “Error 404 - Not Found”, but you really need your site to do something. Perhaps you should add articles that are popular or want your readers to see that may be missed. Or perhaps it was a click on an old internal link from an old blog entry, you should think about putting a search form. A search form will really help.

<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . "/searchform.php"); ?>

3. Edit your message to something friendly. Sometimes “Error 404 - Not Found” might be a bit shocking and make your user think they did something wrong. You could direct them to the home page of the site or as already suggested, articles you want your visitors to read.

Here is an example that is used at Blondish.net

Oopsie! Sorry for the inconvenience.

If you were looking for something on Blondish.net, and did not find it you can contact me or use the form below to search for it. Again, apologies!

The message is allowed to be used. Just change the site name. No credit back is needed.

4. Add your recent posts. This may entice your readers to stay on the site. It is also fresh content and easier than adding featured posts (and editing them from time to time.)

<h2>Recent Posts</h2>
<ul>
	<?php query_posts('posts_per_page=5');
	if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
	<li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="Permalink for : <?php the_title(); ?>"<?php the_title(); ?></a>
	<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
</ul>

5. Get the search engines to find the custom 404 page. In your .htaccess file, you need to put the code:

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php?error=404

In the case your installation is not on the root of your site, but instead a subfolder, you need to make sure the folder name is added before the index.php link for the .htaccess Error Document function.

Very short and simple, right?