The next version of our framework is ready. 1.2 brings a lot of new features, all of them aimed at making life for the site’s owner easier.
The video above is a quick walk through that shows you each of the new features and how to use it. If you’d like a summary though, here’s what we’ve added:
- Code Editor Panel – Want to tweak your CSS or add a new hook? You can do both from the admin panel now.
- Update Notifications – It hasn’t always been clear when new versions are out. Now you’ll see a message on the PliablePress > General page, and it will even tell you what’s new in this version!
- Style Options – We’ve paved the way for a full style options panel here. The first step, available in this release, is a new way of choosing your color schemes. No more separate themes for each color, it’s all in the one location.
- Import/Export Your Settings – Have a test site as well as your live site? Develop sites locally for a client first? Now it’s easy to copy your PliablePress settings between the two.
- Easier Install and Upgrade – Installing is easier now (Mostly because the color schemes are all one theme!), and now upgrading just means overwriting the old folder with the new one.
- Improved Security – We’ve added nonce checks for everything now, so PliablePress 1.2 is that bit safer as well.
There are a few other bugfixes and updates, but those are the main ones!
Important: Upgrading to 1.2
Version 1.2 has a lot of fundamental changes in our themes, specifically in how we make customizations. For that reason, upgrading from a previous version has a few extra steps (Don’t worry, you’ll only ever have to do this once! Upgrades from them on will be simpler than ever).
Here is the process to follow to upgrade to 1.2: (Be careful to do this in order so that you don’t lose any customizations you made before!)
The framework has been renamed to pliablepress, based on your feedback here, so the Chameleon folder is no longer needed.
- Download the PliablePress theme from your members area, as well as your theme of choice (Oracle, MyBiz etc.).
- If you had made customizations previously, copy your style.css and functions.php files to your computer (All future customizations will be in pliablepress>custom folder).
- Upload the pliablepress folder and your new theme folder to your wp-content>themes directory.
- In the pliablepress folder, rename the “custom-sample” folder to “custom”.
- In the custom folder, modify the permissions of style.css (And optionally functions.php) to 777 (Read more on how to do this here).
- Activate your theme via Appearance in the WordPress dashboard.
- Use PliablePress > Style to choose your color scheme.
- If you copied customizations over in step 2, you should now enter these into the two boxes on PliablePress > Code, and then hit save.
I know that upgrade process is more involved than you would normally like, but these changes are important for us (Particularly for building the full style options panel), so it will be well worth it!
If you have trouble making the upgrade, or you’re worried about losing your customizations, post in the forum and I’ll help out. I’ll even go as far as to make the upgrade for you. That’s how much I want to bring everyone up to 1.2!
What Will Happen to Chameleon?
With the framework renamed to the simpler PliablePress Framework, it means that Chameleon as we know it is gone. I love the name though and as you can see clearly on this site, the Chameleon is still a big part of our image.
So here’s my promise; Chameleon will be back. It won’t be our framework again, instead it will be a new theme which lives up very well to its name. In other words, it’s going to make very good use of our style options panel when we finish developing it!
Your Thoughts on 1.2
I’d love to hear what you think of the updates! Could we have done any of them better? Anything we’ve missed out that you’d like to see next?
Code Editor, PliablePress Framework, Security, Style Options, Upgrade
Keith Davis said:
Hi Michael
Not using one of your themes at the moment but who knows what 2011 will bring.
Notice that you say…
“Import/Export Your Settings – Have a test site as well as your live site? Develop sites locally for a client first?”
I have a local installation of my wordpress site running on XAMPP – would a PliablePress local install work in a similar way?
22nd December 2010
Michael Martin said:
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you here, I hope you enjoyed your holidays Keith!
Yep, that’s exactly how it would work! I develop sites in the same way as you do (local install of WordPress first). The update here means you can now easily copy your settings between that local install and a live site with one copy+paste.
30th December 2010
Keith Davis said:
Thanks for your reply Michael.
See you in 2011.
31st December 2010
Rahul Gupta said:
what is this framework actually ?
what work it can do in wordprss themes ?
30th December 2010
Michael Martin said:
Hi Rahul,
It provides a powerful options panel in the background for you to help make it easy to customize your theme and have everything just the way you want it.
We have some (poor) demo videos on the site at the minute, but I’m going to put together an updated, more polished, one soon to help showcase things better.
Michael
30th December 2010
VB said:
Can I use your framework to create my own child themes?
1st February 2011
Michael Martin said:
Absolutely! All of our themes are child themes from the main framework. I’d love to see what you do with it! Definitely get in touch with me if you want to talk more about making your own child themes off it! :)
1st February 2011
Roland said:
Hi Michael,
When you changed the name to PliablePress Framework (in Dec 2010 as it seems), then why do you still include ‘Chameleon’ as one of six *themes* available… (http://www.pliablepress.com/themes/ clicking through to http://www.pliablepress.com/themes/chameleon/)?
I find this very confusing, especially since you still refer to your framework as being ‘Chameleon’ on those pages, and actually it’s been stated across your entire site, 3 months on. (i.e. You even still state on each of your theme’s pages, under “SIMPLE TO CONTROL EVERYTHING” > “Powered by our amazing Chameleon framework! Read on here [link to .../themes/chameleon] to find out more about the features you get in every one of our themes.”.)
I think your website content may lag behind the changes you have made over the last few months, but I feel it doesn’t help understand your framework (parent theme) set up.
What I am missing is a clear and concise demonstration how PliablePress (being the framework or parent theme) works in conjunction with any of your themes (which should be called child themes).
Can each or any of your child themes (so Chameleon would now be a child theme running off of PliablePress?) be further customized by using it as a ‘head start’ to create my own highly customized theme version running off of PliablePress? [-> similar to Catalystheme and their Dynamik Theme and Skins], or is PliablePress more comparable to Genesis in terms of its set up (Genesis being their framework, and their themes being their child themes, which have some limited customization capabilities)?
Just one last question: Your site (www.pliablepress.com) looks pretty neat…what theme out of the six available, was used to create it and how did you do it (coding required?).
Looking forward to your reply.
Cheers
Roland
10th March 2011
Michael Martin said:
Hi Roland,
Thanks, you’re completely right about the naming issues. The site is out-of-date in that regard, anywhere you see Chameleon, you can definitely substitute in “PliablePress Framework”
I’ll make sure to update that soon!
The relationship between the 2 is exactly as you said; the framework is the parent theme, and the rest are child themes.
The reason I list the framework too (Currently as “Chameleon”) is because you can use the parent theme by itself too. Originally, you couldn’t buy just the framework (Because it comes with every other theme anyway), but too many people were telling me it was an error and I’d left out the buy button there, so now you can.
Our customization runs somewhat similar to Genesis in that it focuses largely on using hooks and CSS. You can customize to whatever extent you like though (All of our themes were built off the one framework, and I think they show a good bit of variety in what’s possible)
As for this site itself; it wasn’t built on any of the themes. Some of the features here, e.g. the theme listings and support areas made coding this site from scratch easier. Always have to use the right tool for the job :)
Thanks,
Michael
12th March 2011