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:
Chameleon is our WordPress theme framework. It’s the system that all of our themes are built on (And a system that you yourself can take and build your own themes from).
Lately though, we’ve been wondering if we named it right. The name is cool and it shows our vision for the framework clearly (It can become whatever it wants to become), but is that clear to anyone who isn’t already familiar with it?
I’d love to get your response to a question, if you have a minute: When you first saw/heard of Chameleon, did you know what it was? (i.e. did you know that it was a framework, or did it seem like just another theme?)
Feedback from our customers is extremely important to me. Our two biggest developments in the past month, updates to Oracle and localization support, were both entirely down to suggestions from users.
If you have a minute, I’d love to get more feedback from you here. I’m going to be away for the next two weeks, but when I get back, it’s straight back to development work! And with that in mind, I want to know what features would you like me to work on first?
We’ve updated all of our themes today to offer full localization support. That means that you can now take any of our themes, and easily translate it into your own language.
The technical side of translating a theme is mostly straightforward (Though it will definitely help if you’re relatively comfortable with using computers). We’ve written a full guide on how to translate here, which will show you exactly how you can get started!
And when you’ve finished the translation, we’d love it if you shared the files with us. This means that everyone can benefit from your translation work. It allows us to open PliablePress up to whole new groups of people, and you’ll be credited for your work of course!
Hooks allow you to add content and plugins to your theme, without editing any of the core files (So you can safely upgrade your theme later without losing all of your customizations!)
For most users, you’ll find that the options panel and widgets page will let you do all the editing you need.
But if you’d like to do that bit extra to customize your site further, or install a few extra plugins to have it running exactly the way you want, then hooks are for you.
They’re fairly straightforward to use, and once you’ve added one, you’ll find the rest are a snap!
You can use the 3 new tutorials in our support section to find out more and learn how to start using hooks right now:
And if you have any trouble getting to grips with them, just post in the forum!
Oracle 1.1 final is out now, along with Chameleon 1.1.2, and an update to all of our other themes as well.
The best way to see the updates is to check out the new demo video which will show you just how easy it is to control your homepage now, as well as the funky features of the menu bar!
And for a list of what all is new, read on!
We’ve been working on a set of updates to Oracle. If you’ve been reading the forums or following us on Twitter, you’ll have a good idea of what these will include.
But in case not, here’s a quick overview; total (simple!) control over the posts on your homepage columns via the control panel, persistent dropdown navigation in the menus, 3rd level menu support, and full width page templates.
