As of version 1.3, Thesis is capable of producing nearly every useful, basic HTML markup structure. This has massive implications, simply because it is now possible to recreate almost any design by using a deft combination of custom styles (custom.css), images, and functions (custom_functions.php). Just last week, I demonstrated this amazing flexibility by adapting the award-winning Pearsonified design to the Thesis framework.
That’s compelling stuff, but how does it relate to Cosmo? Well, for starters, I’m sure that many of you (perhaps all of you!) assumed that Cosmo was going to be a completely different theme from Thesis—a magazine-style theme, if you will. Originally, I shared this same assumption, but in the last few weeks, I’ve realized that Cosmo cannot justifiably be released as a separate theme.
On a functional level, Cosmo only does one thing differently than Thesis. It allows you to control the display of your home page rather than being tied to the reverse-chronological list of recent posts that typifies most blogs. Outside of this home page control, however, Cosmo’s functionality would literally be identical to that of Thesis.
When you think about Cosmo in this manner, you quickly realize that the only sensible solution here is to build home page control into Thesis. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here; I’m just going to make the wheel better.
I know you’ve all been waiting patiently for Cosmo to be released, and on that note, you’ll be happy to know that the next major Thesis update is going to contain home page layout and display controls. Effectively, this is going to be the first release of Cosmo, but we’re not going to change Thesis’ name to reflect that fact.
All Thesis users are going to have access to this functionality at no additional cost, so if you were worried about having to pay more for “Cosmo,” worry no more.
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Awesome! I’m excited to see it, and that all Thesis users will have access to it! Thanks!
Thanks Chris. Sounds awesome. I love digging through the Thesis code to see what you’re up to.
Fantastic! Thank you Chris for all your work.
Well, this is definitely going to be new news (sorry for the redundance) for a lot of people. Excellent to have a true update on Cosmo to refer to.
Super news Chris. Looking forward to it.
Well I’m totally stoked with the latest release of Thesis and so glad I hitched my web aspirations to your talented little wagon; plus the support on the forum is superb.
Thanks for all the hard work!
Better that great news. I’ve been messing around with custom functions a lot lately to get my front page the way I want. Hopefully with the next release of thesis it won’t be such a pain
Chris, very efficient! I actually like this solution better than having a separate theme. Looking forward to 1.4! Keep up the great work!
This is a good development, because it will save the time otherwise spent in learning the new theme.
I had wondered if the increase in design features under Thesis was leading toward a merger of Thesis and Cosmo.
Chris,
Thanks for the update. Question. I never upgraded from 1.1 since I thought Cosmo was going to be a separate theme. Will I have to go through the progression of 1.2 and 1.3 to catch up to the latest release?
You should consider releasing a screenshot “teaser” of the upcoming changes for us casual observers.
Robert — You can jump straight into 1.3, but just make sure that you do a completely clean install (don’t attempt to overwrite your old
/thesisfolder).Sounds very good, but… When I bought into Thesis during the “special offer” period, I thought I’d be getting another theme to use as part of the deal. If Cosmo is effectively the next release of Thesis, then your personal license means I can only use it on one site, whereas under the original offer, I could have had Thesis on one and Cosmo on another – which is what I was planning to do.
Your “special offer” doesn’t look so special, in that light. Perhaps you could consider revising the personal license for people who bought during your offer period?
On the other hand, I remain very happy with Thesis and its continuing progress – and the excellent support community around it. Congrats…
Thanks for the update, Chris. I suspected that the developments in Thesis (best WP theme ever!!) were leading toward a merger with Cosmo. Looking forward to it. Thanks for all hard work.
Marvelous Chris. Can’t wait.
Stupid question: How do I add my own photos to the upper right-hnd corner of Thesis?
This is such exciting news! I was slow to adopt Thesis because I could only justify buying one “premium” theme — but couldn’t decide whether to go for Thesis or for a “magazine style” format — which one would be most useful for the greatest number of blogs, down the road. After the first 10 minutes with Thesis, I knew I’d made the right choice. Now, by adding the option to make a magazine style front page to Thesis, you’re certainly raising the bar even higher for other theme developers. Looking forward to the Cosmo integration!
As Gareth stated above, it would be fair that anyone who purchased Thesis in the ‘special offer’ period would have the ability to use it on another site.
Gotta agree with Gareth and Aleksander. I love Thesis, but I only bought because of the special offer, thinking I’d be able to revamp both of my blogs – the second one when Cosmo came out. I wouldn’t have spent money otherwise.
I have loved all the changes that I have seen in Thesis thus far. I can’t wait for the next release.
Chris, you are freak bro! I’m well pleased with my investment. One of the best blogging decisions I ever made. here’s to the the freak of nature known as Chris! Cheers!
I really appreciate the positive reactions as well as the patience and understanding that you guys have shown. Just to tie up loose ends, I wanted to go ahead and say that for those of you who purchased Thesis during the Cosmo promotion, feel free to go ahead and outfit your second site how you see fit. I don’t want to leave folks feeling like they got a raw deal in any way, especially since the ultimate goal here is simply to deliver the best product possible!
Chris, you rock. Thanks.
Will future purchasers of Thesis theme get Cosmo package included, as well?
Whoo Hoo!!
Mark — Yes, absolutely!
That is perfect NEWS! This means we can easily take advantage of all the options in 1 place!
One theme to learn
One way to customize
Any style site!!!!
NICE!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Chris. Good solution. Looking forward to seeing the new tools – and the design overlays sound very interesting…
Cheers
Ok, I’m not a big tech geek but i know what I like and this looks both simple and very nice – and I’m starting to comprehend the intelligence re: the underlying framework.
But… I’m still a little clueless here.
If I buy this, I’d probably want to use it on multiple sites. And, if I use it on multiple sites, I’d want to spice (at least the original) one up with maybe a different theme and header graphics.
I saw where you said the html was such that any theme could be used with it and I’m wondering where, on your site, can I read more about harnessing this baby’s full power?
Thanks!
Sam Freedom
Thanks Chris. Keep up the good job.
Big thumbs up from me. I would MUCH rather one more versitle theme framework for our blog vs two with a scattering of features.
Just pimp out Thesis as much as possible and ill be happy!
Sam — To clarify, Thesis does not run other existing WordPress themes. What I’m saying is that if you were so inclined, you could recreate the design of almost any existing WordPress theme on the Thesis framework.
That was really just a fancy way for me to illustrate how flexible Thesis is, so I apologize for any confusion that may have caused.
Chris,
Will I be able to create a “magazine/newspaper type theme” with the 1.4 version? I am from the Cosmo camp in that I specifically got in on the promo to add Cosmo so being able to have a magazine theme is important. Will that be possible in a “Revolution” type format?
Robert — Yes.
Thanks for the quick reply Chris. Let me be what looks like the first to ask, is there an ETA on 1.4?
Robert — Officially, there is no ETA on 1.4, but if the past is any indicator, there’s a significant chance it’ll happen within the next 3–5 weeks. Here is the data on the last four major Thesis updates:
Ultimately, I’m aiming for a release date in the last half of November, which would fall at right about the four week mark.
Thanks Chris
Gave you some linky love here, Chris.
Robert, if it’s any consolation, every morning I either call or IM Chris and say “I want Cosmo!”
Not sure if it helps or hurts, but at least you know I’m on it.
I bought Thesis after the special offer for use on my Concierge organization’s website. Does this mean that the next update to Thesis will be basically be Cosmos or will we have to purchase it?
Also, I am not clear, if the new update can be used on more than one site.
Hi Clara. Chris answered both of those above in the comments, but you may not have seen that. Here are the answers:
Cosmo will be included in Thesis 1.4 (the next update).
You don’t have to purchase anything additional.
A personal Thesis membership will allow you to use the regular Thesis format on one site, and the Cosmo magazine style on a second site.
Chris – thanks for clarifying re: themes and thesis…
Now, for my next discombobulation – let me see if I understand this:
Cosmo is the underlying framework and thesis is the theme?
Did I get that right? I know you write to people who are mostly already understanding of these things but I’d love a small section called “breakin it all down” where there’s like 1 paragraph that explains each component of all that this involves.
I have to do similarly for newbies in internet marketing because I have to assume they aren’t anywhere near my understanding of it.
If not, that’s ok, but that’s my wish.. .thanks..
Sam
Thanks for the news,
as you are a great at letting the “framework do the job”, are you planning to include functions like automatic image extraction for “featured post” – or do you think that custom keys are the way to go?
Just a sneak peak
Sam — That’s incorrect, simply because you’re still thinking of Cosmo as a “thing,” and in reality, Cosmo does not exist as a separate “thing.”
As I explain in this post, “Cosmo” is nothing more than a code name given to the home page layout and design controls. Originally, it was thought that Cosmo would be a separate theme, and that’s why we gave it a name. However, as development on Thesis has progressed, it’s become clear that there is no need for a separate theme.
Thesis will perform all of the functions that Cosmo would have performed (and then some). For your clarification, Thesis is the underlying framework and the only theme I’m addressing here—it’s going to do everything described in the post and subsequent comments.
derFrankie — In all likelihood, Thesis will offer both automatic image extraction and custom field usage to designate a thumbnail for a particular post. The automatic function will likely behave in a manner similar to the multimedia box, and you’ll be able to turn it off via the Thesis Options panel.
Chris P: I’ve been on the road and haven’t had time to play with the new toys yet, but I just wanted to pop my head in here to say I’m so proud for you. I’m glad to have been on the Thesis project from nearly the beginning. Fun watching it grow.
Give it to us already… I’m updating to 1.3 right now because the last time I updated my site you came out with another update two days later… So here goes the smoking the cigarette only to have to put it out because my entree arrived.
Well, I’m totally excited. I had to buy the developer’s license because after trying Thesis, the other themes were very unintuitive and I just kept thinking of how I could do it better with Thesis. I own all the Revolution themes, but hate to work with them – they just don’t want to be flexible in the way Thesis is.
I am thrilled to know that with my developer’s license I’ll be able to use a magazine-style layout on all of my blogs if I so choose. This is a fantastic solution and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you so much for the awesome product.
Chris, like cutline, have you added the xhtml sitemap, here too ? or, planning to do so?
Thanks for the update Chris. I’ve been dying to get my hands on Cosmo as my venture is an online magazine. I’m even more excited to hear that while it will actually become part of Thesis I will be able to use it on a second site since it was purchased as part of the promotion.
Keep up the great work. Cosmo can’t get here soon enough!
Rick
dinu — Neither Google nor I recommend the use of an XHTML sitemap anymore, so I won’t be including that in the theme.
Rick — Don’t call it Cosmo! You’ll confuse the n00bz
That’s right! How soon I forget. I meant to say “Thesis 1.4″! Old habits die hard….
Rick
Chris, will Thesis 1.4 be localise-ready?
Aleksander — There’s a slim chance that 1.4 will be completely localized, but I’m thinking it probably won’t end up happening. The release after 1.4 (either 1.5 or 2.0) will likely be the first completely localized version of the theme.
Hi Chris
Do you have any roadmap, like when 1.4 will came out?
Chris – FYI, I wondered what happened to copyblogger. In IE 7 copyblogger’s left sidebar bleeds over into the content panel and the writing in the content panel bleeds over into the right sidebar. But everythings fine in FireFox. What’s ^?
I may as well chime in. I’m not disappointed that the magazine-style theme will be a super-tweak of what you’ve built up Thesis to be, rather than a whole ‘nother theme. It means that everything I’ve learned in Thesis so far is even more applicable than before. Whatever you call it, I’m sure it will be great!
Maybe I should fool around with another, “non-premium” theme, just so I can appreciate the stability and completeness of Thesis, and have more of a frame of comparison.
Naaaah.
I agree with Rick. I had been anticipating Cosmo, but thinking, “I really hope it’s as awesome as Thesis.” Now, I know it will be.
Hey, I’m excited about the-theme-formerly-known-as-Cosmo, and I understand the concept, but seeing even some rough screen shots would really help me sell the theme to my partners.
A magazine-type theme would be perfect for our project, and your groovy SEO and typography has sold me, but a visual would help sell this to my friends. Thanks!
Lookin’ forward to it, dude !
Glad all we’ve found out about Thesis will be added to, instead of having to learn all that over again.
The best part is one theme is being made into all we need … ever.
Why in the heck do some theme “designers (?)” pump out a new theme every few days and never work to make the one’s they have actually work.
We don’t need more, we need better themes.
More functionality, not different colors.
More usability, not more to choose from.
Thanks for Thesis … especially 1.4 and beyond.
If we can’t call it Cosmo, can we call it Maxim
Gary — The display issues in IE7 are a product of the text size setting in the browser. In a couple of specific instances (not every Windows machine, strangely enough), the theme renders inconsistent text sizes, and that’s what you’re seeing. Ironically, Brian (the Copyblogger himself) experienced this problem, and this was actually the catalyst behind the forthcoming interstitial release, version 1.3.2. Essentially, the major component of this update is a fix to the IE7 rendering weirdness.
Wanting to grow out of cutline and Thesis looks like the answer. One simple question I did not see addressed: Is there a simple way to create rounded
corners with Thesis?
I am pretty sure that I would like to run my whole site with thesis and have a “blog” tab on my home page. I am hoping that I can use the cosmo options to change the look of the home page and still be seamless with the blog side. What I don’t understand is, can I still have separate html extension files like sales, disclaimer, and privacy policy pages on the same domain but separate from wordpress? I looked for a way to load HTML and php pages on another site run by wordpress and could not make it work. Please help me understand if this can be accomplished, and if so, then how.
Jonathan — Your best bet would actually be to recreate your other pages (sales, disclaimer, etc.) as WordPress Pages; that way, you’ll be able to manage everything from one location, and you won’t have to worry about the potential implementation issues.
You can create any kind of page you want for any purpose, so in my opinion, it doesn’t make sense not to use WordPress to handle this.
Hey Chris, thanks for the quick response. I sell digital products and use a security program called DLGuard which requires that all sales pages have a php extension. I could put these on a separate domain if need be. Can thesis support this Format?
Jonathan — WordPress allows you to set your file extensions, so you can actually force
.phponto the end of your standard URLs. For instance, under this setup, your sales page would end up with the following URL:Is that the result you’re after?
Thanks Chris – Yes, that should work. Even though I’ve been using cutline for about a year, I just discovered this site. Already, so many of my questions have been answered how could I not go for thesis. The pointers and support are exactly what I’ve been looking for. With about 200 posts, going back and setting up categories the right way looks daunting. Better sooner than later though. If I do that before I change themes will it make the transition easier or will I need to redo anyway?
Chris, one more quick one. Can a page tab be turned into a link to a different URL? I have tried unsuccessfully to alter the code to make this happen. It looks like it might be possible, is it?
Hi Chris,
I am hoping to buy Thesis 1.4 as I am interested in the magazine features you have planned. Any update on the ETA?
I have my CC warm and ready!
Paul
Thanks very much for your work! I love digging through the Thesis code to see what you’re up to.
Hey Chris – Ignore the last two posts! Got thesis, it’s up and running and so far so good. It’s strange but my RSS subscribers jumped by 20% after one day, go figure. Still lots of code questions but reworking my categories will keep me busy for a few days.
I cannot wait for Cosmo [Thesis 1.4] and wondered if you have a ‘rough’ idea when it might be available. I am working on a new site which would fit in a magazine Thesis style brilliantly, and want to launch it in December.
I have a feeling the upcoming wordpress 2.7 release will delay Thesis 1.4 even more….I read on a blog that Thesis’ option pages are not compatible w/ WP2.7…. Those option pages are the heart of the current and new thesis….
Am I right, Chris?
Tim — WordPress 2.7 loads up CSS styles for admin panels a little differently than prior versions of WordPress. The required “fix” will take only a few minutes to implement, so ultimately, no, you’re not really right
Darren — Although 1.4 is in development now, I’ll be vacationing in Europe from Dec. 2–16. As a result, the new version of theme won’t see the light of day until after I return, but in the meantime, I highly recommend checking out the new Thesis OpenHook plugin.
Rick Beckman (KingdomGeek on the forums) has put together a remarkably easy and efficient plugin that allows you to use hooks without writing a single line of code. Essentially, the plugin reduces the hooking process to nothing more than copy and paste, so it’s just another tool you can use to lower the barrier to remarkable customization.
Well that’s good news then….I knew that would get us a peep out of you…so how’s it going?
Really looking forward to 1.4…
Hey Chris…
Before you take off, any chance we can get a “fix” beforehand? I’m thinking of upgrading a thesis site to 2.7 beta 3 – The official release will prob’ly be out before 12/16…
Hi Chris,
I meant January, rather than December, but thank you for the update and I will look into the plugin you’ve mention. Are you going anywhere nice in Europe?
Hi Chris,
Any news on a realistic Cosmo release date? The last I heard was just before the year-end… Or has the project been cancelled altogether?
Cheers,
Max
Max: “Cosmo” as a separate product has been nixed; rather than release a separate theme, it has been decided to add all of the planned “Cosmo” features into the Thesis theme, creating one super-powerful theme framework. These features will be introduced in Thesis 1.4 which is development at the moment. Based on what I’ve seen and heard from Chris, I’d say we’re rapidly approaching the release date, but nothing *certain* has been publicized.
Thanks for your interest and patience.
Thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the release… (we) have been waiting since September 2008 for it.
I won’t even ask for a date no more