Thesis 1.0 is Available Now!

Bruce — Crap, I just learned that the array_diff_key function isn’t supported in PHP 4. I’ve emailed you regarding an immediate fix for this issue.

Regarding the Mint and Analytics boxes, you can actually use them to insert any kind of script you want. Dunno why that never occurred to me before… If you need your code in the header, use the Mint box. If you need it in the footer, use the Analytics box.

Daniel — I just added some code that should fix your error. Try downloading the theme again, and if you want, simply overwrite the header_functions.php file that’s located inside your /lib/functions directory.

Graham — I should absolutely send an email out to the membership list… Dunno why I didn’t think of that! And regarding Neoclassical, I’ll probably transform that into a paid theme in the future, but I have two other platforms that I’m going to bring to market before that.

Casper — Based on your errors, I think it’s safe to conclude that on your hosting company’s server configuration, URL file access is disabled. This may be a setting that they can change for you at the server level; if it’s not, then I may be able to work with you on a custom fix.

In all honesty, though, a custom fix would be highly inefficient in this case. The reality of the situation is that disabling URL file access is a limiting disservice to users, and I honestly don’t see how some hosting companies think they can pull garbage like that and remain competitive. The mere fact that they’re “holding you back” would be enough for me to jump ship, but then again, I am probably a little more reactive to things like that than most

Oh, and regarding your question about changing the order of menu items, you can only change the order of your Pages in the first section of the nav menu. By assigning a unique numerical value to the Page Order field at the bottom of the Write Page screen in your WordPress dashboard, you can essentially dictate the order in which these pages will appear in your nav menu.

I just looked at your existing nav menu, and the best you could do with the new system is a menu with items in the following order (this assumes the use of a static home page as well):

• Home
• Bliss Blog (via the static home page feature—this would be your posts page)
• Ethos
• Contact
• Bliss List

Because of the way the menu is constructed, the Pages have to come before the category archive links. I realize this is not the “perfect” solution, and believe me—I hate to think that some users will view the current setup as worthless simply because it cannot accommodate their particular case. I’m always working towards a best-fit solution that will accommodate everyone, and hopefully, I’ll be able to offer a completely tweakable navigation menu in a forthcoming release.

In the meantime, you could simply comment out the call to the navigation constructor in header.php, and you could replace it with an include that contains your navigation links (like nav_menu_items.php from version 0.3):

include (TEMPLATEPATH . '/nav_menu_items.php');

Sasha — That is the natural behavior of 1.0 when you first upload it. In order to get everything working properly, you simply have to visit the Thesis Options page one time (because the visit triggers code that sets up all the default options). So essentially, all you had to do differently was stop by the options page for a second, and you would’ve been good to go. Frankly, I’m a little heartbroken that you weren’t dying to take a look at the new options panel! I kid, I kid

Fausto — That’s definitely not okay. Unless the Analytics code gets rendered in the HTML, there’s no way it can track your stats. I noticed that you were able to get the code into the footer; did it ultimately work via the options panel as it should have?

David — Thesis 1.0 does not contain that option. Originally, I toyed with the idea, but given the relative widths of all the elements in the theme, I think it makes more sense for me to release a completely separate 2-column version. I think it’s worth noting that I have a personal interest in producing a 2-column Thesis, simply because I much prefer 2-column layouts!

Karnatos — I don’t want to get too technical here, but overriding functions would likely require a call to wp_apply_filters to be present in the function that you’re trying to override. As it stands now, none of the default functions are equipped with that call, so that’s something you’d need to add yourself. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to add an add_filter call in /lib/launch.php to initiate your own function. And finally, all of this runaround leads me to one burning question—what did you want to change?

Jorge — One of the best features in Thesis 1.0 is the internationalization. I’ve set everything up to use text domains, so in theory, you could set up your own and implement it through a call to:

load_theme_textdomain('thesis');

in your /lib/launch.php file.

Because Thesis is a paid theme, it would only be possible for me to host separate language versions here on this site. However, I think that you can make text domains “pluggable,” so it’s quite possible that you could simply offer the text domain itself with instructions on how to activate it inside Thesis.

Either way, I’m open to any and all thoughts on the topic. Thesis was meant to be internationalized, and I honestly don’t know the best way to go about all that at the moment. I do know that your enthusiasm to perform a translation is excellent, though, so let’s see what we can do!

chris — The information shared on that site is not, in fact, the best way to organize your markup. Thesis features a more optimized setup that is based on research and techniques that I’ve explored over the last couple of years. If you like, you can read up on some background material in my series, SEO for everybody. Also, to get a better idea of the theory behind Thesis’ markup structure, you should check out the Definitive Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs.

I suppose it’s worth noting that a lot of the work I’ve done in the past on SEO-based markup has been well-cited throughout the Web, and I’m considered somewhat of an authority in the SEO markup space. I’m not offering up this info to boast; but rather, I just want you to rest assured that you’re in good hands with my markup!

Jon — In theory, yes, you can place rotating text in the multimedia box portion of the theme. In practice, however, this may prove difficult and ill-advised, especially since you said you don’t have much experience wrangling code.

Thesis 1.0 comes with 3 different setups for the multimedia box:

1. Rotating images
2. Embedded video
3. Custom code

The first two are pretty self-explanatory, but the third option, custom code, requires a little more detail. Essentially, you can enter any code you want into the box provided in the options panel, but you must stick to HTML and JavaScript (this is a natural limitation of the setup and not something I’ve imposed).

With the exception of using JavaScript to handle the text “rotation,” you actually cannot achieve the effect you’re after from within the options panel alone. In order to create what you’ve described, you’d have to involve the use of a separate .php file that randomizes whatever custom code you’d like to serve.

Of course, reading back over the last couple of paragraphs, it’s clear to me that this is not something you (or any other user, for that matter) are going to be stoked about doing. I think I may have just come up with a way to randomize snippets of code with relative ease, so I will likely explore that for the next release of the theme.

This is one of those things that you’re probably better off waiting on, but regardless, I bet that someone over in the forums can cook up a quick randomizer based on the old (and now deprecated) rotating_images.php file from older Thesis versions.