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Thesis 1.3.3 is Available Now with Seamless Options Integration for WordPress 2.7

by Chris Pearson on December 30, 2008

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 due to Thesis compatibility, wait no more! Thesis 1.3.3 has arrived, and it now integrates perfectly with WordPress’ sexy new admin panel.

Download Thesis 1.3.3 (you must be logged in)

The changes in this release are minor and are mostly related to WordPress 2.7, but many of you will be happy to know that Thesis 1.3.3 is still backwards-compatible with WordPress 2.6+. Here’s what’s new in 1.3.3:

  • Options panels now display properly in the WP 2.7 admin interface, which is really just a fancy way of saying that the Big Ass Save Button has returned!
  • The Multimedia Box section of the Thesis Options page now contains a better description of the “custom code” option and how to make the most of it by leveraging the new hook that debuted in Thesis 1.3.2, thesis_hook_multimedia_box. Best of all, this dovetails nicely with a fantastic post from Sugarrae that will help you set up targeted affiliate ads with Thesis.
  • The comment form has been tweaked slightly to allow for full functionality with 2.7, and in addition, required fields (like name and email) are now marked with asterisks.
  • The introductory block at the top of archive pages (like this one) has been modified so that the entire #archive_info div is now hooked into place. This is a minor change, but it is one that makes creating more informative archive pages (like this one) much, much easier.
  • Thanks to user mavicus, Thesis’ 404 functionality now works for all bad URLs.
  • Tag links are no longer underlined by default. The primary reason for this change is that when you have a series of links, underlines become visually dominant. Since tags are a secondary type of content (while the post itself is primary), it makes sense to lessen their visual impact.

Special thanks go out to our resident ninja, Rick Beckman, who is pretty much solely responsible for finding out which things needed to be changed to work best with WordPress 2.7! If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to his feed in order to get even more info on Thesis, WordPress, and ways to max out your site.

Oh, and you’ve definitely subscribed to the Thesis theme feed, right?

{ 2 trackbacks }

Posts about Wordpress 2.7 as of December 31, 2008 | The Lessnau Lounge
December 31, 2008 at 11:55 am
Thesis version 1.3.3 is live | Binary Turf
January 1, 2009 at 4:12 am

{ 34 comments }

Johnathan December 30, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Great. Thanks for this Chris. I have to admit I was a little disappointed that the download which greeted me was 1.3.3 and not 1.4 (formerly known as Cosmo). I hope this doesn’t mean we won’t see 1.4 this month as we have been eagerly waiting for 4 months now.

Thanks again. Thesis rocks.

Matej December 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm

When’s “Cosmo” coming out, you promised it 2-3 months ago! :( nice update btw …

Kate Foy December 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm

Ditto. 1.4 late, late, late. Getting tired of waiting.

Geoff December 30, 2008 at 1:20 pm

I’d love to see the design panel become a plugin which would be used by any theme which was compatible.

Lisa Firke December 30, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Great work, as ever.

Chris Pearson December 30, 2008 at 2:59 pm

1.4 is currently under construction. The development challenge has proven a little more difficult than I initially anticipated, simply because integrating this new functionality with the existing layout options is not just an “add-on” task.

One of the biggest issues is the following: let’s say you’re using a 2-column layout that is 857 pixels wide. Now, if you incorporate magazine style features into that layout, the home page (with magazine features) must also be 857 pixels wide (or else your header image will go wonky in one of the two settings). But what if you want 3-column functionality on the home page and 2-column functionality on the interior, all while having the unmatched flexibility of the new Thesis Feature box?

Even if you don’t fully understand what I’ve mentioned above, I’m sure you can see why getting all of these independent parts to work together in a non-destructive way is quite a challenge.

Now, with that said, I’d like to shed some light on the Thesis Feature box that I mentioned above. You’re going to be able to use this new element in one of two ways. First, you can opt for a full-on magazine style layout (3 columns on the home page, 2 on interior posts/pages) that will allow you to use the feature box however you like—full-width, one column, or two-column span. Second, you can keep your existing layout (1, 2, or 3-columns) and simply integrate the feature box either as a full-width item or within your content column.

The top-level logic required to pull off this layout trickery is pretty intense, and I’m doing the best I can to work through it as quickly as possible. With that said, you can expect to see the Thesis Feature box in 1.4 along with blocks for listing posts from various categories (along with associated thumbnails, which will finally be used).

Kate Foy December 30, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Good news Chris, and thanks for the response. Good luck with the tweaks. If anyone can do it, you will.
Happy New Years.

Seshu December 30, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Chris

This is great news. Thanks for the update. So looking forward to what can come next with your awesome theme!

Seshu
On Twitter: @seshuthephotog

Lisa Firke December 30, 2008 at 4:02 pm

Chris, I do have an idea what all this means and it’s a tremendous undertaking. You are breaking significant new ground. I can’t wait to start experimenting with it — well, I CAN wait, because I know you need to get it right before you release it. But I am eager. You go, boy.

Once 1.4 is out, I think that will be a perfect time to launch my “Thesis Statement” package. (This will be a bundle of custom design and set-up services for those who would prefer not to DIY.) I’ll keep you posted.

Joi December 30, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Thanks for the upgrade ! Word Press has been upgrading like mad lately, I’m sure it keeps you hopping. All this extra work you do for us, after the sale, is greatly appreciated. And rare.

Thanks!

thecandytrail December 30, 2008 at 10:27 pm

Looking forward to 1.4; exciting developments. Nice work. Thanks.

Regards - MRP

Jonathan December 30, 2008 at 10:58 pm

Thanks for this update. Looking forward to v1.4.

Mike December 31, 2008 at 5:51 am

Just love the thesis updates and the better integration into 2.7. Keep up the hard work.

Shopoholic December 31, 2008 at 6:49 am

It would be awesome if the thumbnail function for Thesis 1.4 could automatically use the first post in each post as a thumbnail. That would really simplify things, and also it would mean that we don´t have to go back and create thumbnails for posts once it is released.

Then again..this feature might be really hard to implement?

Anyway…
Thanks for this year Chris,
and happy new year!

Glark December 31, 2008 at 4:41 pm

Does this update support either 2.7’s comment pagination or comment reply indentation?

Alex December 31, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Just bought Thesis and I’m already glad I did after just looking in the options panel. I’ve been worried for a long time about buying it because the exchange rate isn’t exactly hot between the US and UK right now (I missed the Black Friday Sale >_<), but I took the plunge and as I said, I’m glad I did.

Thanks a lot for delivering a great framework, quality support and continuous updates. Keep it up and Happy New Year.

Cathy | Healing Graphics January 1, 2009 at 11:16 am

I don’t see anywhere if you have a purchase option for re-sellers? I’d like to help people with this theme style it just so. Or re-sell the theme with cool styles. Your thoughts?

Cathy Tibbles
Mommy Motivation(my personal site) is using this theme. I love it!

Garrison January 1, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Chris, I’m liking the sound of the Feature box. Will this be what I think it will be? i.e. showcasing ‘featured’ posts? If so then I hope it will not rely on using a special category for it to work.

Simply Mike January 1, 2009 at 12:20 pm

Thanks for the update Chris (and Rick).

Your support of Thesis is even more than I ever expected and your imagination in where you’re taking us is unequaled.

Like Paul Thorn would say, when I use Thesis, “I have a good day.” Google his MySpace and listen if you don’t know him.

Your plan for 1.4 sounds awesome. Thanks for taking us where no other themes dare to go !

Lisa January 1, 2009 at 3:13 pm

Thanks for the update, Chris. Great work as always. Plus, I was missing the “big ass save button” ;)

Michael January 1, 2009 at 7:52 pm

Chris,

I’ve just celebrated the first anniversary of my cycling blog Velodramatic.com and I’ve reached a crossroads where the current theme and it’s idiosyncrasies have become a liability.

Apologies for attaching a comment to this thread but I have a few presales questions for you about the very promising thesis infrastructure. Would you mind sending me an email so I can send you a few questions

many thanks

John H. Farr January 2, 2009 at 1:54 pm

I’ve been trying for a couple of days to download the latest version of Thesis. I keep requesting for my password to be sent to me, but nothing arrives.

FWIW, I have a developer’s license. Can’t login, though. Please help! :-)

Guillermo January 5, 2009 at 8:25 pm

I have the impression (may be wrong, but my impression after all) that Thesis developers and support avoid replying to the simple and straight question “Are you going to support WP2.7 comment pagination and reply?” both here and at the forum.

My guess is they will not support it, and that’s ok. It’s their product and they can support any features they like. But most of us are their customers and I suppose we have the right to know what their plans are, so we can decide if we want to go on with Thesis or want to go out and buy some other theme out there.

It’s easy Chris… You can tell “No. I’ll never support that”, “Yes, but I’m planning to do it in Thesis 2.0 which I plan to code by December 2015″ or any other thing you like. Anything simple and straight.

Just a thought. Have a good night.

Liz Jamieson January 6, 2009 at 11:26 am

Chris. I wanted to thank you for Thesis - and especially for the latest version. I never thought I would have the time to learn how to create my own Wordpress Theme. Because of Thesis, I haven’t had to! I am SO pleased with my latest customisation, and it’s all thanks to you.

Chris Pearson January 7, 2009 at 10:55 am

Guillermo — Comment pagination and replies will definitely be supported; I suspect they’ll make it into the release after the next update, which will either be called 1.4 or 2.0.

Kieran January 9, 2009 at 8:21 am

I’m still DESPERATE for a category page hook so I can customize how they look.

Pleeeeease. :(

Jon Soroko January 9, 2009 at 9:15 am

Chris and all,
Since most of this is over my head, I can’t speak to others’ needs for 1.4 I’m still trying to work out other details - in order to get Thesis on my site. So for my purposes - I’ll take it when it’s ready. Also - at the risk of giving offense - my guess is that Chris is working on it with his normal perfectionism. People who need it sooner, I think, probably know better than I do about what advantages 1.4 will bring. Perhaps my ignorance prevents me from being impatient.

Libidonous January 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm

Chris, can you reveal the list of new modifications and new features of the next release (or the next update). Are there any massive changes in structure?. Thx ;)

Libidonous January 9, 2009 at 12:45 pm

sorry for double post but I would like to know one more thing. Will the language files .mo and .po be supported?

maleos January 12, 2009 at 6:48 am

can i used it with wordpress 2.6 ? or i should upgrade it first?

Chris Pearson January 12, 2009 at 12:06 pm

Kieran — You don’t need a separate categories hook to target and modify your category pages. If you want to have content show only on category pages, you simply need to apply the is_category conditional to the function that you’re “hooking” into place:

function custom_category_function() {
    if (is_category()) {
        if (is_category($cat_slug)) {
            // Your code here
        }
    }
}

The outer is_category() call makes it so that the function will only run on category archive pages. The interior is_category() call is optional and is only used to target an individual category without affecting all your other category pages.

To illustrate this concept completely, let’s look at a quick example. In this case, let’s say that we want to change the intro text at the top of all of our category archive pages (example here). Here’s what you would need to add to your custom_functions.php file to make it happen:

function custom_category_function() {
    if (is_category()) {
?>
<div id="archive_info">
    <p>W00T! This is a category page!</p>
    <h1><?php single_cat_title() ?></h1>
</div>
<?php
    }
    else
        thesis_default_archive_info();
}

remove_action('thesis_hook_archive_info', 'thesis_default_archive_info');
add_action('thesis_hook_archive_info', 'custom_category_function');

The action calls at the end of the above code do two things. First, we’re un-hooking the original archive information block because we’re going to replace it with one that allows us to target categories specifically. Next, we’re going to hook our new function into the same location via the add_action command.

For your purposes, you’ll want to modify the HTML that appears in the block above. You can serve anything you want in there—seriously, the sky is the limit. Check out Sugarrae’s customized Affiliate Marketing category page for a prime example of a pimped-out category page that is constructed using Thesis’ hooks.

Chris Pearson January 12, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Libidinous — The feature list changes as I get new ideas and actually get into the coding process. Sometimes, things only make sense in particular contexts, so that plays into my inability to generate a concrete list of features. Don’t worry, though—when the next version is released, you’ll be apprised of all the new goodies that actually made it into that release.

Regarding language translations, I’m hoping to make that a reality in 2 updates’ time.

maleos — Thesis 1.3.3 is compatible with WordPress 2.6, so you can upgrade without fear of breaking anything.

Matt January 13, 2009 at 12:05 pm

Any update on the expected release date for 1.4? Thanks.

Tim Glase January 14, 2009 at 6:54 am

Folks-

I have switching to Thesis on my to-do list for the Spring.

In the past I was relegated to WP 2.0.5 and Pearson’s Neoclassical theme. Now, I recently customized Pearson’s Cutline theme for my current site and moved to WP 2.7. I’m in my first month with the new site. But to date, I’ve never topped 14% in terms of visitors coming through Search Engines. I always get 86-92% through Direct Links/Bookmarks.

How much will Thesis improve that 14% figure? Or, is there something else I’m completely missing? Your honesty is appreciated. Thanks!

Tim

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