Neil Merton

Web2.0* In The Top10

I just noticed that my Web2.0* Wordpress Theme has managed to sneak into the Top10 list on Wordpress Theme Viewer website!

So, a BIG thank you to every one for rating it so positively - it is much appreciated.

Update: it seems that shortly after taking this screenshot the website stopped using it’s rating system. Oh well… at least the theme is nearing 4,000 downloads.

Web2.0* Wordpress Theme Updated

Well, I’ve finally managed to get my Web2.0* Wordpress theme to utilise AJAX commenting. I’ve also cleaned up alot of the code on the comments.php page.

I strongly recommend that you re-download the theme and reply it.

The theme has now had over 2,000 downloads - so a big thank you to everyone. Could I request that if you are using the theme that you rate it? That would be greatly appreciated.

Update 26 January 2007: There was a problem with displaying the links.php page when used with Wordpress 2.1 - this has now been fixed. If you don’t want to replace the whole page then download the updated page.

Update 28 January 2007: Another small update to the theme - more work done to try ensure that the theme is Wordpress 2.1 compliant and I’ve also added more option to the Admin area on the sidebar (see image below).

Update 26 March 2007: One more small update - this time to do with IE7 and the drop down menu. So if you’re experiencing problems do re-download and apply the theme.

Update 28 March 2007: Found that the comments page was a little screwy - this has been fixed in the latest version (1.2.5). Thanks to Hasan for the tip about automatically pulling the post’s author email address so that it isn’t hard-coded any more.

Widgets Category and Children Display

After updating my Web2.0 theme to include ‘Widgets’ support I noticed that by default the widgets ‘Category’ display doesn’t display children categories properly. There’s an easy fix for this. For version 1.0.20060711 locate line 919 and change the wp_list_cats to the following:

<?php wp_list_cats("sort_column=name"); ?>

That will then display children categories underneath the parent category.

Web2.0* Wordpress Theme Available

Well, as promised, I’ve released the Web2.0* Wordpress theme to the general public.

I would love to hear from you if you are using it.

Update 23 October 2006:
I found a few issues with the theme when viewing in Internet Explorer 7. These have now been rectified.

Update 11 November 2006:
Wow, the theme has had over a 1,000 downloads since releasing it. My thanks goes out to all.

Update 12 November 2006:
I’ve amended the ‘footer.php’ to be more dynamic - if you don’t feel like re-downloading simply update line 3 to:

<p>Copyright &copy; <?php echo date("Y"); ?> <?php bloginfo('name') ?>

Update 26 November 2006:
Fixed the page link display and did alot of cleaning-up.

Update 04 December 2006:
The theme now supports ‘Widgets‘. If you need to utilise these then I highly recommend that you redownload and apply the theme. If not then you can safely ignore this update.

All further updates are now viewable at this post.

First Public Wordpress Theme

I’m currently working on a Wordpress theme that will be released to the general public.

Here’s a screenshot of the progress being made:

The inspiration for the theme is Web 2.0 - please let me know what you think to the theme so far.

Update (13th Sept 2006): The theme is looking great in Firefox - just got to work on getting it right in Internet Explorer.

Custom Wordpress Theme

It’s taken a while, but I achieved my goal I set for myself this weekend: to complete my first custom Wordpress theme for the website. And to top it all I’m actually very happy with the outcome!

Saying this I’ve not yet implemented any of my WP To-do List - I’ll get round to those two items in September.

How did I find creating a custom theme from scratch? Not back actually. Kudos goes to the Wordpress team for making such an easy-to-theme application - the Codex helped immensely when trying to find out which ‘tag’ to use to get the desired result.

What’s my favourite part of the theme? It’s got to be the Admin Bar (not that you see it as it’s only visible when the admin person is logged in). When logged in the About text is replaced by administration options. To get an idea of what I mean have a look at the screenshot below (animated):

What would my tips be for anyone wishing to create a custom theme? Here they are:

1. Have a look through the code of other themes you like the functionality of - quite often someone has already done what you’d like to achieve.
2. Search the Codex site - it has ALL the answers.
3. Persevere - it’s worth it in the end!

Finally, if anyone has any questions about how I achieved anything on the theme please feel free to either leave a comment, or use the contact page - I’ll happily try to answer your questions.

I’ve tested the theme in Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5.0.6 and Opera 9.01 (all on Windows) - if you’re a Mac user please let me know if there seems to be any oddities when viewing the theme. Thanks.

WP: To-do List

I thought I’d write a to-do list for myself while I’m creating my custom WP theme (yip, I’m finally making the time to create my own theme). I’ll add to this as and when I find items to incorporate. Hopefully this list will inspire others to make their Wordpress site more effective!

1. Create a Custom Database Error Page.
2. Implement Ajax Commenting.

If you know of any Wordpress enhancements that are essential please leave me a comment.

TemplateMonster Wordpress Themes

Just noticed that TemplateMonster is offering a few FREE themes for Wordpress.

Go check ‘em out now, they’re actually quite good! Update: they’re not good at all. These are fine examples of someone trying to code like accessible-aware coders, but not understanding the reasoning behind why it is done.