Next Generation WordPress Theme Design - Giraffe
By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News NetworkSunday, July 3, 2005
I came across the Giraffe Theme from Urban Design which is unique for several reasons.
To my knowledge it is the only theme which comes with an administrative for customizing colors, no of posts and other details:
- Change colour scheme
- Change font and font size
- Change whether to have a full-width lead post, or more traditional two-column layout
- Change page dimensions
- Configure number of lead posts, recent posts, random posts, and latest comments
- Switch logo on or off
The theme is innovative in its layout and positioning of content. It comes with its own support plugin and is localizable. It allows you to add items in the sidebar using an extra file.
Here are my suggestions for the theme author:
- Think about adding a link in the administrative interface to create/modify sidebar-extra.php.
- Think about activating the plugin automatically when the theme is activated. Why not just include the code in a directory within the theme and include it? That will make installation simpler. The WordPress plugin architecture is actually redundant for theme specific plugins.
In summary this how I like my theme to be. It has all the making of next generation WP Themes. Hopefully other theme authors will catch on soon. If you are looking to sell your wordpress themes then check out this theme for ideas.
|
February 7, 2010: 6:36 am
Yeah right thing for a new blogger into market i really enjoyed and found your post useful to me thanks and thumps up! |
|
October 15, 2009: 6:14 am
hey there, thanks and some great info on wordpress themes |
|
April 19, 2009: 2:41 pm
I’m going Annaconda hunting tonight. It sounds like an awesome template and just what I need. Many thanks. Andrew |
 Billy |
|
July 4, 2005: 11:43 am
Thanks. I want to include the database changes too, like starting with the plugins activated, certain links in blogroll etc. So I thought maybe I need to do something similar to what they do to make the blogroll pre-populated with Matt & others links. |
|
July 4, 2005: 10:56 am
Just zip it up with the hacks in the appropriate files, plugins in /wp-content/plugins/, and themes in /wp-content/themes/. I don’t think you need to do anything “special”. |
|
July 3, 2005: 11:35 pm
That sounds wonderful. I am sure many novice users would appreciate an easy way to change the blue-color of the theme. Frankly I would too. Which brings me to the thought. How can I package a WordPress installation with all my customizations? |
|
July 3, 2005: 10:06 pm
I believe that K2 (Kubrick v2) will contain a similar administrative interface, in the form of a WordPress options menu, when it is finished. |
Shubham Singh