Changelogs

Basics 0.2.8.2

1. Change version number for stylesheet call : *?v=0.2.9″* **[header.php]**
2. Add *.left*, *.right*, *.center* and *.justify* with *text-align: xxx* property for text/img alignment **[markup.css]**
3. Change indentations and some comments **[markup.css]**

Beyond Basics 0.2.3

1. Add <aside>’s *#sidebar-0* and *#sidebar-4* to wrap two <section>’s in **[sidebar.php]**, **[home.php]**
2. Change .sidebars to .sidebar in *#sidebar-0* and *#sidebar-4* **[sidebar.php]**
3. Fix some CSS to match with 1. et 2. above **[author.css]**
4. Fix collapsing top menu *#widget-area-1* for old IE’s (.oldie) **[author.css]**

In short:

• Optimize the way the sidebars are loaded,
• Turn searchform.php into a PHP function by filtering the original hook,
• Close the self-closing HTML tags with a slash to be more consistent with the XHTML5 way (in order to make Basics and Beyond Basics parsable with XML tools),
• Improve the author.css of Beyond Basics.

From the beginnings, Basics is build to be used with a Child theme. Since the former version, Basics comes with Beyond Basics. After some tests, I planned many enhancements in order to make the Parent theme and the Child theme more complementary. Globally, I decreased the number of files included in Basics by moving some specific files to Beyond Basics.

I have worked to make Basics more flexible by turning some hard coding into functions to make customizations more easier, especially concerning Javascript libraries and other scripts authors may want to add to fit their personnal needs. By the way, I have moved a lot of files to a brand new Child theme named Beyond Basics. The Parent theme Basics gains in simplicity!

PS: Don’t be afraid: minus the mark up for the logo and some removals like .ir or .visuallyhidden classes, the skeleton is still the same for now.

Basics changelogs

Last modified on 20/09/2011 – 00:37 by Bruno Bichet

For Those About to Rock… Fire!

Release 0.2.7.1 – 20/09/2011 – 00:37

1. Change version number for stylesheet call : ?v=0.2.7.1″ [header.php]
2. Edit paths to URL of favicons in basics_favicon() to make it work [inc/functions-display.php]
3. Rename basicsfavicon() to basicsfavicons() [inc/functions-display.php], [header.php]
4. Move [404.php] to Child Theme Beyond Basics
5. Change case to some .txt files : CHANGELOG.txt HUMANS.txt, README.txt, LICENSE.txt
6. Make some cosmetic changes to HUMANS.txt
7. Add basics_search_autofocus() to print autofocus attribute to Search form when the user is in search context
8. Edit README.txt to reflect the changes brought by the Child Theme Beyond Basics

Release 0.2.7 – 19/09/2011

1. Minor changes in comments [style.css] [markup.css]
2. Change hook (widgets_init instead of init) for registering basics_widgets_init() function [functions.php]
3. Wrap some basics functions into basics_setup() triggered by after_setup_theme hook [functions.php]
4. Remove one level of indentation after each if ( ! function_exists(): [functions.php]
5. Split [functions.php] file in several files sets in /inc/ folder for easy maintenance and evolution
6. Add condition is_404() to basics_description() to avoid “Notice” when $post doesn’t exist (404 = no post)[inc/functions-display.php]
7. Change function the_widget( ‘WP_Widget_Archives’, ‘dropdown=1&count=0′ to avoid Notice if &count=0 is missing [content-404.php]
8. Add condition on function basics_description() when $wp_query->found_posts is empty (no result found)[inc/functions-display.php]
9. Move $content_width into basics_setup() function [inc/functions-setup.php]
10. Add link to comments and display number of comments to the function basics_posted_in() [inc/functions-display.php]
11. Remove div#logo [header.php]
12. Wrap <h1> in <hgroup> with a#site-title to replace div#logo [header.php]
13. Change some CSS to match the two changes above [author.css]
14. Update jQuery lib to version 1.6.4 [/js/libs/]
15. Change paths to jQuery lib to reflect change above [footer.php]
16. Empty author.css to keep the theme “blank” (author.css should be reused in a Child theme) and change comment in [style.css]
17. Update readme.txt to reflect the changes.
18. Cosmetic changes in comments layout [style.css]
19. Add basics_favicon() function to print links for favicons. Make the customization in a Child theme easier[functions-display.php], [header.php]
20. Remove indentation in tag [header.php]
21. Remove final trailing slash in link rel=”pingback” tag [header.php]
22. Remove tag post-formats, featured-images [style.css]
23. Add basics_jquery() function to load jQuery properly with wp_enqueue_script() [inc/functions-filter-action.php]
24. Add basics_scripts() function to load the other scripts or librarie in a customizable way for authors[inc/functions-filter-action.php]
25. Add HTML comment to explain where authors could manage jQuery and other scripts [footer.php]
26. Add basics_i_love_wordpress() function to display mini logo instead of hard printing it [footer.php]
27. Remove .visuallyhidden classes [footer.php], [header.php], [inc/functions-display.php], [searchform.php]
28. Change home_url( ‘/’ ) to bloginfo( ‘name’ ) in label tag [searchform.php]
29. Update the .po file for french translation
30. Move of [content-404.php], [content-news.php] and [home.php] files in Child theme Beyond Basics to make Basics more… basic!
31. Add edit_post_link() in basics_posted_in() allowing authors to edit their posts [inc/functions-display.php]
32. Change message when ! comments_open() && is_page() with a sprintf for easier translation for the contact page [comments.php]

Basics 0.2.6 takes into account the various changes introduced by HTML5 boilerplate 2 with the update of HTML code, CSS files, JavaScript libraries:

• Update some parts of HTML code in header.php and footer.php files,
• Include normalize.css in normalize.css (formerly reset.css), and tools.css (non semantic classes),
• Updated versions of jQuery and Modernizr (I’ve kept DD_BelatedPNG I just in case).
• Remove redondants CSS properties between normalize.css and markup.css.

Also, I took the opportunity to provide an update to the function basics_description (): shortcodes do not appear ”as is” anymore when used early in the article. Thanks to Thomas Patin who alerted me to this subject and provided the line of code I’ve  inserted into the function to make the things works.

After activating `WP_DEBUG` mode, I’ve cleaned up the PHP code to avoid errors, warnings or notices in the PHP, especially in the basics_respond() function and within the comments.php file. One step further to make Basics compliant with the Repositery’s guidelines of WordPress.org’s Themes!

The complete Changelog for Basics 0.2.6

1. Change version number for stylesheet call : ?v=0.2.6″ [header.php]
2. Change HTML markup to match changes in H5BP 2.0 [header.php] [footer.php]
3. Change [reset.css ] and [tool.css] to match changes in H5BP 2.0
4. Minor change on comments {author.css]
5. Update /js/libs for jQuery and Modernizr (DD_belatedpng is always here for compatibility purposes)
6. Prevent shortcode to appear “as is” in the meta description in basics_description() [functions.php] Thanks to Thomas Patin (http://tom-web.fr)
7. turn margin-left: 0 into padding-left: 0 [author.css line 359]
8. change line-height value in [reset.css line 11] : old: 1.231 – new : 1.5
9. Rename reset.css to normalize.css and change @import reset.css to normalize.css [markup.css]
10. Remove font-size: 100% in markup.css (already set in normalize.css)
11. font-family, font-size, line-height and color property are now set in css/normalize.css only instead of beeing set twice in markup.css
12. Remove conditional comments for IE wrapping the meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible”
13. Define variables $aria_req and $post_id in basics_respond() [functions.php]
14. Remove $new_defaults in comment_form() call [comments.php]
15. Put together script calls within conditionnal comments for lt IE 7 [footer.php]

So, I put in ♥ Basics a function to fix that:

/**
* Add custom body classes
*/
add_filter( 'body_class', 'basics_body_class' );
if ( ! function_exists( 'basics_body_class' ) ) :
    function basics_body_class($classes) {
        if ( is_singular() )
        $classes[] = 'singular';
        return $classes;
    }
endif;

The result is that instead of using a long selector like .single, .page, .attachment { … } you just have to specify .singular { … }

Release 0.2.5 – 24/06/2011

1. Add CSS rules #widget-area-4 { clear: left; }. Keep this Widget area below the two sidebars (which are floating)
2. Add some specifics rules for .ie6 and ie7 to display item menu top inline [author.css]
3. Turn text-decoration: none into text-decoration: underline to make the links more visible [markup.css]
4. Add meta description for author, tag and category in basics_description() function [functions.php]
5. Add support for iframe in the WYSIWYG editor to switch easily between HTML and Visual mode [functions.php]
6. (Commented for now) Disable the wpautop function so that WordPress makes no attempt to correct the markup [functions.php]
7. Remove website’s slogan in title when displaying de home page in basics_title() [function.php]

→ Download ♥ Basics 0.2.5 now!

In Basics, I use a simple tricks: I just create some strings with the gettext and tools for l18n (internationalization) buid within WordPress. Paid for the .po file to adapt the content of these strings.

Say, you want display a title and a sub-title above your posts:

<header>
    <hgroup>
        <h1 class="section-title"><?php _e( 'Do you want to know more?', 'basics' ); ?></h1>
        <h2 class="section-description"><?php _e( 'Find here all the latest news about Basics', 'basics' ); ?></h2>
    </hgroup>
</header>

Just open the .po file within Poedit and translate or adapt the strings to fit your needs.

.hidden { display: none !important; visibility: hidden; }

Fig. 1: Hide for both screenreaders and browsers

.visuallyhidden { border: 0; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; margin: -1px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0; position: absolute; width: 1px; }

Fig. 2: Hide only visually, but have it available for screenreaders

.invisible { visibility: hidden; }

Fig. 3: Hide visually and from screenreaders, but maintain layout

.ir { display: block; border: 0; text-indent: -999em; overflow: hidden; background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat; text-align: left; direction: ltr; }
.ir br { display: none; }

Fig. 4: For image replacement

CSS Image Replacement

The latter offer a mecanism to hide some text “under the carpet” for displaying an image with a background property instead. It’s cool, but there is an issue when you want display a clickable image, like a logo, for example.

The HTML 4.01 way

<h1 id="site-title" class="ir fn org"> <a class="url home bookmark" href="/" rel="home"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a> </h1>

with the CSS:

#site-title { width: 220px; height: 160px; background: url(../img/logo.png) no-repeat; } 

As you can imaginate, there’s no way to click on the site title because the clickable element isn’t displayed.

The HTML5 way

Let’s get rid of this issue with some HTML 5 twirl. Simply make the whole <h1> clickable:

<a class="url home bookmark" href="/" rel="home"> <h1 id="site-title" class="ir fn org"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></h1> </a>

According to the HTML5 specification…

The a element may be wrapped around entire paragraphs, lists, tables, and so forth, even entire sections, so long as there is no interactive content within (e.g. buttons or other links)

…the cat’s in the bag =^__^=

Note: This markup isn’t allowed if you planned to use it within an <hgroup> tag.

Basics uses wp_nav_menu() in four locations (functions.php)

/**
 * This theme uses wp_nav_menu() in four locations.
 */
register_nav_menus( array(
    'first' => __( 'First navigation', 'basics' ),
    'second' => __( 'Second navigation', 'basics' ),
    'third' => __( 'Third navigation', 'basics' ),
    'fourth' => __( 'Fourth navigation', 'basics' )
) );

Calling the main menu (header.php)

<?php
    wp_nav_menu(
        array(
            'theme_location' => 'second',
            'container' => 'div',
            'menu_class' => 'site-navigation'
        )
    );
?>

Do you want to know more?

• Function Reference/wp nav menu — The wp_nav_menu() Codex page
• Goodbye, headaches. Hello, menus! — Very good tutorial on wp_nav_menu()
• Item Wrap argument – Excellent explanation of the $items_wrap argument by Thomas Scholz

According to the theme reviewers report, there are many issues to fix. Some are hot, while others don’t make sens for a theme destined to “themers” with some developments skills. I ask myself if following this way is a good thing for Basics and users targeted or a lost of times…

Download Basics 0.2.4.1 and share your opinion!