The really NEW Theme Viewer

  • Just a brief post to let people know that the Theme Viewer at https://themes.wordpress.net is about to go into the workshop for some major modifications.

    This will be quite a big task and will also see the unifying of several theme viewers in the process. Silkjaer will be joining the team and bringing with him his excellent coding as seen at the Theme Park – https://webdesignbook.net/themes/

    Obviously, the outcome for the WP community will be a great one as it will bring together a lot of people who are passionate about WordPress all working on the one project under the same roof.

    And here is your opportunity to express your ideas as to what kind of setup you would like to see in the new viewer.

    For instance, the inclusion of the upload function will be a big bonus for designers and us alike, and there will be many more features included in the new layout.

    So let us know what you would like to see and where possible, we will try to accommodate your ideas.

    Oh and just a small request if possible. This whole project and the ones before it have all been setup and maintained by volunteers. If you feel that you need to express your anger and frustration at Shadow or the theme viewer in general, then perhaps do it on your own blogs. The forum rules still apply to this thread.

    Let’s see those ideas rolling in…

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)

  • In conjunction with the uploading system, there should be a Theme Validator, which will return Invalid if the theme has an improper (or lack of) theme metadata in style.css, will return warning if certain hooks do not present, if it doesn’t support widget, etc.

    I plan to do this myself, but feel free to take upon it.

    Already the theme uploading system i have made checks the style.css file, and reports if the theme lacks a name. It would be easy to let it report other lacks as well ?? It would be quite easy to let it search through hooks as well.

    ok, since this is all volunteer..
    Where do we volunteer..
    I would really like to help..
    I don’t code but I still would love to help

    Features wanted?

    • Theme voting/rating?
    • Download counter?
    • Commenting themes?
    • Permalinking to themes?
    • User upload of themes?

    Viewing themes

    • Filmstrip?
    • Gallery view?
    • … ?

    Please give your wishes and ideas, so we can make it as good as possible ??

    Some kind of tagging? To make it easier to search for a theme that meets someone’s needs — by main color, or simple or artsy, or by plugins included, or any other possible searches? It can be exhausting and overwhelming for a newbie to look through all the themes trying to find the one that best fits the look or features they want. And it can be hard to judge from just a picture what the other features might be, like how hard or easy it would be to tweak or customize the theme.

    To answer your questions, Silkjaer: Yes. ??

    To me, theme voting/rating and a download counter would really be helpful, especially if (1) you can sort by them and (2) you can see that information in the thumbnail view. I’ve often wondered why you don’t offer an alphabetical sort, too. I know, I could search for it, but if I don’t really remember the name, or how it’s spelled, then bowsing alphabetical comes in handy.

    I really only use the thumbnail view for browsing. Then I click to the info page, then the demo.

    I’d also love to be able to search by features, somehow (maybe tagging works for this). For example, if I’m looking for themes that are set up to support the widgets plugin (or any other plugin) out of the box. Or if I’m looking for themes that fit an 800×600 resolution screen without a horizontal scrollbar. That last one’s a feature I continually look for, because sometimes it’s a dealbreaker. So I guess a “minimum resolution” descriptor or something.

    HA! Now that I’ve typed all that, I went back & noticed that some of those are already implemented in the drop-down box. They didn’t used to be, but because they’re hidden in that drop-down, I didn’t know they’d been added! Good work!

    Ah… Has alphabetical sort been available since the beginning? I think what was in my head was that there’s no (good, easy) way to jump to a particular part of the alphabet, or to know at a glance what part you’re in. You have to hover over a thumbnail to see the theme name, then jump randomly forward, bit by bit, until you get to the letters you’re looking for. A bit awkward.

    Features wanted?

    * Theme voting/rating?
    — Personaly I couldn’t care less about a theme’s rating. It’s subjective. And it doesn’t matter to me that others gave it a 1 if it fills my needs. Unless you also ask people to put WHY they voted the way they did. “I gave it a 1 because it didn’t support widgets.” That to me is more valuable than the simple 1.

    * Download counter?
    — Again, it doesn’t matter to me, but that’s just me. I do see it being valuable in determining what people want out of a theme, scouting trends etc.

    * Commenting themes?
    — Now this would be a pluss. It gives people to note where a theme might be lacking, or excelling.

    * Permalinking to themes?
    — Ambivelent.

    * User upload of themes?
    — Ambivelent.

    Viewing themes

    * Filmstrip?
    * Gallery view?
    — Either of those or “blog style” (ie, gellery but with a single col, with stats to the right of the pic).
    With the added ability to refine sorts, searches, etc.

    I saw in a later post about tagging. Couldn’t agree more. Have the ability to add tags, including what plugins are supported, along with number of cols, features, etc.

    -tg

    The old theme viewer linked to the theme by it’s number, and that number changed as new themes were updated. I’d suggest that the new theme viewer not use such a scheme, but rather that it link using non changing data, perhaps the name.

    I bet you guys already thought of that!

    podz – I’ve been talking to Shadow, and I’m thinking it’d be a great idea to release the WordPress 2.0 Theme entries to the wordpress.net themeviewer instead of creating an entirely new one on arenawp.com. It’d keep all the themes for WordPress centralized in one place. I have a sandbox setup on arenawp for the judges, but I’m not making it available to the regular site visitor.

    If you could create a new category and tag, so that the entrees are easily searchable by visitors, that’d be perfect.

    Let me know.

    Terry

    Thread Starter Mark (podz)

    (@podz)

    kineda – I believe Shadow has been in touch about themes, the viewer and the judging.

    You are best advised to contact him directly
    shadow12 at gmail dot com

    Shadow is the one with access to the theme viewer site so you will need to supply him with the files for that area.

    Ah great… Thanks! ??

    If technically possible, it might be a good idea to let users add tags to themes, the way we tag threads here, as well as getting theme authors to tag their themes when they submit them. Wisdom of crowds and that.

    Status report ??

    Basic system is ready (file uploading and theme management) and we are now working on design etc.

    Rating/voting of themes will be integrated, but as TechGnome said it:

    … Unless you also ask people to put WHY they voted the way they did. “I gave it a 1 because it didn’t support widgets.”

    Rating will work by commenting, to rate you need to write a comment.

    Tag system is ready, when uploading a theme, 5 tags and 1 main color can be attached to the theme from a predefined list.

    Just to let you know we are working on it ??

    Personally I would like to see when a theme was last updated, which version of WordPress it will play nice with and whether it supports widgets.
    When a new version of WordPress comes out it would be nice to see at a glance which available themes are compatible. Much like software programs do (Win95,98,98SE,2000,XP etc).
    Can’t wait to see the finished viewer!

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)
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