Solving the fundamental problems of Website development and design

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?

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WordPress 2.7 is here, and the question on a lot of your minds’ is likely Does Thesis work with 2.7? Should I wait for the next version of Thesis to include fixes?

Let me reassure you that Thesis does indeed work with WordPress 2.7. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you have upgraded WordPress and have been enjoying Thesis without noticing a single issue.

That isn’t to say that Thesis 1.3.2 doesn’t have issues with this new version of WordPress. With as many changes as have gone into WordPress 2.7, there were bound to be at least one hiccup. I have explored the interaction between Thesis & WordPress 2.7, and there is only one major compatibility issue.

While there is no doubt we’ll see a new release of Thesis addressing this issue, why wait for awesomeness when the fix is so incredibly simple!

Unstylish Admin Panels

If you’ve gone into the Thesis Options or Design Options panels since upgrading to WordPress 2.7, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that the styles and JavaScript no longer load correctly. The mechanism for loading the necessary files has changed, but thankfully the fix is extremely easy, especially if you’re at all familiar with modifying your custom_functions.php file.

Note: You can edit your custom_functions.php file using a free text editor like Notepad++ (Windows) or TextWrangler (Mac), but you can also edit the file directly from your WordPress admin panel by using the Thesis OpenHook plugin.

Once you have the file open for editing, you’ll want to add in this block:

if (is_admin()) {
	function custom_options_js() {
		$date = date('mdy');
		echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="' . THESIS_JS_FOLDER . '/thesis.js?d=' . $date . '" /></script>';
	}

	add_action('admin_head', 'thesis_options_stylesheet');
	add_action('admin_head', 'custom_options_js');
}

I preferred to add the code near the top, just after the opening line (<?php); however, you can add the code anywhere that works best with your own organizational habits, provided the structure of the code remains sound.

Once you’ve saved & uploaded the file back to your server, your Thesis admin panels will once again be stylin’!

And that’s it! See, I told you it was easy!

This fix was originally posted as Thesis on WordPress 2.7.

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Welcome to the first edition of This Week in Thesis, a new weekly* feature here by which we can highlight all the great Thesis-related content our community is creating — reviews of Thesis, tutorials, add-ons, and so on.

Articles are eligible for inclusion if they haven’t been included before — regardless of whether they posted within the “week of” or not — and while I’ll be watching Technorati and Twitter (hashtag: #thesiswp) for relevant content, I’ll no doubt miss plenty.

For that reason, I invite you to share links — whether yours or not — that you feel deserves a mention here with me; you can send me your ideas on Twitter (@KingdomGeek) or via e-mail.

* I’m using the word “weekly” loosely… Some weeks we may see nothing, others we may see a ton.

• Playin’ Hooky: Uncomfortable doing customizations on your own? Afraid of pricking your finger on one of Thesis’ hooks? Don’t fear ‘em, embrace them! Bruce shows you how with three real-life examples of customizing by way of hooks and actions.

• Get the Hook Up: Speaking of real-life examples of hooks & actions, Rae offers up four examples of customizing Thesis with hooks, all wrapped up in a great primer for getting started with Thesis’ hooks & actions, tailored for those new to PHP itself.

• From Head to Foot: Support board superhero Kristarella has published two superb tutorials for creating beautiful headers and out-of-sight footers for your Thesis-powered blog. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, so check out the header and footer area of her site and you’ll want to hear what she has to say.

• Reach Out and Connect w/ Somebody: Google very recently released for public (beta) consumption their new Friend Connect service, which allows webmasters a quick and easy way to build a transparent community around their site; put a face on your visitors, let them befriend each other, and let them discover each other — and your site — from other sites using Friend Connect. We’re all about community here, so I wanted to highlight Don’s quick and painless tutorial on adding Friend Connect to your blog.

• Honorable Mention: Last — and I feel a little guilty linking to this one because, well, it’s mine — is Rick’s release of the Thesis OpenHook plugin. While far from a WYSIWYG interface for modifying Thesis, OpenHook provides easy to use text boxes to add to your site’s design.

That’s all for this round. Did I miss any? Let me know, and we’ll catch ‘em in the next go-around!

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