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Next Generation WordPress Theme Design - Giraffe

Angsuman Chakraborty

July 3rd, 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.

Filed under CMS Software, Headline News, Open Source Software, Pro Blogging, Web, WordPress | Comment on this Article 8 Comments | Email this Article

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MacManX Says:
July 3rd, 2005 at 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.

Angsuman Says:
July 3rd, 2005 at 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?

MacManX Says:
July 4th, 2005 at 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”.

Angsuman Says:
July 4th, 2005 at 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.