WP-Multiflex - Confessions of a WordPress Theme Hacker
A demo is up for the WP-Multiflex theme for WordPress but before you rush off in excitement to view it, please read on a little. I’ll give you the link later.
First, the theme’s development is still in the early stages. I have been promising for so long I though I better have something to show. Please remember this when viewing the demo.
Ok, so now the big confession! I have took the original design by Wolfgang and murdered his code. All of it, and re-coded from scratch. I have kept his images and of course, it is his design, and he will be credited. In doing this I have several good reasons but I realise that Wolfgang may be offended. This is not what I want.
So why? The original code was very complex and I had difficulty finding my way around. I have made several false starts and put it down to me, not being very bright. My localised WordPress code will add enough complexity as it is. Also, the code didn’t suit the way WordPress worked in some areas and I would have to have rebuilt quite large parts of it. The left sidebar also came before the content in the source which is a problem with some search engines and screen readers and isn’t the best as far as accessibility is concerned.
So there you have it; A theme, a confession and an apology. You can check out the demo at my Theme Development Site.
Sorry if this causes offence Wolfgang! Please feel free to flame away.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under WordPress Themes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
February 17th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I’d love to know what the challenges were, as would we all, to designing this Theme. On the surface, it looks fairly simple. There are a lot of users who would love to understand what makes a WordPress Theme a challenge. Are you up to the challenge of sharing that information?
Good work.
Tip: in Firefox, the left sidebar text is right up against the border and isn’t “pretty”.
February 17th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Hi Lorelle,
Thanks for dropping by.
I wouldn’t say that WordPress was the challenge but rather getting the template to fit WordPress. I think I will probably post more about this along with how to design templates that are easier to port for WordPress later.
Don’t worry about how it looks now - there is much to do
February 17th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
The multiflex3 is a fairly complex design, primarily since there are so many options you can fiddle with
Am i correct in guessing what layout options you have picked?
Layout-4 (3 col with menu to the left)
Header-1 (Top, middle, bottom)
Is there only going to be 1 option? Or are you working on implementing other layouts?
Last thing: It looks awsome, keep up the good work
February 17th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Hi Thomas,
Yes it is based on layout 4, or as near as possible. I’m selecting and recreating the sections as I go. I’m not entirely sure whether to go with the horizontal menu or not yet as it is limited to 1 level and repeated in the sidebar.
As for layout options there will only be one to start with. I haven’t decided whether I shall implement more yet.
February 17th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Hello!
I think the theme looks good so far
I do have one question, is the Drop Down menu in the original design included in the theme?
February 18th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Why would he be offended? The work of art here comprises the looks and the functionality. Not the code (I haven’t seen the code, and it may be elegant, but people do not SEE it). Have you ever heard of a painter that is proud of his/her pigments and canvases?
Thanks for your great work.
I have been using one of your previous themes - the Chameleon. It is quite good after a little bit of customization of the over sized header
I actually like it better than any of the other WordPress themes I have found.
Chameleon has a bug on its subpage listing code, though. A part of the code takes page_type=attachment as a sign of existence of subpages. A “Subpages: ” header is then displayed, but the WordPress function listing the pages returns empty. I hope that this is not the case in this new theme. (I have reported this bug to the maker of the list subpages plugin)
February 18th, 2007 at 10:40 am
No need to be offended. The template had 20 times more options than you would want in a normal WordPress theme, and that made the code hard to work with. I know that, I made the first (but unreleased) theme version of the template and I can fully understand you. Porting a template into a specific CMS is all about optimization and being selective, and if the code doesn’t really fit in it could be a good idea to modify it. But with that said, you are modifying the WordPress theme version, not the original template (which is still an amazing piece of work). Great work by both Wolfgang and you!
It will be interesting to see the output code quality in the theme after your remake! Let me know if you need help with any details.
February 18th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
@Shane, The theme won’t have the drop down menus as I haven’t found a way to recreate the menu in WordPress that works accross all browsers.
@LostInNetwork, The Chameleon sub-page code always was a little buggy, I’m afraid. …and yes the header is a little on the tall side
@Andreas, Yes the code is very complex. I kept loosing track where I was all the time, hence rebuilding it around Wolfgang’s artwork. It still will be complex but I am selecting what I think will work for WordPress to make it a good theme that will suit most people. There are bound to be features that I have left out that people will want but you can’t please evertbody all the time.
February 18th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Hello!
Is this theme compatible with the widgets, and the tags (Ultimate Tags Warrior)?
Thanks you, and congratulations for your work!!!
February 18th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Hi Pierre,
It will definitely be compatible with the Widgets plug-in and I think the Ultimate Tag Warrior should work as it has the necessary hooks in the header
February 19th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I FEEL TERRIBLY OFFENDED! I am crying and must call mom back in Sweden for comfort. No, don’t worry, just kidding!!! Nice to see that there is movement regarding the Multiflex-3 porting for WordPress.
@Ainslie — You have done a great job! Simply fantastic!
@Everybody — I can understand that the code may appear complicated because it gives the user enormous freedom in choosing options. However, I still feel that the code is quite efficient and compact in view of the amount of options it offers. The reason I included so many options for both text stylings and headers was that I wanted to create a total design FRAMEWORK (not a single design SOLUTION), so that virtually any personal preferences would be covered by the predefined options that are streamlined towards the basic theme. In this way the user would not have to do his own additional design attempts for missing options. For this reason, Multiflex-3 should be viewed as a toolbox where you can pick what you want and drop that which you don’t need. The same for CMS porters.
The porting complexity varies from CMS to CMS. For example, porting Multiflex-3 to sNews (www.solucija.com) or Expression Engine (www.pmachine.com) is relatively easy since the original HTML and CSS codes remain preserved and do not have to be hacked into new component parts. But WordPress has a different and more rigid architecture, thus being less flexible in incorporating any given HTML/CSS design. However, WordPress of course has the great advantage of being among the most popular CMS around.
Maybe my philosophy of creating a framework template was a mistake, thus scaring many people away from Multiflex-3. I think I have learned from this, and thus in my upcoming Multiflex-templates (Multiflex-4 and upwards) I will change my approach. Future templates will no longer be general theme frameworks, but single theme solutions. In other words, they will contain fixed and predefined design elements without options, with the only options being for some basic text stylings in the content area, as commonly found in standard CMS portings. Maybe it is better to create many individual single template solutions than one huge general framework template. In this way it will be much easier to port and to find one’s way through the code.
February 19th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Hi Wolfgang,
Just had to rescue you comment from Akismet
Firstly it is good to have your blessing. Thank you. It should be finished fairly soon now.
I think I could have been mostly left as it was, to work with WordPress. I just struggled to keep my concentration with it.
The drop downs would be difficult and also the definition tables for menus as WP likes it’s nestled lists for menus.
I’m sure it could be done, but I don’t know php well enough to make WordPress output the right sort of code! Although I know my way round the WordPress stuff I have only limited php knowledge.
I think you should make templates how you are happy to do, and let the theme coders worry about how to port them
February 19th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
[...] I was a little worried that Wolfgang wouldn’t be happy with me for murdering his Multiflex template, but all seems well. It is a good job he has a sense of humour [...]
February 19th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Sounds encouraging, Ainslie! If you don’t mind, I will let you know when my future templates are released. Maybe you even permit me to send them to you for a preview and critique, so you can give some input before they are released.
Also, I read that in some of your ports of Andreas templates the credits to you were removed. Please, I hope that does not happen with Multilfex-3. I definitely want your credits to remain there. You definitely deserve that as a thanks for your monumental efforts!
Keep in touch!
February 19th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Send them to me with pleasure, I will happily take a look and let you know what I think.
But don’t change the way you do things just because I ripped it all apart. It doesn’t make my way the right way!