Development

We are very proud to announce that we are releasing a very substantial update to the Themify framework, fixing many bugs, adding wanted features, and cleaning up our code to be in compliance with the WordPress standards. All Themify customers using our themes will be able to update to the newest framework, but please read the instructions below! Here are some of the highlights of updating to Themify Framework 1.2.2:

• Hooks - We are introducing hooks to our themes. Hooks help easily add content and functions without having to wrangle code and modify the templates. Check the documentation on how to use hooks.
• New Image Uploader - We have replaced our image uploader with the core WordPress media uploader. Now you don't have to worry about those pesky upload permission issues.
• Right-to-Left (RTL) Support - The Themify panel now fully supports Right-to-Left, or RTL, languages.
• Streamlined Code - We have updated the code for all of our themes, bringing them in line with the most up-to-date WordPress standards. We cleaned all of our templates by creating a new function that is more efficient and will be used, from now on, in all of our themes. All AJAX processes are now within the WordPress environment, making them much safer and standardized.
• Sidebar Changes - In order to make the sidebar name translatable, we added a sidebar ID name to all sidebar registration. Please read below before you upgrade.

To Upgrade

Usually when you upgrade Themify themes, it is a seamless and painless process. This time however, you will have to do a bit work (We promise that it's quick!) before upgrading the theme. Because the sidebar registration name has changed, you will need to backup the active widgets before upgrading the theme, otherwise the widget settings will be erased.

To upgrade the theme without losing the widget settings:

• Be sure you are using WordPress 3.4+. If not, please upgrade WordPress first.
• Go to Appearance > Widgets, drag all your active widgets to the Inactive Widgets panel
• After you backed up the widgets, go to Themify panel page and you should see the upgrade message box above the Themify panel. Then click 'Update now' to upgrade the theme. If you don't see the upgrade message, it means the version checker is cached. Just come back later to check the Themify panel again. Read auto upgrader for more details. If the auto upgrader doesn't work, you may upgrade the theme using a FTP software.
• Then go back to Appearance > Widgets, drag the widgets from the Inactive Widgets panel back to the sidebar panel(s)
• If you forgot this step, no big deal. Simply go to Appearance > Widgets and reset your widgets or find the widgets in the Inactive Sidebar panel. The theme won't break.

This is a one-time occurrence, and it will not be a continuing trend in Themify theme updates. We apologize for any inconvenience it might cause.

We are proud to announce version 2 of Pinboard, our Pinterest-inspired theme. We've added multisite integration and social share features. For those who are not familiar with the term 'multisite', basically it lets users to create sub-sites under your site. With Pinboard v2, you can setup your WordPress as a multisite which enables users to signup and publish posts on your site. We also bundled an option to open single posts in lightbox mode in this update. Read below for more details.

Multisite Integration

The multisite feature in Pinboard allows you to synce all posts from micro sites in your network and show them in your main site. Users can register in your site and create micro sites. When they publish a post, it will be also published in your main site.

Custom Signup and Login Form

We've built a custom sign up and login shortcode which allows you to display the form anywhere in the post, page, or widget.

Social Share

Now visitors can easily share your posts to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus by clicking on the share buttons. Each button contains a counter to show how many time the post has been shared.

Open Posts in Lightbox Mode

In this version, posts can be set to open in a lightbox popup like Pinterest.com.

Upgrade Now

If you are using Pinboard on a single/standard WordPress site, you won't see the multisite options. The social share and open posts in lightbox mode option are available to both. Upgrade Pinboard now via Themify option panel or read this documentation on how to setup Pinboard on a multisite.

We've been working very hard on improving the Themify framework. For those who are not a big fan of XxxXxxxx, we have a good news in this latest release. Now you can use the WordPress generated thumbnails for the post image instead of the XxxXxxxx script with our themes. Below are the details about this update.

WordPress Feature Image

Themify themes uses XxxxXxxxx (similar to XxxXxxxx script) to generate thumbnail images with different dimensions on the fly. However, some users are unable to use the image script due to server compatibility. Users have always been able to disable the image script via the theme option panel, but then images have to be manually cropped before uploading to the server which can be an inconvenience for some users. For this reason, we enhanced our framework to allow you to select the thumbnails that are generated with WordPress. With the new version, once the image script is disabled, a dropdown will be available for you to choose which image size to use. The image sizes (thumbnail, medium, large) can be set at WordPress Media Settings. In other words, you can specify 250 x 250px medium size to be used in the archive pages and 560 x 300px large size for single post page.

Regenerate Thumbnails

We've also integrated a regenerate thumbnails feature in the framework. The regenerate thumbnails allows you to re-generate a new set of thumbnails that are already uploaded to the blog. This tool is useful if you've changed any of the thumbnail dimensions on the Media Settings page.

Post Image Migrator

In this new framework version, the post image uploaded via the Themify Custom Panel will be attached to the post and set as the WordPress Featured Image automatically. For those who are using the older versions where a custom field was used to handle the post image, you can use the Post Image Migrator to convert the Post Image custom field to WordPress Featured Image.

Shortcode Button

Along with many new parameters added to the shortcodes, we've added a shortcode button on the editor to make inserting shortcodes easier and faster. Now you can specify the shortcode parameters using the visual dialog box.

Detail Changelogs

For more details on this release, please read the changelogs.

We would like to update everyone on what we are working now. We are busy building an eCommerce theme which has similar Ajax features as seen on IconDock. The theme is designed to work with WooCommerce, a popular WordPress eCommerce plugin. This theme is taking a bit longer than usual because of its complexity. But please be a little patient with us as we rather to delivery a high quality theme than a half functioning theme.

On the side, we recently updated Bizco to be responsive. So we now have 13 responsive themes in total. Also, we added a video embed feature in Simfo. Now you have the option to use the theme for displaying post image or video. Don't forget to follow @themify on Twitter to receive updates from us.

Over last month we put our main focus on improving our framework. We are happy to bring the auto upgrader back to live. We've rebuilt our previous auto upgrader using the WordPress core automatic upgrade function. It compares your current theme version (specified in style.css) with our latest version. If an update is available, it will display a notification above the Themify panel. All you have to do is click "Update now" and it will update the theme files on your server with our latest theme zip. Any file created by the user will leave intact.

Upgrade Now

In order for the auto upgrader to take in effect, you must need to upgrade your theme with Themify framework 1.1.1. Please download the latest theme zip from the member area and upgrade your theme.

Customization Made Easier

The new framework also made customization easier. We've renamed some of the files: config.xml renamed to theme-config.xml, custom_functions.php = theme-functions.php, custom_modules.php = theme-modules.php. Now you may create a custom-config.xml to override the default theme-config.xml. You may add PHP and WordPress functions in custom-functions.php and custom-modules.php (note it is a dash in the file name, not underscore). Any PHP function in custom-functions.php and custom-modules.php will be added to the theme. To add custom CSS, you may create a stylesheet custom_style.css and it will be added to the <head> automatically. Any files created by you in the theme folder will not be overwritten by the auto upgrader. So we strongly recommend you that do not edit the theme core files. Use the custom-config.xml, custom-functions.php, theme-modules.php, custom_style.css, child theme and the Themify panel for customization. This will prevent the auto upgrader from overwriting your customization work.

Due to the many requests, we've converted Suco to join our responsive theme family (Elemin, Funki, Minblr, Wumblr, and iTheme2). Check out the demo and resize the browser window to see the fluid & responsive layout.