Friday, 30 September 2011

27 MORE CUSTOMIZATIONS FOR THE THESIS WORDPRESS THEME

Thesis Theme Tutorials
It’s been a while since 47 Customizations for the Thesis Theme was posted and there has been some great Thesis tutorials written since then. Here I’ll share some of my favourite ones.

WordPress 3.0

Enable WordPress 3.0 Features for the Thesis Theme
WordPress 3.0 has some cool new features that Thesis doesn’t out-of-the-box support yet. Learn how to add that support yourself.
WordPress 3.0 custom post types, taxonomies & Thesis
Learn about the more techy WordPress 3.0 advancements and how to use them with your Thesis theme here.
How to Add the WordPress 3 Nav Menu to Thesis
Learn how to quickly add the WordPress 3.0 navigation menus to your Thesis site.

Making it Pop

Using Thesis Custom Body Classes To Break Down Design Barriers
Want to add some flair to a specific post on your Thesis-based site? Learn how to do so with custom body classes.
Styling the Thesis Sidebar
Using the default sidebar can be a giveaway that you’re using the Thesis theme. Here I’ll teach you how to style yours and make it unique.
How to Make Custom Comment Avatars for Thesis
Sick of the default gravatar in your comments? Here’s an article on putting your own in.
How to Make a Rotating Header Image in Thesis
One header image? Boring! Learn how to make it rotate.
Position Your Thesis Nav
Sometimes you don’t want your navigation bar where it comes by default. Luckily it’s easy to change its position.
How to Use jQuery Lazy Load in Thesis 1.7
Want to be like the cool kids and have your content load in as you go to it? Here you’ll learn how to do so.

Pages & Features

How to Create Additional Page Templates
Page templates are infinitely useful in WordPress, but a little trickier with Thesis. Learn how start creating them.
Another Tabbed Widget for Thesis Tutorial
Learn how to add a cool tabbed widget to your sidebar. (See the one on the right here for an example)
Create a Powerful jQuery-Powered Archives Page
Create a useful Archives page like the one used here.
How to Create a Subloop in Thesis
A tutorial on using advanced loops in Thesis.
Add Extra Widget Areas to Thesis
Thesis only comes with 2 widgets by default, but sometimes we need more. Learn how to add them with this tutorial.

Functionality

Hide Dates in Old WordPress Posts Using the Thesis Theme
Have some old content that’s still applicable and relevant? Don’t let people judge it by its date! Learn how to hide the dates in only old posts.
Smarter Thesis Hooks
If you’re doing any kind of real customization to your Thesis theme, you probably have functions all over the place. Learn how to implement them efficiently.

Slideshows

Adding a Featured Content Slider to Thesis in 5 Quick Steps
Learn how to add a jQuery slider to your Thesis site using s3lider.
How To Make a jQuery Image Slideshow in Thesis
Learn how to quickly add a jQuery image slideshow to your Thesis site.
Adding a Featured Content Slider for Thesis
Use jQuery Cycle to add a content slider to your Thesis site.
How to Create a Featured Content Slider
An in-depth tutorial to show you how to add support for a featured content slider in Thesis.
Thesis Feature Box – How to Add a Slider
Learn how to add the d13slidehow to your Thesis feature box.
How To Integrate Cu3er Post Elements To Thesis Theme Feature Box
Cu3er is a popular flash slideshow. Learn how to get it working in your Thesis feature box.

Social Media Integration

How to Install Twitter’s @anywhere in Thesis
@anywhere was launched recently with some really cool features. Learn how to implement it on your Thesis site.
Inserting Facebook’s Like Button in Thesis
Facebook is a huge source of traffic. Everybody and their grandmothers is on it. Learn how to leverage that in your site with this tutorial.
Add A Tweet This Post Box To Your Thesis Post Footer
Learn how to give visitors a custom tweet they can send out directly from your post.
Show Number of Retweets in WordPress Without a Plugin
Use social proof to entice people to share your WordPress posts with unlimited customization potential.
Add Social Links to WordPress Without a Plugin
Learn how to make sharing easy by putting already-formatted social media links in your posts without using a plugin.
Create a “Floating” Area in Thesis
Keep your social media links from and centre with this floating tutorial.
photo by back_garage

HOW TO USE THUMBNAILS FOR PREVIOUS/NEXT NAVIGATION IN WORDPRESS

Previous Next Link Thumbnails
Almost every WordPress theme you’ll come across has support for going to the previous or next post. That’s all well and good, but in WordPress 2.9 we got the ability to have post thumbnails. Wouldn’t it be great to use thumbnails instead of or alongside our post titles? The answer is yes, it would. So I embarked on a journey to figure out how to add this functionality to your theme, and have posted the results below. First for regular WordPress users, and then for Thesis users.
  1. Add post thumbnail support

    Open up functions.php and place add_theme_support(‘post-thumbnails’); in there, if it isn’t there already.
  2. Add the code

    Open single.php and go down to where the previous_post_link and next_post_link is situated. If your theme doesn’t have that already, then just find a proper place for the thumbnails. Place the following code in:
    01.<?php
    02.$prevPost = get_previous_post();
    03.$prevthumbnail = get_the_post_thumbnail($prevPost->ID,array(150,150) );
    04.previous_post_link('%link',''.$prevthumbnail.'', TRUE);
    05.?>
    06. 
    07.<p class="prev_next2"><?php previous_post_link('%link','<') ; ?>
    08. 
    09.<?php
    10.$nextPost = get_next_post();
    11.$nextthumbnail = get_the_post_thumbnail($nextPost->ID,array(150,150) );
    12.next_post_link('%link',''.$nextthumbnail.'', TRUE);
    13.?>
    14.<p class="prev_next2"><?php previous_post_link('%link','>') ; ?></p>
    And that’s it for the code. The 150,150 is the size of the thumbnail, so feel free to experiment with that. You can style the thumbnail by targetting .wp-post-image in your css. The ‘<' can be changed to ‘%title’ if you’d like to put your previous/next titles in there instead of an arrow, and this can be styled by targeting p.prev_next2.
  3. Add post thumbnails to your post

    Go into your post screen on the dashboard, and make sure you have an image set for “Featured image” on the right hand size. This is where the thumbnail will come from.
  4. For Thesis users:

  5. The trick works the same for Thesis, only instead of placing it in single.php, place it in a function like follows:
    01.function prev_next(){
    02.if (is_single()) {
    03.?>
    04. 
    05.// CODE HERE
    06. 
    07.<?php } }
    08.add_action('thesis_hook_after_content, 'prev_next);
    09.remove_action('thesis_hook_after_content','thesis_prev_next_posts');
    The remove_action gets rid of the previous/next navigation that is already built in