upgrading from 2.5.7 to 2.6 wipes all custom settings?

[sayontan]

Marc,
I believe Wim's question is slightly different. He is aware of the custom styles feature, because he used it to manage the widths of different sections in the blog before I provided customizable widths. But it is good that you explained the feature out here, given that I am a lazy jackass when it comes to documentation.

Wim's original question was more along the lines not going beyond the Suffusion folder, but storing the custom files (particularly images) under the theme folder itself. I know you could create a folder outside the theme folder, somewhere in the root, which will let you be upgrade-proof. But what if there was another way to do this from within the theme itself? As you stated, you are using a workaround by keeping yourself safe from the complete overwriting. But something leads me to believe that a complete overwrite doesn't have to happen when you do a theme upgrade.

Case in point: it doesn't happen in Atahualpa or Thesis (BTW Marc, if you think my options are good you should see Atahualpa. That is the Numero Uno when it comes to options). It is kind of frustrating to not know the answer here. In my initial design I had suggested the use of a a file called custom.css that you could put your styles into, the same way as you do in the "Custom Styles" option. Then I found out that it was getting overwritten. That is how this particular option came about. I was loath to suggest that the user create a custom folder/file outside the theme and set permissions for it, because it seemed very unprofessional, for the lack of a better word.

[marcnyc]

Not sure what to say, I don't see why placing one's images outside of the theme is such a bad thing, I actually like keeping things separate... If I change theme I'll probably re-use my images (my logo, etc) so I see them as being site-specific not theme-specific, but I guess it's up to interpretation...

PS now you tell me about Atahualpa? I never heard of it but I was looking for something customizable like Suffusion for a while

[sayontan]

I understand, it is not a bad thing at all. It is just that there is no "one size fits all" argument for this - some people prefer having these files outside the theme and some people prefer having them inside. Ideally a theme should support both, though unfortunately in my case I have been unable to support the latter scenario, but not for the lack of trying.

Regarding Atahualpa, I thought you knew! It is way ahead in the list of popular themes in WP. it is probably the most downloaded free theme ever with over 300,000 downloads. Suffusion has just garnered about 5% of Atahualpa's downloads. Note, though, that the number of downloads is no true measure of a theme's popularity, since there are several good themes that don't get downloaded enough. Hybrid comes across as one such theme.

Different themes operate on different paradigms. Atahualpa's focus is on building out a lot of customization options, while framework-based themes like Hybrid build a lot of features and ask the users to extend them by writing their own "child" themes. My goal was to build a blend of both, so I allow a good bit of customization on the look and feel side, and I also have options to turn other features on and off. I still have some distance to go, though I believe I am catching up fast.

[marcnyc]

Well unfortunately I was looking for themes from within my WP install so I wouldn't have to FTP the files to the server everytime and I could easily click on install to try a new theme and therefore I didn't have access to the popularity stats that are on the WP website. I just looked and Atahualpa is at number 3 with 6000 downloads. Yours is at no.7, which is not a bad position to be!
Either way, look at it this way, Atahualpa is great but that is just a reason for you to make Suffusion even better!! You make it good, people will come!

[WimScholtes]

@marcnyc: thanks for the explanation. I tried it and it worked well. But after a few moments I realized that at this moment I only use a few 'custom' images which are all set in the settings (full pathnames) so I just created a new directory, placed my image files in that directory and changed the settings according to that new location (for example the location of my background image for the body). This way it is just easier to remember and to see what I have changed.

Greetings from Europe, or must I say: ciao?
Wim

[marcnyc]

Ciao Wim, not sure what you mean with the whole pathnames thing but I am glad it worked for you

[WimScholtes]

In the Suffusion theme options there is a part called "Body Background Settings" and in that part there is a setting called "Body Background Image" where you must/can enter the complete name of your background image, including http://.... That s what I meant with the "full path". And offcourse you can point to a file that is not in the Suffusion theme directory but in your own .

Greetings...
Wim

suffusion.jpg (159.54 KiB) Viewed 546 times

[marcnyc]

Oh yeah, that is what I had explained in my previous post to you... We've been talking about the same thing