I am putting up the first beta for Version 4.0.0. You can download it from the Google code page. I welcome you to test this version and put it through the grinder. Try out different combinations of layouts, test it with plugins etc. and let me know what comes up.
To reiterate, here are the highlights:
- Mega-Menus:
To see what the fuss is, go to Appearance → Menus. Then create a menu. For the root level items in your menu you can pick a Mega Menu Widget Area. Pick one, assign it a number of columns and do the other settings as required. Make sure you assign this menu to a menu location.
Then go to Appearance → Widgets and add widgets to the Mega Menu area that you have selected. Now check it out on the front page.
Typical things to test would be:- The menu shouldn’t overflow the wrapper’s borders if the menu width is less than the wrapper width.
- Check with the different widget height settings, such as “Auto-arrange” or “Equal height for the same row” etc.
- Vary the number of columns and see the effect.
- If you have picked an empty widget area, you shouldn’t see the tab in the navigation bar.
- Custom Layouts:
Go to Templates → Custom Layout Template. Save the settings as you wish. Then create a page and assign the “Custom Layout” template to it. Upon “Save Draft” or “Publish”, in the “Additional Options for Suffusion” box you will see a new tab for “Custom Layout”. You should be able to save the settings. Add the widgets to the widget areas and then visit the page in the front end. Your new page should conform to your selections.
Typical things to test would be:- You should be able to create different pages with this template.
- For each page you should be able to control the number of columns in each Custom Layout widget area.
- Each page should respect the corresponding selections.
- Try the different widget height settings.
- Use this capability in conjunction with Widget Logic and see the effects.
- Page Layouts:
Instead of picking a “Single Left Sidebar” page template, you can now pick a “1 Left Sidebar” layout for a page / post. This gives you the advantage of combining third-party templates with Suffusion layouts. With this, the regular page templates with sidebar options are deprecated. You can still continue using them, but using a layout is going to be much easier.
Things to test would be:- If you have a page template such as “1 Left Sidebar” assigned, then you assign “2 Left Sidebars” layout, your page template will get the preference.
- Pick any other page template and assign a layout to it – you will be able to get the combination of both.
- Featured Content:
I added a lot of new options to the static Featured Content and widget. You will now have options to display icons, position the slider index and the controls differently etc. - Magazine Template / Tiles Layout:
I have changed the markup here to usedivinstead oftables. This will now prevent the unbalanced column widths that you currently see. Do give this a thorough test with all your layout combinations. - General Checks:
Try the following general checks (not a complete list, but it should give you some idea):- There were issues with the latest version of the NGG plugin – that should be gone.
- Activate another theme, then come back and activate Suffusion – you shouldn’t see any errors of any sort in this process.
- Check if the menus are working correctly in terms of custom colours, rightly showing a downward or sideward arrow etc.
- Try sharing posts with this release – you shouldn’t see any fatal errors reported when you do this.
- You should see some “pointers” with tips in the back-end if you are using WP 3.3.x.
Note that this is a beta release. So please don’t use it on a live site! Feel free to post your comments and bugs here.
I just installed 3.9.6 a week ago to play with it a little. First time I’m trying Suffusion. Now I wanted to take a look at the beta and instead of overwriting the suffusion directory, I created ‘suffusionbeta’ and put all the files in it. Should it work no problem or the core is still looking for files in ../themes/suffusion only? That could explain that it kept all my currect seetings (or almost).
Also in the changelog I see “Version 4.0.0 – 10th Feb 2012” so you leaked the date for the official release! 😉 Nah just kidding.
The settings are preserved in the database independent of the files. Any version of the theme always uses the same database entry. The best way to check if the version has changed is to look at the header of the options page. It should say, “Suffusion – 3.9.9.b1”. If that is what it says, your site is running the latest version. However note the warning – this is a beta version, so trying it on a live site will not necessarily give you the right results.
So it was a good idea to use a different folder to keep switching from one to other.
So if settings are all the same (stored in database) then I may have found a difference between both version. I selected the red on white background theme that I haven’t modified much and in 3.9.6 the menu background is a red (fading) and when I switch to 4beta that background is not shown at all.
Still haven’t tested anything else. I may have to susbscribe in the forum because I have a question on how I can get rid of an extra border on a single page layout on which I try to run a forum (S:P) which already have it’s own border. Unless it’s on the S:P forum I need to ask how to use the forum without border?
For trying Suffusion for the first time a few weeks ago like stated above I was really impressed with all the feature. I spent a few hours to look for a forum that would let me add a logo top left header and I finally found Suffusion that offer this. I was also looking for text next to logo but I read below it’s not possible. I also thought of adding the text next to logo but I wanted the text option because I thought search engines could use it.
The problem I was facing with 3.9.6 and I still haven’t had time to test with 4beta is that sometimes when saving new settings it wasn’t working and I had to save a few times to get results. I don’t know if this is a known problem.
Best of luck with all the hard work you put in your projects.
It is a known problem to me, but fairly low priority at this point. Basically you see this problem if you switch from something like “Theme Default” or “Default” to a “custom” selection, or vice versa. If you save the settings a second time, things take effect.
Hi Sayontan,
tried very crude and some very rough stress testing using the beta release, here are the points which I could add as of now
1) With all the great features , I found one important feature not included (might be deliberately 🙂 ! ) multi column customized FOOTER. Now a days it has almost become the de-facto standard for good web page / blog.
2) There is no way to add social-networking buttons (FB-like,tweet, linked-in) to each post.
3) Also found the printer – friendly widgets not being there .
4) I couldn’t separate the menu / pages at the top navigation bar above the header (my knowledge limitation might be )
5) Also there seems some layout difference w.r.t to the different browsers (like google chrome / old IE 7) navigation bars above / below the header .
6) I couldn’t add both Front Header logo image and some Text .
Sorry if the list seems more of a feature request, since you have set your standards at very high level, so the expectation is more from you , I guess. Its faster ofcourse ..
Last but not the least it’s a very good improvement over the last one (3.9.6 ) Suffusion rocks !! Keep it coming.
Indeed, this is more of a “Feature Request” 🙂
You can add what you want to the “Widget Area Above Footer”. That can have multiple columns. Strictly speaking, the footer (copyright etc.) should be at the bottom, so this widget area makes perfect sense for such configuration.
This is plugin functionality. There are a lot of things plugins cannot help you with, and that is where Suffusion steps in. Functionality such as social networking icons is best left to plugins, after all someone might like a plain display and someone might like something like the “Add This” tab. It is not practical to bundle such functionality with the theme.
I couldn’t understand these points. Can you please help elaborate this?
Can you give me an example? You could post screenshots in the support forum if you wish.
Again, this is more of a feature request. My recommendation is that if you want a logo and text, combine both of them in your logo. That way you will be able to use nicer fonts for the logo.
Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Sayontan,
My 2nd post ! Getting the below error when I try to upload any image like in the skinning , earlier this error was not there with 3.9.6.
0
” alt=”” />
NOTE : I have switched couple of time between 3.9.6 and beta version 4. Still getting this error. Is it i need to flush out my database ? Now getting lot of errors .. actually only in the week-ends i will be able to post more if i find time .. 🙂
The error didnt come due to html tags i guess so putting /* escape seq before them ..
0/**/*/
div id=”isChromeWebToolbarDiv” style=”display:none”
Can you please post this on the forum? Your code isn’t coming through when you put it in.
Small typographical error: Under Layouts, there’s an option for “Frong/Blog Page Views”. lol. Just diving in, I’ll let you know if I find anything actually wrong!
Thanks!
Just put the beta on my test site. I have found what may be an issue.
I created a new page, entered text, didn’t save or publish, then tried to add an image to the post and clicked the add media button and nothing happened. So I tried clicking the featured image link got the media upload as a page rather than a lightbox window selected the image to upload, said uploaded and then got a blank screen. So went back to admin page by typing in url. Repeated the above a second time and got the same issue then I tried saving the draft and now everything in media upload worked as intended. Then I published the page and all was fine. This is on my dev site so if you need access no problem.
If you are on Firefox / Chrome, can you turn on the Firebug / Inspector console and check if loading the “Add New Post” screen reports any error? If you are seeing errors pertaining to “post-new.php”, I have already fixed the error for the next version.
Yes I do use Firebug. No errors reported. Just tried creating a new page and entered no content at all and tried clicking the add media icon and nothing happens. So it would appear that I have to create and save the page before being allowed to add media to it. Still works as it should on one of my other live domains on the same hosting space using V3.9.6
I am using suffusion for this site. tried to upload version 4 but it failed. Any ideas ? By the way fantastic theme 🙂
When you say “it failed”, what exactly happened? What did you try? What error did you get? It might help if you took this post to the support forum.
Hi Sayontan, I downloaded the zip file and tried to upload it to my wordpress as a plugun ?? It said failed to upload
It’s not a plugin, it’s a theme!
Sorry SPQC Yes I did try to upload it as a theme my mistake still did not work 🙁
Hi,
I’m already using suffusion, and I got the same problem when trying to upload the beta theme. I guess wordpress system don’t consider this beta theme to be a update to the 3.9.6 and since the suffusion.3.9.9.b1.zip creates a conflict since the content of the zip file is also “suffusion”.
I’ve unzip, rename to “suffusion 2” and rezip. Then the upload are good and I’ve started testing it…
But, now I got error codes below the header that start with
Warning: file_exists() [function.file-exists]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/usr/local/apache/htdocs//….
Hope this help…
You tend to get open_basedir errors due to issues on your host configuration. See this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1846882/open-basedir-restriction-in-effect-file-is-not-within-the-allowed-paths. Typically if you are trying to access a file from some other directory that you don’t have permissions to, you get the error. This in general has nothing to do with the theme. My guess is that if you are using a temporary hosting site there is a chance of such problems.
Dear Sayontan,
Will it be possible to also turn the “pause”, “previous post” and “next post” controls at the bottom of featured content into buttons too?
And, while using button overlaid; the below options would be a good to have feature:
a) have the index button / number to show only with mouse hover over the featured content.
b) option to set index and control bar’s background colour.
c) with “Show controls overlaid as icons” selected, pause/play buttons to show on the same bar as the index number / bullet.
Well, these are just my opinion.
Thank you.
Am I to understand that your previous question no longer applies?
At least for the next few releases I am done with Featured Content. I believe in its current form the capability is superior to most pure-play featured content plugins and I don’t want to spend more time on this for now.
You will be able to change the control bar’s background colour through Custom CSS. The Photonique skin has the colours predefined and I believe it looks really nice.
Thanks Sayontan.
Yeah, I loved the Photonique skin.
And would agree to the point that you will be spend more time to update the other features of the theme.
Do you mean this question? [Will it be possible to also turn the “pause”, “previous post” and “next post” controls at the bottom of featured content into buttons too?]
Well, I would love to know how to turn them into icon button rather than words in order to make them much smaller.
I’ve been trying to modify the colour of the control bar background but, am unable to find the right file to do it. Could you please tell me which file + parameter controls the style of the featured content control bar?
And, is it true that if anyone of post index or next previous control set to “below featured content” the control bar will always show below the featured content?
Also, when I’m testing the new suffusion 4 beta; I’ve install the beta theme after deleting the original suffusion 3.9.6. After activation of suffusion beta, I quicky notice all styles and setting are updated with reference to the old settings due to the settings are still in database.
Is all settings in “suffusion options” being stored in the database? Will the “delete all theme options” clear / delete all these suffusion setting from the database?
Thank you again…
Love the theme. Does have a conflict with the All-in-One Event Calendar Plugin. Every thing works great together except for the google map view when veiwing the individual event. It doesn’t show up at all. Works great with v 3.96. It’s just one plugin, but it’s one my site will depend heavily on. Not a deal breaker for me as you can hide the google map and just have a link through the plugin but it takes away from the nice presentation of the post.
Only other criticism would be that you have so many options that it gets confusing. I think alot of the options would be easier handled with a child theme and simple css without having to scroll through the endless setups.
Would have provided a link but I have it installed locally only for testing.
There are different threads on the forum that will help you resolve issues with Google Maps. It is something I cannot fix automatically because it will break other functionality. Given that the other functionality is much more frequently used than maps, I am in favour of status quo.
Apart from the “Skinning” options, very little deals with CSS changes. Yes, you could do everything (not just CSS) with a child theme, but the simple point is that more than 90% of WP users have no clue as to how to tweak CSS. And more than 95% has never worked with PHP. The value of the theme is in its options – the newer skins are going to be more “pretty” out of the box (I believe the “Photonique” skin looks much nicer than the rest), but otherwise the theme is meant to be a GUI framework akin to the GUI version of something like Hybrid.
I like all the options for page layouts and realize that it is a framework type of theme. I just find alot of the if, then, else radio button logic overly confusing. Maybe a cleaned up GUI with some ajax driven conditional options, inline menus, or otherwise type of visual layout which could ease the setup would have been easier for me. I had an issue with making a static front page with the feature slider. It would for some reason show an empty post beneath the slider. Turning off comments and discussion within WP didn’t do the trick. Using css to not display the post did work. I’m sure there is a setting within the UI to correct this or else I had made a conflicting option choice but became weary of looking for the answer. All the options are great, my $.02 was just the at times confusing logic of the UI for my first experience with your theme framework.
Regardless, I like the options and flexibilty that the page layouts, ad hoc sidebar areas, and ease of custom post types offer with direct integration into the theme. Saves alot of time that would otherwise be spent writing custom page.php. I would be a complete convert, if only I could figure out the google map issue in the all-in-one event calendar plugin that I am already invested in for my site. I don’t understand what changed between your versions that caused the map to disappear. Could you point me in the direction of the fix you described in your forums? Found a post about the google map router – changing the max-width: none – for what I believe was the correct element did not work. The plugin has 68,000 downloads so I’m sure this isn’t the first instance… little help here…
That is to be expected, because at the end of the day, you are displaying a page. The one way to not show it would be to use the new Custom Layout template and simply set it up with the first widget area.
I cannot help without a URL here. I have changed nothing from 3.9.6 to 4.0.0 to result in this. All fixes for maps-related problems deal with the max-width setting, but the correct setting depends on which plugin you are using.
Is Beta 2 near? 🙂 Is there a changelog?
I have been very busy at work, and I haven’t had the time to fix one particular bug yet. Without fixing it I cannot make the release.
I’ve been playing with the beta and trying to make it break, but it worked great.
The real upgrade is the mega menu. I’ve just scratched the surface, but I’ve found no bugs thus far, (except my normal issues with WP like their default widgets defaulting with a title even if you don’t want the title) And I would love to be able to move the widget areas around (back end) to access the bottom widgets easier. (WP issue) But it takes just about anything I’ve tried to stick in there.
The page layout combinations are still a bit confusing, so I’ve got to test it more, and I’m clueless as to what you mean by third party templates.
There is one, actually. I can let you find it :-). If you pick a widget that has a drop-down selection in it, you cannot make a selection from that drop-down. That is the one bug that is holding up Beta 2.
Here are three examples:
Very cool – back to the sandbox.
If I can create more than one of the custom templates, you’ve got a themeframe, not just a theme.
You can create as many of them as you like! Think:
Due to various restrictions I cannot include functionality akin to Widget Logic in the theme. But if you install Widget Logic, you can control pretty much what widget goes into which page.
Actually the new plugin Widget Logic Visual just came out and it’s actually easier to use and works better. Ok, but I must be dense, but the Template area shows one custom template and yes I can use it in any place that I want, but are you saying I can do another and completely different custom template, with the custom template layout you’ve provided. Or do I have to take that template, name it and save it to the templates folder, which would work, until you do an update and I freak out :).
Yes, the Template area shows just one custom template, and that is for you to define your defaults. Under the graphic note this comment:
When you are creating an individual page, first select the “Custom Layout” template. Then “Save Draft”. Once you do that, take a look at your “Additional Options for Suffusion” box under your content editor. You will see a new tab titled “Custom Layout”. Click on that. Here you will be given choices to override each setting that you made under Templates → Custom Layout Template. E.g. Your default might have 1 column for Widget Area 1, but in the settings here you can set the column count to 2.
You cannot save a new template file at this point, and that may be a consideration for the future.
So I can override the custom template on an individual post/page basis (I believe that’s what you’re saying and I will try it), but can I save that new overridden template for another use, or do I have to do it again?
You cannot save the overridden template – you have to recreate another one. But how often do you envision doing this for the same site?
Probably never, especially since I haven’t a clue what I’m doing. And I guess at that point I could save the custom template php and rename it, assuming I could figure that out.
Ok, for now, the theme just keeps getting closer to the themeframes but I think easier.
Thanks Sayontan.
That’s the first time you have said Suffusion is easier than something! 🙂
Hi Sayontan 🙂
Testing 3.9.9.b1 the post preview goes to 404 not found. Switching to few others or twentyeleven it is fine, any thoughts?
I have seen no such issues – I am able to look at previews etc. pretty well. A 404 error can be a result of a wrongly configured .htaccess file entering your folder structure, but I cannot say for sure what is causing the problem in your case.
Thanks for quick reply, I will play around and just in case I find anything I will reply again.
Sayontan,
Great work on the new release,…like all the new functionality, Custom Layouts will solve my little niggles with WPeC intergration and allow me try some new stuff.
I have been testing for the past couple of days, so thought it time to drop you a note, and report my first problem/bug,…..
Featured Content,…
When displaying feature content on “catagory views” the first couple of pages do not display any posts below the featured content,….
Screen prints in post,…. Featured Content
I have left the site as is so you can take a look,….
Let me know if you need any other diagnostics or other example/configurations,…
Will keep you posted on any other issues.
Regards from Sunny Spain
This isn’t a bug, nor does it have anything to do with this release. In your featured content settings there is an option to show duplicate posts. You just have to enable that option to show the posts.
Sayontan,
First of all, thank you so much for release of this new version.
What do you think if this site is updated with new v4.0.0b1? If so, it will be a good demonstration site for everyone to watch new version in action.
Regards,
YJ
Hi 🙂
My test environment (plugins, server etc.) IS different than the live site running 3.9.6 but this might useful
Beta 1, New post page. Can not view screen options, move boxes.
Java error:
Error: $j("#suf-meta-fields-tabs").tabs is not a function
Source File: http://www.xxxxxxxx.com/wp/wp-admin/post-new.php
Line: 624
Line 621-626:
$j = jQuery.noConflict();
$j(document).ready(function() {
$j('#suf-meta-fields-tabs').tabs();
});
I am aware of the issue – it has already been fixed for the next beta. If possible I will release the beta by tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks 🙂
Another incompatibility for you is CKeditor. Works fine with the standard theme. Used to work with Suffusion (not 3.9.6 much earlier) doesn’t work with beta 1.