Suffusion Version 4.2.1

For the first time in several months I had a release of Suffusion submitted and approved on the same day. Version 4.2.1 of Suffusion is a moderately big release with the following updates, with a lot of focus on the upcoming version 3.4 of WordPress:

1. New Features
   1. Scribbles
      The biggest feature of this release is the new skin, “Scribbles”. It features more than moderate use of CSS3, a wooden background, “Post It” and notebook styling and the “Coming Soon” font.
   2. New Iconset
      In keeping with “Scribbles”, I have added a new iconset. This iconset is largely based on the offbeat Web Design Creatives icons.
   3. New Byline Styles
      Again, another change courtesy “Scribbles” – there is now a new byline type that lets you position the bylines outside the post, by the side. Think of it like a pullout, except that in the incumbent pullout bylines, the byline was below the post title, but here the title is beside the byline. Try it out at Other Graphical Elements → Post and Page Bylines.
   4. Custom classes for Custom Post Types
      As a part of my ongoing efforts to support Custom Post Types better, I have added the capability to specify a CSS class for both, the Custom Post Type Archive template (seen under Additional Options for Suffusion → Custom Post Type Archive) and individual custom post types (seen under Custom Types → Layouts)
   5. Native Custom Headers
      This is to gear up for WP 3.4. I was earlier unable to add support for WP’s native custom headers, because WP didn’t support flexible widths. But with 3.4 this is not going to be an issue, so Suffusion 4.2.1 has support for custom headers, assuming you are on WP 3.4.
   6. WP 3.4 Theme Customizer Support
      WP 3.4 has introduced a new concept called Theme Customizer. I have added an option to just try out the skins of the theme from the Customizer without having to activate the theme. This is more of an “FYI” for you and shouldn’t have any bearing on how you use the theme.
2. Changed Features
   1. “Follow Me” Icon Changes
      This was necessitated because there was some ambiguity around the licensing for some of the previous icons. I have replaced them with reasonable facsimiles that I have built myself. Hopefully the effect will not be too jarring.
   2. Markup Changes
      There are several markup changes due to the introduction of the new byline styles.

      Child theme users, please check your child theme template files for any differences with respect to the theme files.

   3. Translations
      In the last file I had forgotten to update the PO file for the theme. I have updated the same now.
   4. Code Housekeeping
      1. Some API calls that get deprecated with WP 3.4 have now been removed.
      2. Some “custom post meta fields” have been renamed and prefixed with “suf_”. The named fields are meta_keywords, meta_description, thumbnail and featured_image. This should be transparent from your perspective.
      3. Most of the post_class arguments have now been added through a filter. This is to facilitate better integration with plugins, but for most users it should have no effect. This is in accordance with the new guidelines from the WP Theme Review Team.
      4. The calls to wp_title have all been replaced with the appropriate filter. This is in accordance with the new guidelines from the WP Theme Review Team.
      5. Uses of get_stylesheet_directory_uri have been appropriately replaced with get_stylesheet_uri in accordance with the new guidelines from the WP Theme Review Team.
      6. The template files now have no inline styles. This means that you can use custom CSS without having to force the !important directive for many cases.
3. Bug Fixes
   1. The Authors template had a minor (undetected) bug, that would cause issues due to a potential conflict of global variables. This should be fine now.
   2. The Custom Layout Template was not respecting the option to “Keep original heights” for the widgets. I have fixed this.
   3. The rotating headers capability was not working if the generated CSS was being linked as a file. This should be fine now, too.
   4. Under some very rare cases the breadcrumbs code was crashing. I have taken care to ensure that the appropriate checks are in place so that the code no longer crashes.

What I couldn’t fix

There were some reports of issues with incorrect tags showing up on posts. This wasn’t something I could replicate, hence I couldn’t fix this.

Additionally, I was not able to add the features of “Scribbles” to Suffusion BP Pack or Suffusion Commerce Pack.

I am going to switch to a “minor release” mode till I am done with my vacation that ends in mid-July. This means I am not going to push any big items out during this time. Photonic is due an update, as are the two Suffusion packs, so you can expect new versions of those in the near future.

Hope you enjoy this release.