Going Live
Ok, so yesterday was stressful...
Here's why
For a theme release I like to be totally prepared. All publicity stuff, forum entry, addon page entry, E Junkie details and live site need to be in sync perfectly.
I also need to know that everything is working well.
Yesterday, my system fell apart.
Whilst doing my final full browser check on the live site I accidentally put the forum entry live... way ahead of schedule.
This meant I got a small flood of views to this live site, all of whom noticed that a last minute edit had uncovered a firefox bug, pushing all plugin pages WAY WAY out.
This was a last minute bug, and had I not have accidentally gone forum live too early, would not have been seen by anyone.
At this point however, my tenuous internet connection blacks out, so I can't see the flood of forum entries asking me why the hell I went alpha, with such a massive bug in the works!
I panic, steal a friends internet and instantly turn of the by now option.... but lose the connection before I can get to the forum entry...
AHHHHRG
Any way, that bug is squashed now, and I am re doing full browser checks!!
(I deleted the forum post, hope no body minded!!)
I hope this won't hurt sales, as I have worked long and hard on the theme, and I'm very proud of it!!
Lets hope the GO LIVE works better this time!!
Here's why
For a theme release I like to be totally prepared. All publicity stuff, forum entry, addon page entry, E Junkie details and live site need to be in sync perfectly.
I also need to know that everything is working well.
Yesterday, my system fell apart.
Whilst doing my final full browser check on the live site I accidentally put the forum entry live... way ahead of schedule.
This meant I got a small flood of views to this live site, all of whom noticed that a last minute edit had uncovered a firefox bug, pushing all plugin pages WAY WAY out.
This was a last minute bug, and had I not have accidentally gone forum live too early, would not have been seen by anyone.
At this point however, my tenuous internet connection blacks out, so I can't see the flood of forum entries asking me why the hell I went alpha, with such a massive bug in the works!
I panic, steal a friends internet and instantly turn of the by now option.... but lose the connection before I can get to the forum entry...
AHHHHRG
Any way, that bug is squashed now, and I am re doing full browser checks!!
(I deleted the forum post, hope no body minded!!)
I hope this won't hurt sales, as I have worked long and hard on the theme, and I'm very proud of it!!
Lets hope the GO LIVE works better this time!!
Javascript Variations in RapidWeaver
22/04/08 01:05 Filed in: Javascript
| Javascript
Variation
Ok, so here is a revolution in RapidWeaver
design... javascript variations from right inside
RapidWeaver... you can vary the menu animation from
the page style!!
I'm really proud of this cool little hack that allows this!
Check out the variations
THIS IS REVOLUTIONARY
I'm really proud of this cool little hack that allows this!
Check out the variations
THIS IS REVOLUTIONARY
Onwards to design.
Ok, so both of the "killer" features have been
implemented with a refreshingly small amount of
fuss!!
The SuckerFish Menu is playing very nicely with RWs built in menu creation, and the gradient header is sitting pretty and blending perfectly in with the design!! Which is frankly awesome... It really extends the design power of RW!!
Speaking of design, for this theme, I'm going in a more mature direction.
This design is about subtlety and accents. The dynamics of the design make quite a bold statement, without over powering the content.... which I like.
The theme is going to come in a few flavors, bold primary colors, used subtly in an other wise dark grey/black design!
Right now I'm perfecting the default blue design, and then I'll move on to the relatively simple job of spitting out a few more colors!! Im thinking just yellow, green, orange, black and white.
A nice simple selection for people to enjoy!!
Lets DO IT!!!
The SuckerFish Menu is playing very nicely with RWs built in menu creation, and the gradient header is sitting pretty and blending perfectly in with the design!! Which is frankly awesome... It really extends the design power of RW!!
Speaking of design, for this theme, I'm going in a more mature direction.
This design is about subtlety and accents. The dynamics of the design make quite a bold statement, without over powering the content.... which I like.
The theme is going to come in a few flavors, bold primary colors, used subtly in an other wise dark grey/black design!
Right now I'm perfecting the default blue design, and then I'll move on to the relatively simple job of spitting out a few more colors!! Im thinking just yellow, green, orange, black and white.
A nice simple selection for people to enjoy!!
Lets DO IT!!!
2nd Goal Achieved!!
21/04/08 00:03 Filed in: Menu
So I have managed to whack in a really cool
javascript layered menu... its called super fish,
and is an animated extension of the sucker fish.
Its built in Jquery, which means I can use the Jquery No Conflict which I employed in my other theme!!!
Essentially what I'm doing is evolving RW themes, with Jquery!! :)
Its built in Jquery, which means I can use the Jquery No Conflict which I employed in my other theme!!!
Essentially what I'm doing is evolving RW themes, with Jquery!! :)
1st Goal Achieved
20/04/08 11:52 Filed in: Header
Ok, so the first of my many goals for this theme
has gone past square one!!
I have the header looking some what cooler, using an awesome little piece of CSS trickery. Which allows me to keep the super easy method of users putting in the text.... but also add some much cooler styling to the header.
Now this CSS trick required an empty span tag.... which RapidWeaver was trimming for me... bless him, he thought he was being helpful.... but simply adding an empty HTML tag in there sorted that out!!!
I may resort later to simply prepending the span tags with javascript!!
I have the header looking some what cooler, using an awesome little piece of CSS trickery. Which allows me to keep the super easy method of users putting in the text.... but also add some much cooler styling to the header.
Now this CSS trick required an empty span tag.... which RapidWeaver was trimming for me... bless him, he thought he was being helpful.... but simply adding an empty HTML tag in there sorted that out!!!
I may resort later to simply prepending the span tags with javascript!!
The New Theme Begins
Ok, here we go... the beginning of my new theme...
Here's what I'm gonna do.
I am gonna take all of the knowledge... all of the mistakes, and all of the cool features that I learned in the last theme.
I'm gonna push the boundaries of theme creation further.
I'm gonna smack in as many 'killer features' as I can.
And I'm gonna try to make an awesome theme!!
LETS DO THIS!!
So, the idea for this second theme came from two different trains of thought.
Firstly, how boring the RW generated headers look.... because you can only ever have it pure styled CSS, they just look dull!!
Most "Web 2.0" (Thats a phrase I'm going to be using alot in this theme, but its slightly (very) tongue in cheek!!!) use an image instead of text, so that designers can get down and dirty in photoshop.
Well, that won't do, so lets tackle that in the new theme!
And secondly.... hovering menus annoy me.
Yes, pop out menus are both really cool, and super useful, but al the ones available in RW today are fatally flawed IMHO.
Firstly, they are boring... Its crying out for a bit of animation!
But more importantly they are a cursor positioning nightmare after the 2nd level... which is where the menu should be at its most usefull!!
So I'm going to tackle that to!!
Right, well, lets get cracking
Here's what I'm gonna do.
I am gonna take all of the knowledge... all of the mistakes, and all of the cool features that I learned in the last theme.
I'm gonna push the boundaries of theme creation further.
I'm gonna smack in as many 'killer features' as I can.
And I'm gonna try to make an awesome theme!!
LETS DO THIS!!
So, the idea for this second theme came from two different trains of thought.
Firstly, how boring the RW generated headers look.... because you can only ever have it pure styled CSS, they just look dull!!
Most "Web 2.0" (Thats a phrase I'm going to be using alot in this theme, but its slightly (very) tongue in cheek!!!) use an image instead of text, so that designers can get down and dirty in photoshop.
Well, that won't do, so lets tackle that in the new theme!
And secondly.... hovering menus annoy me.
Yes, pop out menus are both really cool, and super useful, but al the ones available in RW today are fatally flawed IMHO.
Firstly, they are boring... Its crying out for a bit of animation!
But more importantly they are a cursor positioning nightmare after the 2nd level... which is where the menu should be at its most usefull!!
So I'm going to tackle that to!!
Right, well, lets get cracking