Default installed themes CP TwentyFifteen Twentysixteen Twentyseventeen

Themes
22

I like ClassicSixteen but I agree with you that ClassicPressSixteen might be better.

What about CPSixteen?

About customizer, me thinks you can add with discretion. As long as you stay in the Classic Themes realm I think it’s fine, the customizer has many things that can be included in it and it’s true that some themes overdo it but a little features can be added to the theme without overwhelming it IMHO

23

I wouldn’t keep the name too closely associated with Twentysixteen theme as it keeps us in the past too much, and we need to look to the future. We also can’t develop multiple themes yearly as WP does. This default theme would most likely need to last us for a good number of years. I would also keep “Classic” out of the name because that might confuse people with “classic themes” in WordPress.

The original idea for a new default theme was “One.” So any names similar or related to that idea might be a good start. We should create a list and have the community vote on it, but that shouldn’t stop work on the theme from continuing.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if this would be the default theme:

  1. It needs to support PHP 7.4 and up to 8.2, since that’s what CP v2.0 will support.
  2. The original theme was created about 7 years ago. A lot has changed. I haven’t looked at the theme’s code, so these might already be done and implemented. A list to reference:
    • Any JS libraries must be updated, and jQuery 3 must be used (if jQuery is used, vanilla would be best to reduce dependency).
    • Ideally, CSS flexbox or grid should be used for the layout instead of float.
    • Ideally, it should be a mobile-first design with media queries using min-width.
    • No !important
    • No outline: none (accessibility is important)
    • Use CSS variables in :root to set colors, fonts, sizes, etc.
  3. We must ensure it’s accessible and easily navigated with a keyboard (including dropdown menus).
  4. Ideally, all strings should be translatable so we can offer translations.

For the customizer, this is not required, just some notes from me personally based on my experience helping non-technical users set up and build websites:

  1. Offer logo upload and site icon upload.
  2. Option for boxed layout and full site width.
  3. One accent color selection that styles most elements (links, buttons, etc.). A secondary color selection for hovering.
  4. It would be good to offer some sort of typography options, but not required.
  5. We can’t link to Google Fonts, so either we bundle fonts with the theme or use system fonts. We did discuss in the past offering Google Fonts selector, but the theme would be saved locally. Something to think about.
  6. It would be nice to offer page builder friendly page template, which basically has no title, no sidebars, and is full width. (For example, they could use your Mixmat plugin with page builder template to create a whole page layout.)
  7. Selection between left sidebar, right sidebar, no sidebar for default page layouts.

This may be too much, but we would want a theme to be useful to less technical users. Advanced users can easily use existing boilerplate themes, users with limited technical knowledge should be able to create a website quickly with a default theme. This is one of the things I see people mention a lot.

Come to think of it, some heavier customization options could be put into a companion plugin. Not required but available to users if they want more options to tweak that theme without writing code.

24

If there is no ‘current’ road map for a default theme “that will last for years” then I may just go ahead and finish ClassicSixteen on my own and submit it too the Themes – Directory

If getting away from the sixteen or even classic is important then the [original] plan of using the TwentySixteen wp theme as a basis for a Long Term default theme is going to change. I just liked the idea of using a theme that was near perfect for basic WP/CP stuff which is based on something WP built (originally) and we adopt as our own; to let people know that CP is about being slimmer and faster than WP yet at the same time is ‘based’ on WP (as a principal).

I could name it Seven of Nine and when it comes time to template the actual CP One; we could call that one “One of Millennium Two.” LOL :slight_smile:

25

while I got someone online… does the DocBlock in a file header use * @package WordPress* or SHOULD it be * @package ClassicPress ? (*since CP is using WP files.)

26

Making a ‘One Size’ fits all (could be a name) theme is rough. I can say early on I did struggle to try and find themes that fit a project without much modification. Over time I did pick a few that I used a lot, but none were perfect and certainly none were ‘one size’. As an example of how different developers needs probably are, in my ‘non-WordPress’ projects I became fair with bootstrap, so one day the light came on and since then I have mainly used (eventually my own) bootstrap based themes.

One thing that probably is true would be to focus on the basics as Viktor mentioned, starting with a ‘clean slate’ that can be boxed or full, and offers complete sidebar control.

27

@EliteStarServices Thanks for the response. I was mostly trying to create a default theme for CP. That is what this thread was started for.

Since CP ONLY has ClassicPress Twentysixteen as a child theme I was thinking it would be appropriate to have a Parent version of this that is NOT dependent on any WP theme structuring. There seemed to be some traction with @ElisabettaCarrara about using 2016 since it was well though out and responsive/mobile friendly.

So I guess at this point I will just finish “my” theme as classic-sixteen and call it a day. At least I will have a base theme to use on all my CP projects.

I do like One Size but even better “OneTheme” or FirstTheme or BaseTheme. or even BasePress or OnePress. See… it gets crazy and it might be easier to draw names from a hat. LOL

1 Like
28

@tradesouthwest
I was not trying to steer your direction all.
Just stating the difficultly of making everyone happy.
A theme that is perfect for my uses may be useless for yours.

Don’t let my use of the term WordPress confuse, I have made my stuff work in both CP and WP, but as a user of WP for over 15 years that is where my experience is, and while I am in the process of migrating over, one of the best things is that almost everything I learned using WP still applies in CP.

29

Theme is in a good production ready state as of today. https://github.com/tradesouthwest/classic-sixteen

Not sure how to submit it to the theme repo but will try next week; maybe after I add .pot file and clean up files.

30

So, let me chime in again.

In my head there is that we do not have much time to build the first LTS default theme that has to cover a long period.

This means that taking a theme from wp that is well coded, make it our own might e good.

On the name, thinking more into it @viktor might be right, we need a naming convention (they were starting at theme one to start a tradition, the next one would have been theme two and so on).
However I wouldn’t go with One because I never liked the fact that WP jumped over 2018 because they were busy. what happens when we fall in a rithm and at the certain point the rithm breaks? Let’s say instead that the naming goes on something like stars, or great programmers’ names or whatever. We just need to say: default themes are LTS, so they have basic “multipurpose” features. Their names take from this “insert topic here” and we release them with let’s say every major version.

About the it’s not easy to make everyone happy, we do not have to. We supply a very basic theme that can be used virtually to do whatever. it just needs the basic page templates and be flexible in terms of layout. My two cents:

  • color selector with presets - after long thinking is a no because it obliges people who do not know code to accept to adapt to it instead of branding the site with their colors.
  • yes to something like "here you can set primary, secondary and tertiary color - each one styles this and that) and so it’s on them to chose. Keep it simple because no one wants to repeat one color on a gazilions of settings, so just grouping the things that can be colored and allowing the selection of about 2/3 colors might be enough.
  • page templates - I would say we need boxed /full width, and all the standard bare minimum templates. I would however also add an option for a grid template (so that in case it’s an e-commerce site they can use it for the product page or it can be used for portfolio)
  • logo & favicon are a must for sure, maybe also offer couple of styles for the navigation (I would suggest logo on the left with menu on the same line left aligned with the sandwich menu might be one and logo in the middle with menu under logo is the second)
  • typography - here we can select some font pairings that look good and have them local fonts

Me thinks that if we apply all that to 2016 it becomes a great theme for CP, and we do not need much more because any other change can be made via custom css if they want to customize individual things on it, or they can fork it (they being the users here)

31

Have to agree w/ @ElisabettaCarrara on not adding too many color schemes etc. If you look at TwentyEleven - it has a dark mode and standard mode for color schemes. IMO this is ALL one would really want. As Elisabetta mentioned we don’t want to get too deep into creating themes that offer the world or are so over complex that a user never uses half of its resources. (waste of server spaces.)

That said; I completed ClassicSixteen. GitHub - tradesouthwest/ClassicSixteen: ClassicSixteen is based on WordPress theme Twenty Sixteen to conform with ClassicPress standards. Demo at: ClassicSixteen – ClassicPress Demo for ClassicSixteen TwentySixteen is fantastic without the color schemes and IE shivs. I removed several ‘things’ an added notes in the README.md file of what was removed. I added nothing, BUT now we [or at least now, I] have a base file to make child-themes with.

Can I ask how to submit this to the staging.classicpress plugin/theme repo? I noticed two themes in it at this time.

1 Like
32

Process is the same as plugin and you can submit it under the same account as your Mixmat plugin. Make sure to check directory requirements.

It must use GitHub Releases and you must upload your own copy of zip file to your release, so the download URLs are correct and you won’t have any problems with validation when submitting the form.

We’ll have more documentation available once we’re close to releasing the directory publicly.

33

This should most likely be the same as your theme name. @package helps group functions/classes together, so it makes sense that the “package” is the theme in this case. Here’s an example from another theme, Susty.

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34

I haven’t read the entire thread, but I’d like to take this opportunity to ask if it’s time to start working on a unique and original theme for ClassicPress: “One CP”.

1 Like
35

A base theme is currently in the works. We’ll have it available for testing and feedback soon.

4 Likes
36

Good News! :slight_smile:

1 Like