Fallen Tsubasa

Please download it here: Water 1.4.5 (157.6 KiB, 61 hits) - October 25, 2008

Fallen Tsubasa has released Water 1.4.5! This version has a few fixes that includes a Safari <li> image bug, hierachies in categories and pages, and etc. This is also the final 1.4 series release; I don’t plan on making any more changes to 1.4 unless a major bug is found. But please, if you find ANY bug, no matter how trivial or extreme that you think is related to the theme, please report it! I want to make this theme as fast, safe, and bugless as possible.

Water 1.4.5 actually is using one feature that was planned for 1.5 - a JavaScripted Version Checker. What this does is that it downloads a .js file from our server and then executes it. After it’s executed, it will write down all the information about the theme and such, as you can see yourself in 1.4.5. This method of version checking is much more efficient and user friendly to me as it doesn’t use ‘ugly’ frames and isn’t limited to a few hundred pixels. I just want to say that WHEN 1.5 is released, it is in no way mandatory to download! Of course, nothing’s ever mandatory on the internet, but what I mean is that you don’t need to have it to have updated features and such. As I said in the previous post, a lot of non-theme related [i.e. plugin related] features were removed in the coming 1.5.

I hope everyone has a great time and no problems with 1.4.5!

Currently here are my thoughts for what will happen in Water 1.5:

Modernization of Settings

• A sub-sub menu is added.
• Will look like the Settings page of Wordpress itself.
• Better version-checking utility - it doesn’t require frames OR PHP code anymore. Instead it’ll use JavaScript.
• Deletion of individual settings; this can be considered the setting ‘reset’ mechanism. I cannot say what has been removed, but once everything is near it’s β(beta) stage, I’ll post it and state the reason why it was removed.
• A few options were removed, but a few more options will be added.
• Finally (as far as I know), there will be better setting descriptions! Cookies to Syaoran, the head Administrator.
• There will be a feature where there is an option to make the blog display only your latest post and everything else is unviewable until logged in.

Changes to the theme

• CSS is stored into a PHP file, again.
• Along with the CSS changes, there will be fixes to what was considered “unffixable”; the Safari’s list-item bug.
• Ability to move the tagline of the blog to the top-left/right or bottom-left/right.
• Ability to control the amount of columns you want - 1, 2, or 3. Columns, being the post entries AND the sidebar(s) together.
• Comments layout will be changed to be able to look nice with and without the Gravatar.
• Tab fixes in which hierarchies of pages/categories messed up the links.
• The “Extra Tab” has been removed.
• Certain “Yes or No” settings have been removed and have been changed to just “Leave empty if you want it disabled.”
• With an attempt to speed up the theme, settings will be placed into an array. To add to it, post content-loopers are going to become string returners so that the content can become evaluated. Here’s (a fake example of) what I mean:

return ‘       <div class=”the_content”>
<?php
‘ . ( !$not_single ?  ‘the_content();’ : ( !$water['excerpt_index'] ? ‘the_content(\’<br /><br />Continue Reading \’ . the_title(\’”\’, \’”\’, false));’ :
‘the_excerpt(); echo \’<a href=”\’, the_permalink(), \’” title=”\’, the_title(\’Continue Reading &quot;\’, \’&quot;\’, false) ,\’”>Continue Reading \’ . the_title(\’&quot;\’, \’&quot;\’, false), \’</a>\’;')) .
‘?></div>’);

This is all that I plan to do, for now. If you have ANY suggestions, please tell me here or in my board so that 1.5 can be better than ever.

Sorry guys, this was a rushed and a maintenance release as well as being fully up to standards with WordPress. A tagline for the blog was added, it was not supported until now so we can cross this one off the list. There was a bunch of random fixing within the theme as well. For those who want taglines <those cool special words that you want people to see along with the title of the blog> to show in the theme, please update.

The reason why this release goes into the 4th digit is because we had released a 1.4.4 but, was quickly replaced with 1.4.4.1

Get it here: Water 1.4.4.1 (158.5 KiB, 136 hits) - September 4, 2008

This one is a maintenance release from 1.4.2 and there are quite a few changes code-wise.

There were AJAX fixes along with a few other bugs discovered by mistake. There is a modified header image that is probably not noticeable anyway and as you should know, it is GPL v2 compliant. A CSS save error solution was added into the theme but, it is not noticeable unless there is a save error. There was also a purge of obsolete features and it certainly won’t be the last that it will happen. A custom CSS box was added so that you can add whatever css feature you want without going into the file and add to it. The most noticeable change and one my favorite one is the new Version Checker tab with a new look which is so much nicer than the previous layouts and whats so good about this version is that it shows a changelog of the latest released version and it is another reason to upgrade.

In the next version, we have currently planned a 1 and 3 column version integrated into the theme as well along with a purge of useless features and better descriptions that anyone can understand. A new options panel will also be in the next version.

Water 1.4.3 contains bug fixes the incorrect time issues and various other bugs. If there are any other bugs within the theme currently, please report the bugs you have found so it can be fixed right away. Releasing many themes within a short time does annoy people that want an up to date theme constantly with all these releases.

There are many changes within the code structures since the release with 100% SEO compatibility. Tags have been added along with gravitar support. The water setting control panel has been restructured and enhanced further for all our convinces.

SEO campatiblity also depends on how update to date your plugins are so if it is not 100% with an SEO Tester, please check your plugins.

I’m proud to say that I’ve fixed all (hopefully) HTML bugs in both blog view and settings view. I would like to thank the administrator of WordPress Theme Review for this as it made me realize that blog themes should have better search engine codes. I’ve checked that SEO validates 100/100 and HTML validates - for both index and page view. We’re actually using Water 1.4b on our site right now.

Another thing is that I flicked off “stable” - it was never supposed to be there as Syaoran can’t code [yet]. While I’m talking about coding, I’m still in need of more coders! As stated in the forums, I’ll have to interview you over the internet… I know this sounds weird, but I need to actually know how good you are at coding and if you’re really going to benefit Fallen Tsubasa’s group; I don’t want anyone who’s inexperienced to be in it. Syaoran’s an exception as he’ll manage the forum and is trustable.

In case anyone is wondering: A custom JS color selector will not be implemented to Water. No one asked yet, but just wanted to point this out. If you want to learn more about color codes, please google them! Just note that for the setting page, you must also input “#” in front of the color code for it to work properly. But I digress, here are a few new things about Water 1.4b:

• Javascript is used a LOT more in settings.
• If certain options are empty/set to “no”, other options will be hidden (display: none;)
• Code organization - I’ve shortened the codes by partitioning them into another folder (inc).
• Code fixes/optimization - There were a few bugs - such as the Options tab’s login bug, which is described below:
• - CSS merging placed into a single function.
• - All theme options are removed when resetting - used to remove old, obsolete settings.
• - Better way to control who can view excluded pages/categories - there is no more “0: Subscriber…” and stuff anymore, it’s just: Guest, Subscriber, Author, Editor, Administrator, and None.
• - AJAX uses a different image now and won’t redirect you to #comments when clicking on another page.
• Settings are basically simpler - they don’t really use tables anymore. I believe this’ll make it more user friendly and clean.
• A few more options relating to how comments are displayed prior to 1.4a (or 1.4 for short) and after 1.4 (i.e. newer comment settings as you can see here).

Also, for the top of the settings page, the Reset button was removed and at the bottom the Save button was removed. The reason for this is that I couldn’t find out what the problem was in IE that made a little margin-left for buttons.

Water 1.4.1 was originally going to be released but, since there were so many changes in the coding structure that it will be 1.4.2 instead. It has all the bug fixes of 1.4.1 so no fear people.

Water 1.4.1 will have bug fixes and will be more SEO compliant. As for when it will be completed, it could be very soon so stay tuned. I have to thank Shinsou for doing all the hard work but, I just can’t help it, so thanks Shinsou!

I am proud to announce that Water 1.4 has been released! Of course, this theme is aimed for the up-to-date users of WordPress. So if you haven’t upgraded yet, please upgrade! If you have any problems installing Water 1.4 or have suggestions, please post it in our Support Board (look at Blogroll).

Main features of Water 1.4:

1. Compacted Theme Options.
2. MORE theme options.
3. Clean and fast - the style.css will only update when you enter the Theme Options page.
4. Uses some Javascript and AJAX.
5. To add to the aboves, the theme option of AJAX comments - see your comments bit by bit instead of all in one!
6. Should be compatible with all updated browsers (but cannot ensure updated browsers with different computers besides Microsoft Windows).
7. Moving around of things (like edit button) for better look.

Here are some screen shots of the most of the Theme Options:

The creation of this blog is dedicated to Fallen Tsubasa. This shall be for the news or thoughts of what we think of the theme and etc.

Please, this still does not replace the forums. This blog is for bigger announcements, while the forums is for support and such.

Regards.