Tony Thomas » wordpress

Baseline Theme Version 1.0.1

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:19:32 +0000

There is a new version of the Baseline Theme. In the last few days of tinkering with it and modifying it for use with this website, I noticed a small bug. The Blueprint IE reset was acting funny in conjunction with the IE8 JavaScript. I chose to make IE8.js the default with the option of including Blueprint’s reset instead. Here is the pertinent change in header.php:





*/

?>

You can download the theme here.Similar Posts:

Blueprint Optional Fancy-Type Plugin

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:58:38 +0000

The Baseline Development Wordpress Theme has Blueprint plugged in already. There are some optional Blueprint plugins you can take advantage of. We’ll take a look at the fancy-type plug-in.

First of all, to link it in just add this to header.php:

The first thing this will do for you is indent your paragraphs:

/* Indentation instead of line shifts for sibling paragraphs. */
   p + p { text-indent:2em; margin-top:-1.5em; }
   form p + p  { text-indent: 0; } /* Don't want this in forms. */

Next up is the alt class for some fancy type:

/* For great looking type, use this code instead of asdf:
   asdf
   Best used on prepositions and ampersands. */

.alt {
  color: #666;
  font-family: "Warnock Pro", "Goudy Old Style","Palatino","Book Antiqua", Georgia, serif;
  font-style: italic;
  font-weight: normal;
}

You also get a class for fancy quote marks:

/* For great looking quote marks in titles, replace "asdf" with:
   “asdf”
   (That is, when the title starts with a quote mark).
   (You may have to change this value depending on your font size). */

.dquo { margin-left: -.5em; }

Reduced size type with incremental leading:

/* Reduced size type with incremental leading
   (http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/comments/incremental_leading/)

   This could be used for side notes. For smaller type, you don't necessarily want to
   follow the 1.5x vertical rhythm -- the line-height is too much.

   Using this class, it reduces your font size and line-height so that for
   every four lines of normal sized type, there is five lines of the sidenote. eg:

   New type size in em's:
     10px (wanted side note size) / 12px (existing base size) = 0.8333 (new type size in ems)

   New line-height value:
     12px x 1.5 = 18px (old line-height)
     18px x 4 = 72px
     72px / 5 = 14.4px (new line height)
     14.4px / 10px = 1.44 (new line height in em's) */

p.incr, .incr p {
	font-size: 10px;
	line-height: 1.44em;
	margin-bottom: 1.5em;
}

And finally the caps class:

/* Surround uppercase words and abbreviations with this class.
   Based on work by Jørgen Arnor Gårdsø Lom [http://twistedintellect.com/] */

.caps {
  font-variant: small-caps;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
  text-transform: lowercase;
  font-size:1.2em;
  line-height:1%;
  font-weight:bold;
  padding:0 2px;
}

Go here to take a look at what these classes do in practice.Similar Posts:

Why Use Blueprint and the 960 Grid System in the Baseline Theme?

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:55:11 +0000

An Inventory of Blueprint’s Style Resets and Useful Classes

A friend contacted me about using the Baseline Wordpress theme, but asked why I included both Blueprint and the 960 Grid System. The short answer is that Blueprint has a number of browser resets that I like to take advantage of and 960 GS offers greater flexibility in terms of the width of columns and their gutter widths. Especially if you want to adhere to the Golden Ratio for design. 960 pixels divides very neatly into 3.

Let’s take a look at what Blueprint does to reset some things to establish a cross-browser baseline. First of all, all browsers have their own default style sheet for styling HTML elements. For example, here is Firefox’s style sheet that defines how the browser will render HTML if you don’t define any styles. Unfortunately, all browser’s default style sheets vary. Blueprint resets everything to level the field. Let’s take a look at src/reset.css in your Blueprint directory.

/* --------------------------------------------------------------

   reset.css
   * Resets default browser CSS.

-------------------------------------------------------------- */

html, body, div, span, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, code,
del, dfn, em, img, q, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
  font-weight: inherit;
  font-style: inherit;
  font-size: 100%;
  font-family: inherit;
  vertical-align: baseline;
}

body {
  line-height: 1.5;
}

/* Tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup. */
table { border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0; }
caption, th, td { text-align: left; font-weight: normal; }
table, td, th { vertical-align: middle; }

/* Remove possible quote marks (") from , . */
blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ""; }
blockquote, q { quotes: "" ""; }

/* Remove annoying border on linked images. */
a img { border: none; }

I don’t want to spend tons of time going over this except to say that the cascading nature of cascading styles means that no matter what your browser’s default style sheet is, all of the tags above have now been reset.

Just as important is Blueprint’s treatment of type. If we look at src/typography.css, we’ll find that all of the font sizes have been reset. This is very important and saves lots of time getting things to look the same across browsers. First it resets font size for the body and sets the default font families to sans-serif:

/* Default font settings.
   The font-size percentage is of 16px. (0.75 * 16px = 12px) */
body {
  font-size: 75%;
  color: #222;
  background: #fff;
  font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

Next the headings are all reset. First the font weight (curiously) is set to “normal” and the color set to #111 (black):

h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { font-weight: normal; color: #111; }

Then the sizes and bottom margins are set:

h1 { font-size: 3em; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
h2 { font-size: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; }
h3 { font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 1em; }
h4 { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.25; margin-bottom: 1.25em; }
h5 { font-size: 1em; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }
h6 { font-size: 1em; font-weight: bold; }

After that, margins are removed from any images within headings:

h1 img, h2 img, h3 img,
h4 img, h5 img, h6 img {
  margin: 0;
}

After headings, we come to the p tag. Zero margin on top, left and right with a 1.5 em margin at the bottom of each paragraph:

p           { margin: 0 0 1.5em; }

Next, alignment classes for images with 1.5 em margins and 0 padding:

p img.left  { float: left; margin: 1.5em 1.5em 1.5em 0; padding: 0; }
p img.right { float: right; margin: 1.5em 0 1.5em 1.5em; }

Anchors come after that with a default blue color and black hover and focus pseudoclasses:

a:focus,
a:hover     { color: #000; }
a           { color: #009; text-decoration: underline; }

blockquote get’s a margin, gray color and italics:

blockquote  { margin: 1.5em; color: #666; font-style: italic; }

The strong tag is bold–as it should be:

strong      { font-weight: bold; }

The em and dfn tags are italicized and dfn is bold:

em,dfn      { font-style: italic; }
dfn         { font-weight: bold; }

The sup and sub tags get a line height of zero:

sup, sub    { line-height: 0; }

The abbr and acronym tags are gray and get a dotted bottom border (which I find a little curious):

abbr,
acronym     { border-bottom: 1px dotted #666; }

address tags get the same margin as paragraphs but with italics:

address     { margin: 0 0 1.5em; font-style: italic; }

The del tag (which you should be using instead of strike) gets a gray color:

del         { color:#666; }

Preformatted (pre) tags get at 1.5 em top and bottom margin and a zero right and left margin. Also, pre, code & tt are set to monospace fonts at 1 em with a line-height of 1.5 em:

pre 				{ margin: 1.5em 0; white-space: pre; }
pre,code,tt { font: 1em 'andale mono', 'lucida console', monospace; line-height: 1.5; }

After that we move on to lists. Nested lists (ol & ul) get a zero top and bottom margin with a 1.5 em right and left margin:

li ul,
li ol       { margin:0 1.5em; }

All lists get a zero top margin, 1.5 em right margin, 1.5 em bottom margin and a 1.5 em left margin:

ul, ol      { margin: 0 1.5em 1.5em 1.5em; }

Unordered lists default to a disc style and ordered lists are set to decimal for their list style:

ul          { list-style-type: disc; }
ol          { list-style-type: decimal; }

Definition list margins are set. dl and dt tags are set to bold:

dl          { margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; }
dl dt       { font-weight: bold; }
dd          { margin-left: 1.5em;}

Tables are up next. Tables themselves get a 1.4 em bottom margin and 100% width. Table headers (th) are bold with #c3d9ff background color. Table headings, table data (td) and caption get some padding. A table row (tr) “even” class is established with a different background color. Table footers (tfoot) are italicized and finally, caption is given a background color of #eee.

table       { margin-bottom: 1.4em; width:100%; }
th          { font-weight: bold; }
thead th 		{ background: #c3d9ff; }
th,td,caption { padding: 4px 10px 4px 5px; }
tr.even td  { background: #e5ecf9; }
tfoot       { font-style: italic; }
caption     { background: #eee; }

Finally we get to “Miscellaneous Classes”. small, large and hide classes are pretty self explanatory:

.small      { font-size: .8em; margin-bottom: 1.875em; line-height: 1.875em; }
.large      { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 2.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; }
.hide       { display: none; }

Some useful classes are established next with loud, highlight, added and removed. The quiet class is simple set to gray.:

.quiet      { color: #666; }

loud is set to black:

.loud       { color: #000; }

highlight has a yellow background:

.highlight  { background:#ff0; }

added has a green background with white text:

.added      { background:#060; color: #fff; }

And removed has a dark red background with white text:

.removed    { background:#900; color: #fff; }

Finally, there are first, last, top and bottom classes. First just makes sure there is no margin or padding on the left:

.first      { margin-left:0; padding-left:0; }

last does the same, but on the right:

.last       { margin-right:0; padding-right:0; }

top does what first and last did, but on the top (of course):

.top        { margin-top:0; padding-top:0; }

And bottom does what first, last and top did, but does it on the bottom:

.bottom     { margin-bottom:0; padding-bottom:0; }

Finally, we’re going to take a look at what Blueprint offers for forms. Let’s take a look at src/forms.css. The first thing we have is some styling for label, fieldset and legend tags.

Labels are bold, fieldset has a 1.4 em padding and a 1.5 em bottom margin with a gray border. legend is also bold with a 1.2 em font-size:

label       { font-weight: bold; }
fieldset    { padding:1.4em; margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; border: 1px solid #ccc; }
legend      { font-weight: bold; font-size:1.2em; }

Next text and title classes are established for input tags and they are given the same formatting as textarea and select tags:

input.text, input.title,
textarea, select {
  margin:0.5em 0;
  border:1px solid #bbb;
}

Next pseudoclasses are formatted for focus on form elements to change the border to black.

input.text:focus, input.title:focus,
textarea:focus, select:focus {
  border:1px solid #666;
}

Next up input text classes are set to 300px wide with 5px padding. The input title class is also given a 1.5 em font size. textarea is a little wider and higher with 5px of padding:

input.text,
input.title   { width: 300px; padding:5px; }
input.title   { font-size:1.5em; }
textarea      { width: 390px; height: 250px; padding:5px; }

Last but absolutely not least are some nice form validation classes you can take advantage of. The notice, success and error classes function for just what their names suggest. By now I’m going to assume you can read the styles so I won’t inventory these one by one except to say that they’re nice, intuitive classes for form validation.

.error,
.notice,
.success    { padding: .8em; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 2px solid #ddd; }

.error      { background: #FBE3E4; color: #8a1f11; border-color: #FBC2C4; }
.notice     { background: #FFF6BF; color: #514721; border-color: #FFD324; }
.success    { background: #E6EFC2; color: #264409; border-color: #C6D880; }
.error a    { color: #8a1f11; }
.notice a   { color: #514721; }
.success a  { color: #264409; }

The point of all of this is that none of these are reset by the 960 grid established in the Baseline theme. Blueprint does a really nice job of resetting your styles and also includes a handful of other useful classes. What it doesn’t offer that the 960 Grid System does is flexibility with design width, column width and gutter width. That’s why I decided to rely on the 960 Grid System for establishing the columns and combine it with Blueprint for it’s wonderful job of resetting the styles.

Plus, I’ve been meaning to document all of these styles in Blueprint for a while now. If you don’t use my Baseline theme, this may also provide useful in terms of documenting what Blueprint is doing for you. Take a look at this page to see what some of the classes like error or success look like.Similar Posts:

Introducing the Baseline Development Wordpress Theme

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:53:16 +0000

I’ve come up with some habits that I’ve developed from building themes for Wordpress over the years. One, is to start with a nearly blank style sheet. I also like to hook in several JavaScript libraries and CSS frameworks from the start to take advantage of things like JQuery, Blueprint’s CSS reset and Superfish menus.

I’ve decided to build and release an XHTML 1.0 version and release it as a springboard for others who may want to take advantage of the same sets of tools. The theme isn’t much to look at (that’s the point), but it includes:

Blueprint CSS framework
960 Grid System
JQuery 1.4.0
JQuery UI 1.7.1
Superfish JQuery menu (with HoverIntent.js)
IE8 JavaScript Library
Widget-enabled sidebar
Test Content file from WP-Candy
Valid XHTML 1.0

More information here.

If you want to use all of these tools, you’re all set. If you want to use a few, it’s just a matter of removing them from header.php.

First off, I really like Blueprint’s browser reset, so I wanted to include that here. I also like the flexibility the 960 Grid System offers in terms of column width. As a result, I’ve included them both.

If you don’t wish to use any of these, simply remove them from header.php. Next up is the Superfish CSS:

You must keep this if you’re using Superfish. If you’re not going to use Superfish, you should remove these lines too:

Next is Blueprint’s Internet Explorer CSS reset:

I’ve also had good luck using the IE8 JavaScript library, so that’s included next:

Then JQuery and JQuery UI libraries:

That’s it. All the frameworks and libraries are loaded. If you don’t think you’ll need any one of them, you can just take them out. WARNING: The layout of the columns does rely on the 960 Grid System CSS file. If you take that out of the head the columns won’t work and you’ll break the layout.

Otherwise this should give you a good start that will allow you to take advantage of tons of cool JQuery stuff and leverages a very popular CSS Grid System for laying out columns. It should be easy to modify this theme to fit your own design.

Download the theme here.Similar Posts:

Wordpress’ Auto Update Is OK, But The Command Line Is Faster

admin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 03:38:06 +0000

I recently found a great article about upgrading Wordpress from the command line. If you’re familiar with a command line interface at all, it’s by far the simplest way to upgrade your Wordpress install.

You can apply the same method to upgrading your Wordpress plugins.

Log in to your web server and cd to the Wordpress plugins directory:cd httpdocs/wp-content/plugins
Your syntax may vary depending on your server.
Download the new version of the plugin. In my case I’m upgrading the Social Homes plug in.
wget http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/social-homes.2.3.zip
Back up your current plugin directory
tar -zcvf social-homes.tar.gz social-homes
Unzip the zip file of the new version
unzip social-homes.2.3.zip
- You’ll be prompted to confirm you want to overwrite the files in the social-homes directory
  replace social-homes/COPYING.txt? [y]es, [n]o, [A]ll, [N]one, [r]ename:
- Type ‘A’ and hit return to overwrite the old files with the new ones.
Log into Wordpress to make sure the upgrade worked by going to the “Plugins” panel in the admin area.
Clean up your mess
rm social-homes.2.3.zip rm social-homes.tar.gz

You’re done. You’ve successfully upgraded your plugin. This process can be much faster than downloading the plugin to your local directory, deactivating it in Wordpress and uploading the new one. Especially if the plugin is a large one.Similar Posts:

Incorporating Blueprint CSS Into Your New Wordpress Theme

admin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:07:09 +0000

If you’re familiar with the Blueprint CSS framework, you already know it can make your life a lot easier. So how do you get it into your Wordpress theme? Luckily, Wordpress is designed to make your life easier too.

I’m assuming your know the basics of Wordpress Theme Development. That is, at the very least you need:

header.php
footer.php
index.php
style.css

Put those files in a folder named after your theme. And put that folder in /wordpressroot/wp-content/themes/.

Once you’ve gotten that far, download the Blueprint CSS Framework and drop the “blueprint” folder from that download into your theme’s directory.

Finally, to include the new CSS files into your theme, just add this code to your header:

Pay attention to the order. You want to make sure that href="" appears last in the list of style sheets. That’s your style.css where you can tailor the CSS for your specific design.

That’s it.Similar Posts:

My Private Summer of Coding

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:02:52 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I met with Garrick VanBuren to talk about cullect.com. I came away from the lunch excited about two things: Trying out some of the features in cullect that I hadn’t quite understood before and giving Ruby on Rails another shot.

I went to lunch with Garrick to offer him some feedback about why I hadn’t adopted cullect yet. (I’ve had an account for about 7 months.) A few colleagues were raving about it. I knew I had to be missing something. I was.

While I think cullect has a way to go before widespread adoption (it runs a little slow on my PowerBook), I see what everyone else likes about it and more importantly, I see lots of potential. So, nice work Garrick. I drank the Kool-Aid. I now curate a small batch of feeds about music and “recommend” posts so the best rise to the top in my “Important” list. This way I can also repurpose those same articles to Minneapoliscast. In other words, I can repurpose content so that relevant reading is included with what I publish. It’s fun and it’s cool.

I’m not even going to talk about how you can pay cullect so that part of your monthly subscription goes to publishers you read. I can’t even tell you how cool I think that is.

What I really wanted to write about is how I came away from our conversation inspired to try Ruby on Rails. I’ve been toying with RoR for about a year now. As I started working my way through Agile Web Development on Rails last year, the realization gradually dawned on me that I was going to have to sit down and learn Ruby. So I bought a pdf version of Programming Ruby, but I didn’t really get very far before other duties called. I just didn’t have time to learn a new language.

After talking with Garrick I was determined to give it another shot. Then I thought, there has to be a Rails-like set of tools for PHP–a language I’ve been working in for years. That thought and a quick Google search led me to CakePHP.

Two weeks later and I’m near completion of the first module to manage clinic and lab data here at work. Once I got my head wrapped around MVC and the built-in helpers in CakePHP, the development got faster and faster. (Disclosure: The database was already fully envisioned and built beforehand. An important first step.) I can’t tell you how gratifying it is to quickly code something in a few lines, test it and have it work. I have a whole summer of coding ahead of me. I’m very excited to deploy this application by fall.

On a final note, I was feeling a little cocky, so I coded my first Wordpress plugin yesterday too. Again, easy. It’s not quite ready for public release yet but with a little tweaking, I might just release it. Basically it just pulls in PodPress data and lists the ten most popular podcasts on Minneapoliscast.

I was a little worried that with our research slowing down over the summer I was going to be bored. Now I’m really looking forward to the coming months. Fun stuff.Similar Posts: