I think that’s the clearest sign that it’s just not fair to keep accepting new signups, so PliablePress is closing down for good now.

I want to thank everyone who has purchased our themes over the past 2 years. It really has been awesome to see so many of you publishing great content with the help of our themes (And especially awesome when yous tweaked and changed to make them totally your own!)

And thank you for all of your support. There have been a lot of kind words and good feedback over that time, which I’m hugely thankful for. I’m just sorry I wasn’t able to keep it up for yous.

There is no good way for me to do this, and I realize that this leaves a number of you in a not-so-great spot, so I’m going to do 3 things:

• 1 – Although I can no longer help with customizations, if you have a major “my site is broken” issue, you can email me at michael@problogdesign.com and I’ll still do what I can to help.
• 2 – If you signed up between now and the 1st of January, your payment will be refunded in full (Unless you signed up via CoolHandle, as those signups include hosting from our partnership there and your payment was made directly to them, not me).
• 3 – I am working on other projects, and in thanks to everyone who joined up with us here, you will all get some sort of free access come the time. It’s nothing to do with WordPress themes, so I can’t promise you’ll be interested, but if you are, consider it an apology gift.

And as a last note, to all of our affiliates, I have now paid out all remaining earnings so your account should be fully up to date now. Thank you for all of your help over the 2 years, yous were awesome!

I know that’s still not ideal, but it’s the best I can do. I’m sorry that it has come to this.

I wish you all the best with your sites,
Michael

It is important that everyone takes steps to fix this issue. To do this, you need to do the following:

• Go here, and save this file as timthumb.php (Or just right click that link and choose “Save Target As”).
• Log into your site via FTP.
• Browse to wp-content > themes > pliablepress > admin > scripts
• Upload your new timthumb.php file over the one in that folder.
• Open the “cache” folder (In the same location as timthumb.php) and delete everything inside it.

If you are not sure how to use FTP, please contact your webhost for further advice. If needs be, tell them it is to solve this widespread security issue and they may even do it for you (Hacked sites are in no-one’s benefit!).

(Just as a sidenote; the vast majority of our resizing is done using WordPress’ built-in functionality, however, TimThumb is there for anyone who used to use custom fields to set post thumbnails)

However, our pace of theme development definitely hasn’t been as I originally planned. We haven’t been lazy; we’ve brought out a tonne of updates to our framework, and updated each of our themes several times as well. But in terms of bringing out new themes; we fell behind, no doubt about it.

That’s a consequence of us being a very small team here. Really, there are just two of us. And as we also do a lot of client work, we haven’t been able to schedule nearly enough time to new theme development for PliablePress.

So far.

One way or the other, things are going to change. Our first 6 months were great. Our past 6 months haven’t been so great (Support and bug-fixes have never paused at any point though! And still a constant stream of new customers, so don’t read this as an obituary either! ).

I need to sit down and work out what is best for PliablePress, and what is best for our customers.

The first step in that is buying more time. All of our individual theme purchases are lifetime payments, so everyone there is sorted already. For our Plus+ customers though, you paid for an annual subscription and as part of that you expected to see more themes than you did. For that, I’m giving everyone who bought a Plus+ membership from us in 2010 an extra year, totally free.

You don’t have to do anything to get it. Your account has already been upgraded, and won’t expire until 2012 now.

I’ll be keeping you updated here as we start to plan the new future for PliablePress! And in the meantime, thank you for joining us and bearing with us as we find our feet!

On the form, Melondome asked if it was possible to embed posts from a certain category into a page. I’m going to show you how to do it here (And it’s a great example of just how powerful hooks can be!)

You can see the end result on the Aquinas Grammar School website, where they have a Page for each subject, and the posts about that subject embedded below.

We will set this up so that when you write a page, you name the category to use in a custom field. That way, you can choose what category to use on each page, and if you don’t want any posts embedded on a certain page, you just leave out the custom field there.

1 – Options custom/functions.php

We want to make this change so that we won’t ever lose it when we update our theme. That means that you need to open up your pliablepress>custom>functions.php file (And all of the code goes between the <?php and ?> tags already in that file).

2 – Set up our Category Posts Function

The first thing we will do is create a simple function that we will later to use get our posts and display them. For now though, all we want it do is print out a success message for part 3.

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function add_category_posts() {
	echo 'It worked!';
}

3 – Call Our add_category_posts() Function When Needed

We now want to write a new function that will call the one above, but only when we are on a page that has the “category” custom field.

Below the function you just added, paste the following:

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function embed_category_posts() {
	if(is_page() ) {
		global $post;
		$category = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'category', true);
 
		if(!empty($category))
			add_action('ply_after_post_content', 'add_category_posts');
	}
}
add_action('ply_head', 'embed_category_posts');

The code above begins by checking if we are on a page. If we are, it then checks for the ‘category’ custom field. If it finds one, then it calls our add_category_posts() function (After the post content, so our category posts will show up after the normal page content).

The final add_action line tells this new function to run each time a page is loaded.

4 – Add Our Post Loop

If you’ve done everything right so far, then if you add a “category” custom field to a Page and enter the name of one of your categories, then at the end of that page, you should see the message “It worked!”.

Now, go back to the add_category_posts() function from step 2, and delete the echo “It worked!”l line. Replace the whole function with this instead:

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function add_category_posts() {
	/* Get our category name. */
	global $post;
	$category = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'category', true);
 
	/* Using the name, let's find the category's ID
	 * and it's proper permalink.
	 */
	$catID = get_cat_ID($category);
	$catURL = get_category_link($catID);
	$feedURL = $catURL . 'feed/';
 
	/* Print out a line explaining where these posts are from
	 * And include the feed address.
	 */
	echo '<hr /><br /><p>The latest '. $category .' news: (<a href="'. $feedURL .'">RSS Feed</a>)</p>';
 
	/* Start a new loop of our posts. */
	$customLoop = new WP_Query('posts_per_page=8&cat='. $catID);
	if ($customLoop->have_posts()) : while ($customLoop->have_posts()) : $customLoop->the_post(); 
		/* We're using the Oracle theme here, so the
		 * code below is taken straight from Oracle's
		 * loop-home.php file.
		 */
		?>
		<div class="custom-category-post">
			<?php ply_oracle_before_home_main_post(); ?>
 
			<h2 class="home-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
 
			<?php ply_oracle_after_home_main_post(); ?>
		</div>
	<?php endwhile; else :
		/* If there are no posts, let them know. */
		echo '<p>Sorry, there are no posts in the '. $category .' category yet.</p>';
	endif;
}

There’s quite a lot going on there, but I’ve broken it into chunks and used comments to explain what section is doing. Essentially, we’re just getting the category name and using that to list some posts from that category.

In this example, I’ve been using Oracle, so the code between $customLoop->the_post(); ?> and

However, you can put any loop code you like here, e.g. if you are using any of our other themes, just look for the loop code they use (Usually in a loop.php file) and copy it, or write your own code (Like you would in any regular WordPress theme)

And with that done, you’re fully set!

If you try out this tutorial and have any trouble, just post in our forum! (Or if there’s something else you’d like to see a guide on, let me know!)

For example, all of your posts right now look the same. However, if you wanted to publish a quick link instead of a full article, then clicking the “Link” custom format would lay out your post slightly differently (e.g. perhaps no post title, author, date etc. or a different background color on it, or a link icon).

Some examples of formats would be links, videos, images, short asides, and quotes.

I’d love to get your feedback on how much you would use this if we were to add it to our themes. Would you prefer custom formatting for these types of content, or would you rather keep all of your posts looking consistent?

(Other things we’re working on at the minute are finally publishing our next theme, as well as designing the one coming after, and the long awaited style options. Would post formats come above these to you, or would you prefer them to wait to after, even if you do want them?)

We’re teaming up with the guys at Cool Handle webhosting to offer you a great deal; a free theme from us when you sign up to their hosting (Plus support and upgrades as normal of course!).

Webhosting is a cost that you are already paying, or are going to have to pay if you’re still thinking about setting up a site of your own. But now if you choose Cool Handle to be your webhost, then you can get your PliablePress theme for free.

The full details are on our partnership page, but there is no fine print and no catch. You even still get the full 30 day moneyback guarantee. If you’d like to look around on Cool Handle, check out the PliablePress page here!

The video above is a quick walk through that shows you each of the new features and how to use it. If you’d like a summary though, here’s what we’ve added:

• Code Editor Panel – Want to tweak your CSS or add a new hook? You can do both from the admin panel now.
• Update Notifications – It hasn’t always been clear when new versions are out. Now you’ll see a message on the PliablePress > General page, and it will even tell you what’s new in this version!
• Style Options – We’ve paved the way for a full style options panel here. The first step, available in this release, is a new way of choosing your color schemes. No more separate themes for each color, it’s all in the one location.
• Import/Export Your Settings – Have a test site as well as your live site? Develop sites locally for a client first? Now it’s easy to copy your PliablePress settings between the two.
• Easier Install and Upgrade – Installing is easier now (Mostly because the color schemes are all one theme!), and now upgrading just means overwriting the old folder with the new one.
• Improved Security – We’ve added nonce checks for everything now, so PliablePress 1.2 is that bit safer as well.

There are a few other bugfixes and updates, but those are the main ones!

Important: Upgrading to 1.2

Version 1.2 has a lot of fundamental changes in our themes, specifically in how we make customizations. For that reason, upgrading from a previous version has a few extra steps (Don’t worry, you’ll only ever have to do this once! Upgrades from them on will be simpler than ever).

Here is the process to follow to upgrade to 1.2: (Be careful to do this in order so that you don’t lose any customizations you made before!)

The framework has been renamed to pliablepress, based on your feedback here, so the Chameleon folder is no longer needed.

1. Download the PliablePress theme from your members area, as well as your theme of choice (Oracle, MyBiz etc.).
2. If you had made customizations previously, copy your style.css and functions.php files to your computer (All future customizations will be in pliablepress>custom folder).
3. Upload the pliablepress folder and your new theme folder to your wp-content>themes directory.
4. In the pliablepress folder, rename the “custom-sample” folder to “custom”.
5. In the custom folder, modify the permissions of style.css (And optionally functions.php) to 777 (Read more on how to do this here).
6. Activate your theme via Appearance in the WordPress dashboard.
7. Use PliablePress > Style to choose your color scheme.
8. If you copied customizations over in step 2, you should now enter these into the two boxes on PliablePress > Code, and then hit save.

I know that upgrade process is more involved than you would normally like, but these changes are important for us (Particularly for building the full style options panel), so it will be well worth it!

If you have trouble making the upgrade, or you’re worried about losing your customizations, post in the forum and I’ll help out. I’ll even go as far as to make the upgrade for you. That’s how much I want to bring everyone up to 1.2!

What Will Happen to Chameleon?

With the framework renamed to the simpler PliablePress Framework, it means that Chameleon as we know it is gone. I love the name though and as you can see clearly on this site, the Chameleon is still a big part of our image.

So here’s my promise; Chameleon will be back. It won’t be our framework again, instead it will be a new theme which lives up very well to its name. In other words, it’s going to make very good use of our style options panel when we finish developing it!

Your Thoughts on 1.2

I’d love to hear what you think of the updates! Could we have done any of them better? Anything we’ve missed out that you’d like to see next?

Lately though, we’ve been wondering if we named it right. The name is cool and it shows our vision for the framework clearly (It can become whatever it wants to become), but is that clear to anyone who isn’t already familiar with it?

I’d love to get your response to a question, if you have a minute: When you first saw/heard of Chameleon, did you know what it was? (i.e. did you know that it was a framework, or did it seem like just another theme?)

The alternative we’re considering is to change the name to the simpler, more obvious: PliablePress Framework.

Which would you prefer? And thank you for helping us out!

If you have a minute, I’d love to get more feedback from you here. I’m going to be away for the next two weeks, but when I get back, it’s straight back to development work! And with that in mind, I want to know what features would you like me to work on first?

What Matters Most to You?

• Style options panel – The current options panel covers the content of your site well. This would be a new page of options to do with adapting colors, fonts etc.
• Better developer support – This would be to let you start building your own custom designs off Chameleon. It would cover tweaking our CSS further to be as simple as possible to skin, and adding in some new developer functions. And of course, create tutorials and help docs for it all!
• Shortcodes – To give you better control over your post content, e.g. for inserting message boxes, pullquotes etc.
• More Page Templates – e.g. a “blog” template that creates a traditional blog page, useful if your homepage is a magazine layout like Oracle or MyBiz)
• Current Panel Improvements – This would involve looking at our option pages and trying to simplify them further, making things even easier for you to get used to.
• Simpler way of adding plugins or custom code to themes (An alternative to using hooks).

Let me know which you’d most like to see by replying in the comments here. And of course, if you have an idea that’s not on the list, let me know and I’ll see what we can do!

The technical side of translating a theme is mostly straightforward (Though it will definitely help if you’re relatively comfortable with using computers). We’ve written a full guide on how to translate here, which will show you exactly how you can get started!

And when you’ve finished the translation, we’d love it if you shared the files with us. This means that everyone can benefit from your translation work. It allows us to open PliablePress up to whole new groups of people, and you’ll be credited for your work of course!

We already have two people who have offered to translate to French and Latin American Spanish (It’s thanks to those two that we’ve gone and made these updates, you’ll get to hear about them soon!).

If you’d like to join in as well, we’d be delighted, just check out the guide above or get in touch!

And last of all, I have to give a shoutout to the .pot generator tool from ICanLocalize. Made it extremely easy to make our blank .pot files!