What I have in mind involves two types of child themes: fully-designed themes and starter themes. I’ll explain what I mean by both of these below.

Fully-designed child themes

The child themes currently available here fall under this camp. These are themes that have a definite style, definite functionality, and are meant for a specific purpose. While these themes can be used to build from and can be completely changed, doing so is sometimes tough.

I see these types of themes as mostly being useful for users that simply want a finished design and not have to worry about it. They can also be useful for people with design skills that need a little inspiration from a preexisting design.

You all know what these child themes look like, and if you don’t, feel free to check out the demos for most of the currently available themes.

Starter child themes

What this post is really about is gauging how well this type of theme would be accepted.

A starter child theme would be something that has minimal style, a specific layout, and maybe some added functionality. The idea would be to keep it clean and allow you all to come up with some interesting designs.

I like this idea because:

• I can release more child themes like this.
• It allows users to have something that’s more personal.
• Everyone’s site will not look the same.
• Gives designers a chance to build client sites faster.
• Allows people to release customized child themes back to the community more easily.

Many people have asked me to release the child theme I put together for the Pop Critics Movie Database. Of course, I don’t like releasing personal designs, but I thought it’d be a good time to test the starter-theme idea. So, here’s a preview of the next child theme and a great example of what I’m talking about when I mentioned a starter theme.

What do you think?

So, the real question is whether you’d like to see some starter child themes released.

No, I won’t be choosing one style of child theme over the other. I would still release fully-designed child themes. I just want to know if you’d like to see something different thrown in the mix.

First, I wanted to get Hybrid to a point where it would be robust enough as a development tool. I wanted it lightweight enough to be easy to style without major complications. I believe the recent release of version 0.6 puts us at that point.

Opening a services page

Since Theme Hybrid first came online, I’ve had a job board for developers, designers, and users to post on. While this has served as a great meeting spot for many that need someone to custom design their child themes, I don’t feel like it really opens up enough opportunities for our developers and designers.

What I’d like to do is put up a list of trusted people that are willing to offer their services. The idea would be to have a dedicated page with contact information and links to portfolios for people that want to create child themes, plugins, and other custom work for the Theme Hybrid community.

I’m still ironing out the ideas for this, but I figured it was time to open up the floor.

I’d like for designers and developers to be able to expand their portfolio of work and have ties within the community. I get tons of requests for custom jobs with Hybrid. It’d be great to be able to send those people to a page on this site and tell them to pick someone rather than just telling them I don’t have the time.

What I’m looking for

The main thing I’m looking for is trust. I think most members of the community here have a certain level of trust in the advice I offer. If I’m endorsing you as someone to contact for custom work, I want to know that members of the community here will be treated with respect and that you’ll be helpful.

I have no strict rules in the type of people I’m looking for, but the ideal candidates are:

• People that have designed a custom child theme on top of Hybrid.
• Familiarity with the WordPress and Hybrid action and filter hook system.
• People that participate in the support and community forums.
• Those that know have an intimate knowledge of CSS.
• Developers that have written custom functions and/or plugins for Hybrid.

These are just some things I have in mind. Nothing is set in stone. Even if you don’t meet those requirements, I’d like to hear from you.

Do you want to be a custom developer/designer at Theme Hybrid?

I hope to put up the initial page on this site within a week. But, the door will always be open if you want to get on the list later.

If you’re interested in this, feel free to contact me. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions or even offer additional ideas.

Now, roughly a year after I first started working on it, I can honestly say that it was a good decision.

I’ve seen some great websites built with only a style.css file and other great child themes with just a few extra lines of code. The community we’ve built here has not only helped shape what Hybrid is today but also made me a better developer.

If you’re a fan of diving into Hybrid’s code, you might not even recognize this as the same theme. Much of what went into this was not on the schedule until version 0.7, but you can thank the long wait for WordPress 2.8 for that.

Lightweight

One of the most common complaints I’ve gotten is how bulky the theme is. While Hybrid has never had much code bloat, it has contained many unneccessary files. The original public release (0.3) was 504kb (zipped). Version 0.6 is now down to a lean 166kb.

The focus of this release was to make Hybrid as much as a framework as possible. I wanted to strip it down. To make it simply a foundation. Make it easier to build from.

I’ve taken a much more modular approach with this release, breaking much of the theme down to its most basic parts. The biggest improvement with 0.6 is that I’ve taken out all of the junk.

There are fewer processes running. The default CSS is lighter. The JavaScript is faster.

WordPress 2.8 compatible

Unfortunately, with so many new features in WordPress 2.8, I couldn’t make the theme backwards compatible. It’s something I wanted to do, but it wasn’t a viable option.

Everything has been recoded from the ground up. Widgets. Functions. You name it.

Since I was only worried about 2.8 compatibility, Hybrid is using all of the latest code from WordPress. There was no use in hanging on to old code.

Templates. Templates. Templates.

Many of you may be a bit overwhelmed by the number of template files in the theme. There’s somewhere in the range of 55 – 60 templates. Eighteen of these are custom page templates. Yes, that’s a lot compared to the average theme.

I want things to be easier to overwrite with custom modifications. I want people to be able to take my ideas and branch from these ideas with new, cooler things.

The new templates are:

• daily.php
• day.php
• month.php
• monthly.php
• week.php
• weekly.php
• year.php
• yearly.php
• taxonomy.php
• taxonomy-link_category.php
• navigation-links.php

Most of these deal with different types of archives and may not be used by everyone. But, I wanted them available for those people that do need to use them.

And, you can also create custom author archives with author-1.php, author-2.php, and so on.

Other features

I’m counting three major bug fixes from Hybrid version 0.5.2, which was a solid release. Bug fixes get counted as features, right?

Honestly, there’s more features and changes than I could possibly show you here, but here’s a list of some of the major stuff:

• Better default design to aid in child theme development.
• New theme settings (be sure to review these when you upgrade).
• New layout stylesheets for designers.
  • 2c-l-fixed.css
  • 2c-r-fixed.css
  • 3c-l-fixed.css
  • 3c-r-fixed.css
  • 3c-c-fixed.css
• A few extra <body> classes.
• Better handling of custom taxonomies.
• Extra settings for some of the widgets.
• Drop-down menus built in by default.
• Ability to separate trackbacks and pingbacks from regular comments.
• More filter hooks for fine-tuned control.
• More action hooks to add extra content pretty much anywhere.
• User-selected date/time formats now used.
• Faster-loading and fewer JavaScript files (if users use them).

Of course, there’s much more.

Important things to note

Most of your widgets will probably be off. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the new widgets code for WordPress 2.8 and the changes within the theme. Fortunately, all you need to do is drag your widgets into WordPress 2.8’s new “Inactive Widgets” area if you have vital information you need to save. Once your theme is updated, you can drag them back easily.

If you’ve styled anything within the <body> class or the post <div> class with the .tag- prefix in your CSS, you need to change it to use .post_tag-. This is because of how the theme handles custom taxonomies.

Download Hybrid 0.6

Remember, this release is for WordPress 2.8+ only. Your site will break if using an older version of WordPress.

• Download
• Tutorials

I hope y’all enjoy this release. I’m going to take a break tomorrow and play a little golf.

I understand that version 0.1 was never officially released and never got past the beta stage, but that’s all right. Based on user feedback and major code changes, I thought it would be best to jump to version 0.2 to avoid any confusion.

What is the Hybrid Tabs widget?

Hybrid Tabs is a widget that extends the Hybrid theme by allowing you to have a tabbed widget for use on your site.

It comes with several predefined tabs:

• Bookmarks/Links (individual link category lists).
• Authors.
• Calendar.
• Categories.
• Daily archives.
• Meta.
• Monthly archives.
• Pages.
• Recent posts (alphabetical).
• Recent posts (chronological).
• Random.
• Tag/term clouds (based on all taxonomies).
• Weekly archives.
• Yearly archives.

Plus, many new tabs are added if you have one of these plugins activated:

• Configurable Tag Cloud
• Events Calendar
• flickrRSS
• Get Recent Comments
• Hot Friends
• Quote This
• Sidebar Login
• WP Cumulus
• WP Post Ratings
• WP Post Views
• WP Stats
• WP Wall

Of course, you can create custom tabs as well.

Will my custom tabs be backwards compatible?

Yes, your custom tabs should still work.

However, I urge you to try out the new register_tab() function if you’re creating custom tabs. It’s much easier to use and develop custom tabs with. Full instructions on how to do this are included in the readme.html file and on the Hybrid Tabs page.

User feedback

I’m always on the lookout for new tabs to add. If you’d like to see additional tabs added or integration with particular plugins, feel free to let me know.

There’s also an ongoing thread discussing options for Hybrid Tabs in the community forums.

Download the plugin

You must be using WordPress 2.8 or higher to install this plugin.

I hope you enjoy this official release. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad to finally have it ready.

• Download
• Hybrid Tabs page

So, I took a little time to sit and think how to best serve Average Joe. What would require the least amount of coding? How could I allow the user to add content nearly anywhere without having to learn any XHTML or PHP.

The answer I came up with was the Hybrid Hook Widgets plugin. It takes the ideas behind the Hybrid Hook plugin and extends it with new widget areas.

What exactly does this plugin do?

The Hybrid theme is filled with these things called action hooks. These allow users to easily add extra stuff nearly anywhere within the theme without actually having to dive into the theme files themselves. But, it requires a little PHP knowledge to use these hooks.

Hybrid Hook Widgets bypasses the process of writing PHP code and allows you to add widgets nearly anywhere you want.

The plugin creates 11 new widgets areas (maybe more in the future). These widget areas are automatically added to the theme action hooks behind the scenes, so no coding is required by the user.

In short, it gives you more widget areas to use along with the Hybrid theme.

Get the plugin

This plugin will only work with WordPress 2.8+. It will break earlier versions.

If I didn’t make it clear enough in the post, you need to have the Hybrid theme installed to use this plugin.

• Download Hybrid Hook Widgets
• Official plugin page

As always, keep the wonderful comments in the comments section and the support questions in the support forums.

For those of you that haven’t been using it, Hybrid Tabs is a plugin/widget that’s been in beta testing for way too long. In fact, I’m skipping the official 0.1 release altogether and gearing up for the 0.2 release.

This new version is only compatible with WordPress 2.8+ and is not ready for live use yet.

What’s new?

Most of the same, basic tabs are still intact. Of course, I added a few more. The widget settings are exactly the same, so there shouldn’t be any confusion.

The biggest addition to this version is a new function called register_hybrid_tab() that will allow you to easily create new custom tabs. Okay, maybe not extremely easy, but it’s much easier than the first beta release. (See the readme.html included with download for instructions on how to create custom tabs.)

I’ve also added support for several plugins, but they are completely untested, which is where I hope you all will step in. This is the biggest area that needs testing, so if you’re running the latest build of Wordpress and want to help out, feel free to test this widget along with these plugins.

• Configurable Tag Cloud
• Events Calendar
• flickrRSS
• Get Recent Comments
• Hot Friends
• Sidebar Login
• WP Cumulus
• WP Post Ratings
• WP Post Views
• WP Stats
• WP Wall

If you want support for any other plugins added, please let me know. I’ll try to add it in if it’s possible.

Get involved and get the plugin

If you want to beta test this new version, grab a copy and let me know what breaks. I’ll also open a bug-squashing thread in the community forums if you want to join in there.

Remember, this should only be used with WordPress 2.8+ (currently trunk) and with the Hybrid WordPress theme (of course). All instructions on how to use the widget are in the readme.html file.

This plugin has now been officially released and is out of beta.

In this post, I will cover many of the changes and features coming in version 0.6. Much of it I didn’t plan on doing until 0.7, but the wait has been long for the next WordPress update.

There have been some major changes, and I wanted to prepare you for some of these.

New default design

I’ve actually mentioned this already when I released the Hybrid Original child theme, but it’s worth reiterating. If your child theme is built off Hybrid’s current default look (i.e., importing the default style), you’ll want to use that particular child theme.

The new design will be something a lot plainer. I wanted something that could be used to build from rather than discarded. It’ll be pretty much a black and white, two-column layout that will aid you in creating your custom child themes.

If you haven’t seen it yet, feel free to view the screenshot of the new design.

Taxonomy handling

Even if you don’t create custom taxonomies, this might have an effect on you.

A major change here is the use of the CSS class of post_tag rather than tag on the entry and body classes. The reason for this is because of how the theme handles taxonomies. It’s a bit of a drawback at the moment but will help make the code cleaner and offer more functionality in the future. I don’t think this will hurt many people (if any at all), but I wanted to point it out. A simple search and replace would be sufficient for those of you using this feature.

I’m adding taxonomy.php and taxonomy-link_category.php templates. The former will be the default taxonomy template, and the latter will handle the display of your link (bookmark) categories.

The tags widget will also allow you to display any taxonomy you want in tag cloud or list format.

Plus, there’s plenty of other little nifty features with taxonomies, most of which are a lot cooler to me (the developer) than most of you. And, if you have no idea what a taxonomy is, don’t worry. I wrote a post on my personal blog recently that covers how you can easily create custom taxonomies in WordPress 2.8.

I’m breaking your widgets. Again.

WordPress 2.8 will completely revamp how widgets work. Each of the Hybrid theme widgets needed to be recoded and moved to the new system. So, please don’t go too crazy if your widgets break.

Honestly, what will probably happen once you upgrade to Hybrid 0.6 is that your current widgets will move down to the new “Inactive Widgets” area on the widgets panel, and you’ll be able to easily drag them up to the correct widget area. I’d still recommend making a backup copy of anything really important just to be sure.

Even though it might cause a little trouble, it’ll be worth it. The widgets run faster and are a lot cleaner. Plus, you’ll get a few extra settings for your widgets.

Settings panel

Some things have changed with the Hybrid Settings page in the WordPress admin. When it comes time to upgrade, you’ll want to run through that to make sure your settings are satisfactory.

One huge change will be the footer settings area. Instead of checkboxes to include links, the whole footer area is all XHTML-based. And, I’ve added some easy-to-use shortcodes to handle commonly-used things like the current year, your Web site link, login and logout links, a link back to the Hybrid theme, and even a link to your child theme.

Layout stylesheets

Many of you have been asking for this, and I’ve been refining the code as much as possible over the last few weeks. Basically, version 0.6 will come loaded with five new stylesheets to help speed up your custom theme development:

1. Two columns, content left.
2. Two columns, content right.
3. Three columns, content left.
4. Three columns, content right.
5. Three columns, content center.

For those of you that create custom child themes, this should go a long way in helping you put together entire themes in just a few hours.

Other neat features to expect

I’ll cover most of the changes in the theme release post, but I wanted to point out a few things you’ll get with the next update:

• Ability to separate trackbacks/pingbacks from comments.
• Four new page templates.
• Ability to make custom author archive templates.
• More date-/time-based archive templates.
• New <body> classes.
• More action and filter hooks.

It’s going to be a major release with loads of changes. Rest assured, I’m doing everything possible to make sure this is a smooth transition from version 0.5.2 to 0.6

The way the Hybrid theme handles the title element and meta tags has been the way I’ve always coded my personal blog themes. It was just the first theme I’d publicly released with its options.

I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a problem though.

The problem

Realizing that it’s impossible to account for numerous SEO plugins without some sort of conflict, I’m wondering if the addition of the meta element (keywords, description, etc.) is right for the theme.

Here’s the issue: If users ever change themes, they’ll lose their custom title, keywords, and descriptions.

No one wants to lose their hard work.

Finding a solution

I have three solutions in mind:

1. Create a plugin that handles the Hybrid SEO options and remove these options from the theme.
2. Create a plugin that handles SEO and keep these options in the theme.
3. Stop worrying about it and let people figure it out for themselves.

With the first method, users could choose any SEO plugin without worrying about conflicts with the theme. They’d be able to continue using the current Hybrid title, meta, and indexing settings without a hitch and enjoy updates from the plugin repository more quickly than theme updates if they choose to use my plugin.

The second method will satisfy those users that don’t like having extra plugins. It will allow them to keep using the same settings if (God forbid) they ever change themes.

Your opinion

I’ll always stand by my assertion that quality content is all that really matters, but I do realize that this is something that end users tend to care about for some reason.

What do you think?

If I decide to make a plugin, it’ll be pretty bad-ass, completely free, and open source. I think you all know me well enough by now to know that I like to take these kinds of things to an extreme.

This time, we’ve already had both exclusive and non-exclusive club members chipping in on the discussion and alpha testing version 0.6. Not everyone visits the community forums on a daily basis though, so I wanted to extend an open invitation to everyone to test the upcoming version of Hybrid.

What is beta testing?

Basically, a beta version of a WordPress theme means its nearing its time for release. It’s not quite ready for public consumption, and it’s likely to have a few bugs that need squashing.

A group of people come together and test it before the official release.

I should also note at this moment that beta testing should never be done on a live site. Well, it’s a kind of use-at-your-own-risk sort of thing. I only encourage the use of this in a testing environment.

What needs to be tested?

Well, we should be looking for anything that goes wrong with the theme. We should test all the pages, views, widgets, and anything else to see if they’re working as expected.

Here’s a short list of the major elements:

• Every theme setting needs to be checked on the front and back ends to make sure they’re working.
• Layout stylesheets (located in /library/css/) with blank child themes and major browsers.
• Testing of the separation of comments from trackbacks and pingbacks.
• Do all of the page templates work?
• Are widgets working properly (display, settings, etc.)?
• Looking for anything on every type of page view (archive, home, single, etc.).
• Make sure it doesn’t break child themes.

So, it’s a lot of boring stuff, right?

Well, to me it’s pretty exciting. It can be for you too. Here’s a list of reasons to be excited:

• Get to play around with some upcoming features.
• Input your ideas about the direction of the theme.

Okay, so that’s the only two reasons I could think of. This is a good time for your personal input. Although the theme is pretty much in a feature freeze for version 0.6, it’ll give you a chance to voice your opinions on versions beyond 0.6 as well.

Some notes

I want this to serve as a bit of a disclaimer, so no one is confused.

• You must be running version 2.8 (trunk) of WordPress.
• This is not an official theme release.
• This beta version of the theme is not supported in any way (it will be after testing).
• Please do not use this on a live site. It’s best to work in a test environment.

I want to reiterate that this version will not work on a version of WordPress prior to the development version of WordPress 2.8. It simply won’t work on a version earlier than this.

How to participate

I’ve opened a new thread in the community forums, so all members can join in on the discussion. You are free to leave comments on this post, but a forum environment serves this kind of thing a bit better than a blog post’s comment section.

• Download version 0.6 beta
• Discussion forum topic

The theme has been updated to Beta 2. It should fix a few of the major errors, so the testing phase should go a little smoother now.

I had originally wanted to skip version 0.5.2 and go straight to 0.6 because the 0.5 branch has been the most stable branch we’ve had yet. But, it looks like we could be waiting a bit for the new version of WordPress to come out.

I didn’t want you all to have to wait for these fixes for another few weeks (not sure when WP 2.8 will be released).

Version 0.5.2 bug fixes

I didn’t change a lot in this version, but some of these were pretty serious bugs to me. Here’s the major changes:

• Removal of duplicate <h1> tags when using a static page as the front page (only certain situations).
• Ability to use the more link when using the blog.php page template.
• hybrid_entry_class() had odd/even backwards (update your stylesheets if you were using this).
• hybrid_comment_class() was only checking for database table prefixes of wp_. Now, checks for any setup.

Beyond version 0.5.2: Upcoming Hybrid updates

Version 0.6 is due any time now, but I’m not exactly sure when that’ll be. It definitely won’t be released until WordPress 2.8 is out. Once that’s released, I’ll do some final testing and code cleanup before putting it out into the wild.

We’re currently discussing and alpha testing version 0.6 right now. There’s definitely time for more input from all of you. But, don’t wait around too long to join in on the discussion.

Download version 0.5.2

To upgrade, simply delete your old hybrid folder and replace it with the new one.

I hope you like this release. If you have any questions on how to use the theme, stop by the support forums.