On the other hand, we have made ​​a greater number of advanced tests with WordPress 3.4 (the next version of WordPress) and have made alarming findings. Therefore we have decided also to release another update to proactively fix the problems.

WordPress 3.4 and upcoming changes to the WP Theme core

WordPress has rewritten the Theme Core from scratch. They support almost everything for compatibility reasons but at debug mode the core issues a lot of deprecated warnings now. This may lead in worst cases to the white screen of death for your backend and frontend and your blog becomes unusable!

Unfortunately this is not a Xtreme specific problem. This affects all Themes in the wild in one way or another. Additionally some plugins are affected too, if the manipulate theme based stuff or interact with Themes directly.

So here’s the short summary of the functions that WordPress has classified as outdated and will soon fall out from the core are:

function get_allowed_themes() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', "wp_get_themes( array( 'allowed' => true ) )" );

function get_broken_themes() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', "wp_get_themes( array( 'errors' => true )" );

function current_theme_info() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'wp_get_theme()' );

function get_site_allowed_themes() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'WP_Theme::get_allowed_on_network()' );

function wpmu_get_blog_allowedthemes( $blog_id = 0 ) {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'WP_Theme::get_allowed_on_site()' );

function get_themes() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'wp_get_themes()' );

function get_theme( $theme ) {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'wp_get_theme( $stylesheet )' );

function get_current_theme() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'wp_get_theme()' );

function add_custom_image_header( $wp_head_callback, $admin_head_callback, $admin_preview_callback = '' ) {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'add_theme_support( \'custom-header\', $args )' );

function remove_custom_image_header() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'remove_theme_support( \'custom-header\' )' ); 

function add_custom_background( $wp_head_callback = '', $admin_head_callback = '', $admin_preview_callback = '' ) {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'add_theme_support( \'custom-background\', $args )' ); 

function remove_custom_background() {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.4', 'remove_theme_support( \'custom-background\' )' ); 

function get_theme_data( $theme_file ) {
   _deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, 3.4, 'wp_get_theme()' );

Should you use any other themes or plugins that is known to affect parts of themes or expand them, then we recommend that you perform a local test of the pre-release version of WordPress. This avoids problems in the update phase, because problems with plugins / themes can be found more quickly or can be avoided in advance.

As we strive to offer a still fully functional product, we hope that this approach will find your consent. We have re-written in the Release Notes, which includes the version bugfixes, and what adjustments we have made.

We recommend to update the framework upfront the scheduled upcomming update for version 3.4 of WordPress.

You will find detailed information about bugfixes and features at the below linked Release Notes document.
The always bundled child theme xtreme-blank has been updated with a new functions.php file. All new additional features which can be activated are now contained and described. It’s more than worth to carefully read the information. Have fun using the new features.

Release Notes “Xtreme One” – Version 1.5.2

Because of updating at this frequency we bundled additional value to this release. It contains new features scheduled for coming higher versions. But they are fully tested and will speedup your daily work, I’m sure.

Support of Mobile Devices – Extended

Starting with version 1.5.0 we introduced already the support of mobile devices. Now beside the necessary repair and bugfixes we also extended the capabilities. You can address now dedicated device types in addition to already existing mobile addressing with your CSS stylesheets.

Shortcodes within Text Widgets possible

WordPress itself doesn’t support shortcodes inside Text Widgets. We did remove this limitation if you enable this theme support feature in your functions.php file. This will lead to a new kind of Text Widget utilization you never thought before.

Xtreme Excerpt Functions meets WordPress standard behavior

I’m sure, you did already realized, the Xtreme excerpt functions with word counts have had a simple problem: If you entered a manual excerpt in your article, our function will ignore it completely and creates always an automatic excerpt. We removed this limitation too.

If the function find a manual given excerpt, it will show this excerpt as is, without any change. In case of no such an excerpt is present, the normal function and automatic excerpt creation will be used.

This behavior can also switched on at your functions.php file as theme support feature.

Cherry on the Cake: Xtreme Grid Text Widget based on YAML Subcolumns

This feature permits the management of text blocks as N x M grid and it’s based on the known behavior of WordPress Text Widgets. You can fill in any content as you need. This provides a very flexible way to layout hand made content, you will have in total 25 different column layouts in advance.

Because we introduced shortcodes for text widgets you are also able to use shortcodes within this grid text widget. This opens the world for much more impressive content enrichment you never thought about before. There are no limits for your phantasies.

Of course you can use this widget as In Content Widget we introduced at version 1.5 too. This will enlarge your possibilities of designing your article or page contents enormously.

Future proofed with upcoming WordPress version 3.4

The theme framework has been checked starting with version 1.4 upto this version against the currently available beta version 3.4-beta4-20725 and passed all tests successful.

You will find detailed information about each new feature at the below linked Release Notes document.
The always bundled child theme xtreme-blank has been updated with a new functions.php file. All new additional features which can be activated are now contained and described. It’s more than worth to carefully read the information. Have fun using the new features.

Release Notes “Xtreme One” – Version 1.5.1

You will get now for the first time an additional PDF file download with the comprehensive Release Notes of this version.
It explains in detail, which bugs has been solved and illustrates with some screenshots the new features introduced.

Support of mobile devices

Steering with version 1.5.0 we improved the handling of mobile devices. As you may have noticed, its sometime not easy to use websites on mobiles because they will not be shown valid or can’t navigated as expected. Now you can utilize special CSS selectors to influence the rendering on mobile devices.

The next issue are drop/down navigation menus on Touchpads (Tablets / iPad) because those devices doesn’t support the hover CSS classes. That’s why normally you can’t use such menu types. Xtreme ensures now, that this kind of menus remains usable at those devices.

Additionally you can now filter widgets by mobile devices. This gives the advantage to exclude widgets at mobiles or explicitly show some widgets only on mobiles.

Low Barrier Support

You will find a newly introduced widget with 2 kinds of appearance switching. First you can select 2 different contrast types for your page and second you have 3 steps to enlarge the font sizes at your page. This lowers the barrier of your site for people not able to utilize the normal design and look.

Same FancyBox Effect everywhere – NextGen Gallery now supported too

We got many questions why the Galleries of NextGen doesn’t work with the FancyBox Effect we introduced at prior versions. Now you can configure your Theme to have this Effect for any type of NextGen Gallery Images as you may already know it from build in WordPress Galleries, we already support.

Full extended build in WordPress Gallery

Xtreme extends the theme support of the build in gallery. Now we support the complete set of attributes gallery shortcode introduces. Its now also possible to use easily the “include” instead “exclude”, its your decision now.
We also introduced an additional attribute. You can now also define the zoomed size of an image because the current WordPress shortcode only allows the thumbsize. So you have the freedom to define both sizes.

Configure your Archive Pagination

The backend of Xtreme One now permits the definition of your archive paginations. The standard we used so far are the “Older” / “Newer” Post Links. Now you can switch it to page number rendering and you can define almost any parameter of appearance.

Our Highlight: Embed and Edit any Widget directly inside your post content.

We designed a brand new feature for the visual Editor. You are now able to insert and manage any kind of widgets within your posts content directly. The behavior is similar to how you insert and manage WordPress Galleries for example. The editing dialog shows all the widget fields you know from the widgets backend page and you can configure it as you know it from there.
Any type of widget filter is still working for content widgets and also the automatic tab grouping still works.

You will find detailed information about each new feature at the below linked Release Notes document.
The always bundled child theme xtreme-blank has been updated with a new functions.php file. All new additional features which can be activated are now contained and descibed. It’s more than worth to carefully read the information. Have fun using the new features.

Release Notes “Xtreme One” – Version 1.5.0

Michael leaves a big gap for his family and friends, which can not be put into words, and no one can close this gap.

“What will become of his life’s work” Xtreme One “under these circumstances?

Despite boundless sadness we (Alex and I) talked with the family Preuß and decided together to continue his dream.
His grieving wife takes over the business and legal side and I now take the further development and support of “Xtreme One” with the help of Alex, even if this will be a daunting task.

Please understand, if we can not always respond in the moment without delay, there is so much to clarify and deal with when a loved and respected person goes from us.

And who is “I” and continous his ideas and visions?

Many will already know me from the WordPress community. My name is Heiko Rabe, I’m better known by the nickname “codestyling” and my projects as “Codestyling Localization” or my WordPress related blog.

In the past 2 years, Michael has worked with me on “Xtreme One” and I’ve contributed to the project important parts of the widget filter management, performance tuning and compression, and automatic Fancybox to name a few.

In memory of Michael, I will try, with the support of Alex, to develop Xtreme Theme with the same spirit and fire as it used to be. However, this also means that Michael’s work can not be compensate just like this. So it can happen that the pace that Michael had in the last two years to support our customers can’t no longer be maintained.
I hope to understand and Michael’s life’s work will continue in his spirit.

“A good, noble man, who lived with us,
Can not be taken from us.
He leaves a shining trail
like those extinguished stars,
the image even after centuries
the inhabitants of Earth can see.”

(Thomas Carlyle)

Performance Tools

In the performance tools it is now possible to set the Gzip compression rate separately for HTML, style sheets and Javascript. The switch to mod_expires module has been changed. Exists a writable .htaccess file, it will be written automatically.

Widgets

By popular demand, to have a responsive Slider, we have added the FlexSlider once as a Post Slider Widget and once integrated as a Media Slider Widget.

Sidebars

In addition, we created a third Sidebar with a three area layout including widget areas. The upper range is across the full width and the lower portion is divided into two columns of 50%.

User Functions

New in 1.4.5 Xtreme One function is xtreme_background_post_thumbnail(). This feature can be used in the template files and outputs the article image as background image. So very nice CSS3 effects are possible. Our widgets have also this function now. We will deliver a tutorial very soon.

To provide in the future different color palettes for the Child Themes, we added add_theme_support('xtreme-color-styles', array('blue', 'green', 'red')); to select a certain color palette from a dropdown menu in your backend

Xtreme One cost only $79.95 and is available here.

Our customers can download version 1.4.5 as usual in our support forum under “News & Releases”.