TXP Translucence
A new blog theme originally from WebTreatsEtc. This has been ported in the same manner as Bueno and is specifically intended to be easy to install for people new to Textpattern. Installation uses Manfre’s “mem_templates”: plugin to import all page, form and CSS templates plus it installs all plugins used by the theme and activates them.
No images need to be uploaded to the “Images” tab. That tab is for content and theme images are not content nor are any script files uploaded to the “Files” tab for the same reason. All aspects of the theme remain external to Textpattern itself.
There are 2 new plugins included – “tbs_variables” and “tbs_widgets”. Once installed you will find that you have 2 new tabs – “Presentation/Theme Variables” and “Presentation/Widgets” – both of which enable you to modify the setup of the theme without the need to go anywhere near any code. These 2 plugins are highly modified versions of Adi Gilbert’s adi_variables plugin. Modifications have been made in such a way as to allow them to sit alongside each other plus you still have the option to install Adi’s original plugin if need be without fear of conflict. The “tbs” versions are not available publicly as they are specifically tailored to the theme they came bundled with. My thanks to Adi for producing his plugin in the first place. I hope he doesn’t mind what I’ve done to it.
The theme comes with extensive documentation, though I say it myself, probably the best theme documentation anywhere. Here are some details about TXP Translucence:-
- Comes with 3 colour variations which can be set on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
- The header can use your own logo image or, if you don’t have one, it will display the site name entered into the “Preferences/Basic” tab. These settings are on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
- By default the theme uses the “articles” section for the Blog but this can be changed on the “Sections” tab and the new section entered on the new “Theme Variables” tab. This will then be used throughout the site including widgets and navigation.
- Feeds use Txp tags by default but if you have a Feedburner account the URL can be entered on the new “Theme Variables” tab and this will be used instead.
- The email address for the contact form is added on the new “Theme Variables” tab.
- All widget variables are on the new “Widgets” tab.
- Image thumbnails are not required (unless you want them for something else) as I have included the “thumb.php” script to allow “on-the-fly” generation of thumbnails. This is not used by default within the theme but if you want to use it I have included instructions in the documentation.
- Styling is included for images contained within an article to position them left, right or centre. Just add the appropriate class name to your image tag.
- The Contact form will be automatically added to the bottom of the Contact article once it has been created.
- The new “mem_templates” plugin needs to be installed manually but once that is done all page templates, form templates, CSS templates and remaining plugins are imported with a couple of “clicks” plus all plugins are “activated”.
- A full-width page template is included.
- An error_503 page template is included.
- Documentation includes a check-list for those more experienced with Textpattern.
There is a demo available.
This theme now requires Textpattern 4.3.0 minimum.
Comments ( 14 )
This theme is excellent, thanks for bringing it to textpattern. You do fantastic work and I especially appreciate how thorough and friendly your documentation is. I haven’t built a website since the Geocities/old-school HTML days, but I was able to get my site up and working fairly easily with this template.
I’ve replaced the header banner and feel fairly confident that I can make some other cosmetic changes, but I have run into one small problem. I can’t seem to enable comments. It’s possible I missed a step, but I’ve combed through the docs and can’t seem to find anything. Do you have any advice?
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the compliments. Always welcome. :)
Comments can be dealt with in 2 ways. Go to “Preferences/Basic” and you will see the comments settings at the bottom. In my docs I have “On by default” set to “no”. You could switch this to “yes” if most of your articles will have commenting available. On the “Write” tab, if you click on the “More” link in the right-hand menu, you will see that you can set comments on a “per article” basis. So it’s really down to what suits your site best. Either have them “on by default” then disallow them individually where necessary, or have them “off by default” and allow them individually where you want them.
Does that solve your problem?
Thanks! My problem was that I posted a test article, then turned comments on via “Preferences/Basic”. Comments were still shut off for that particular article, so I had to use the “More” link in the “Write” section to turn them on. Everything is working fine now.
I have just one more question—is it possible to make my “articles” page the homepage? I know I can change the current home page by writing something and placing it in the “front_page” section, but I’d like to have new articles show up on the homepage automatically.
Shouldn’t be a problem Eric. The front-page uses the
<txp:article />tag which is “context-sensitive” so what you need to do is go to the “Sections” tab and look at the “frontpage” section settings. You will see that the attribute “On front page” is set to “yes”. You need to ensure that the section(s) you want on the front page have this same setting. Anything you don’t want there you need to set to “no”. Let me know if you have problems.Just one more problem: My friend pointed out that there are two comment entry forms. They’re identical and stacked right on top of each other. I tried reimporting the forms/styles/etc, in case I touched something I shouldn’t have, but that didn’t help. Any advice on that one?
Thanks again for your help. I’m totally donating to your site.
Double check your “Preferences/Basic” settings in the comments block at the bottom. “Automatically append…” and “Present as numbered…” should both be set to “no”.
Sorry to bother you again, but after making several successful alterations, I’m stumped once more. Is there a way to make the article titles not appear italicized? One of my writers thinks it’ll be a little easier to read if they’re bold instead, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I know there’s probably something in the style sheet I need to change, but I can’t find it. Thanks again!
No problem Eric. Glad the other mods are working for you.
For this one you need to go to the “translucence” style template and scroll down until you see “02 Typography”.
The very first block, “.blog_h2” needs to have “font-style:normal;” and “font-weight:bold;” added to it.
Excellent theme!
I do have one issue. When I attempt to Search I get an error: “Oops! This link appears to be broken.”
I double checked Site Sections and search it set as it is the doc image.
Do I need to have mod_rewrite enabled or could the issue be something else?
Thanks!
in docs/admin.html it says: “Please Note : Each page needs to be saved separately.”
Could you please explain what you mean by “page”?
I am thinking that may be reference to pages is included in that webpage (admin.html) by error. Later in the instructions you wanted users to save texpattern pages. That is, the “pages” which would be accessible via Pages sub-tab of Presentation tab. Am I right?
In the instructions page at docs/variables.html, I do not see “Theme Variables” sub-tab of “Presentation” tab after I have imported Translucence theme. This is mentioned in that instructions page in prefatory paragraphs. (Try to find: “Presentation/Theme Variables” in that page). As per graphic accompanying these paragraphs, the “Theme Variables” sub-tab is supposed to be under “Content” tab. Neither places show the “Theme Variables” sub-tab.
You must ensure that all of the plugins have been activated for the sub-tabs to appear. As for the “Preferences”, there are 3 separate pages which each need to be saved separately. You will find a “Save” button at the bottom of each page.
textpattern is bad for not warning when you have modified an option or content and you try to move away from page without saving. That settles my misunderstanding about “save page”. But still not working. The “Theme Variables” sub-tabs still does not show.
When site is in “Debugging” mode it produces diagnostic messages. The first message my site produces is:
Tag error: <txp:output_form form=“tbs_theme_variables” /> -> Textpattern Notice: Form not found: tbs_theme_variables on line 1658
Is there supposed to be a form named “tbs_theme_variables”?
Okay now I know what is happening. May be Textpattern 4.2.0 had things organized differently. In Textpattern 4.3.0 the “Theme Variables” and “Widgets” sub-tabs are under “Presentation” tab. You have modified the instructions page but not the accompanying graphic which shows how it looked like in 4.2.0. And it was my bad too because I must have read it certainly but on opening high-res graphic I found these sub-tabs under “Content” tab. So I was looking there. Anyways… confusion is now cleared up. May be you need to change the graphic. Also (may be in large fonts) you can warn that tbs_* forms error messages will show until “Theme Variables” and “Widgets” sub-tabs of “Presentation” are visited. These instructions should ideally appear soon after theme is imported. That is, after last paragraphs of docs/templates.html. I am very sure that there are impatient people who will want to see site as soon as theme is imported.