Theme Modification With CodeCutter
For some time now Chris from Varsis Studio has been working on a new RapidWeaver utility to allow users to quickly and easily modify the CSS in their themes. The idea was born out of my frustration with trying to support user modified themes. I asked Chris if he could make an application that could help users modify their themes the right way — in a non-destructive manner — and in such a way that users could keep their mods even after the themes developer updates or upgrades that theme.
Here is a quick look at what Chris has come up with. It’s code named “CodeCutter” for now. If you like the idea, please get on board and take the alpha out for a spin and help Chris get this application closer to completion.
The Video Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, this Adam from seyDoggy.com. I want to give you a brief introduction to an exciting new application in the works at Varsis Studios. This new application is a RapidWeaver utility that will allow users to modify the style of their themes in a non-destructive manner and will also allow users to retain those modifications through future developer issued updates.
Theme Editing Today
Lets first look at how themes are modified today:
Hack the Theme
[00:00:25] The most common, and arguably most problematic way to modify a theme is to open the themes contents and edit the style sheets within. The success rate will often vary since the modifications placed in one file may or may not be overwritten by another file further down the line.
[00:00:41] If you look at these results you can see my font changes made to the blockquote were effective, but the color changes were not recognized in the blockquote, the h1 tag or the link.
Modifications done this way can cause a lot of damage to theme and may create havoc for the developer when supporting it in the future. In fact, lots of theme developers will not support modified RapidWeaver themes.
Custom CSS Box
[00:01:11] The second, more ideal approach is add custom css to RapidWeavers own CSS field. This will result in the most successful style modifications but they are not carried over from page to page, making it necessary to copy your custom css to each page in your site.
CodeCutter method
[00:01:32] So what’s the solution? Varsis Studios has come up with a way to browse your themes CSS code, modify it and save it to it’s own style sheet directly in the theme. The application is code named CodeCutter and is a RapidWeaver utility with one purpose in mind, to help you modify your themes the right way. Lets have a look.
[00:01:49] Upon opening Code Cutter you’ll notice some familiar buttons. Let’s start by selecting the theme we wish to modify.
[00:01:58] Notice how the left-hand column gathers all of the style sheets used within the theme. It does so in the order that they appear on a published site. This important for recognizing the style sheet hierarchy. You can either browse through each sheets entire contents, or by expanding the sheet you can chose each selector individually.
[00:02:17] Once you have found the selector you wish to change, simply click the “Add To CSS” button, and your selector is now copied to the lower panels. This is where your custom CSS sheet is created.
Make some changes… and those changes are reflected in the theme preview.
[00:02:39] Remember how those styles I added directly to the themes contents didn’t work? Notice that there is nothing getting in the way of them working in Code Cutter. Also notice that the changes now effect every page in your site.
Always in Sync
[00:02:59] But here is where the real power of CodeCutter comes into play. All too often users will modify a theme only to have those modifications deleted or overwritten the next time the developer updates their theme. CodeCutter is smart enough to sync your changes back up if it detects that you customizations have been lost!
[00:03:30] And here is the other beautiful thing about CodeCutter; remember I said it’s non destructive? This means that CodeCutter doesn’t modify your themes built in style sheets. This makes it easy for developers to still support their own themes. Your theme modifications can be found in a single, easy to identify, CSS file. This makes it quick and easy to rule out, or remove your modifications all together. Getting to the root of the problem is now as easy as flipping a switch.
Wrap up
[00:03:59] I hope you’re as excited about CodeCutter as I am. It has a way to go still and Varsis Studio is looking for testers to help make this app become a reality. If you are interested in getting involved please visit dev.varsisstudio.com
THEME UPDATE: Simplistic r6 Improves Movie Album Styles
Similar to yesterdays discovery of a little glitch in the RetroFilm theme, today we discovered some style issues with Varsis Studios Simplistic RapidWeaver theme. This update will add improved styling to the movie album page (for those few who use it).
You can download the update installer here.
We’ve gone and hired us some help!
It has been a long time coming. We’ve been in need of help around here for quite some time and we have finally taken that step forward. It’s one thing to have a small legion of contract contributors to the seyDesign team like Varsis Studios, Vortex, Med Designs, etc… But when it comes to actually running all the operations around here, from customer support, to press releases, site upkeep, product development and product launch… for that, there is, for the most part, only me.
But today is different. Today I am very proud to announce that Chris Cifonie of DEVi8.design and the designer behind the very popular DEViANT RapidWeaver theme is now an official, part-time employee of seyDoggy. Over time Chris will be taking on the role creative director/webmaster but for now Chris’ primary role is to create the beautiful theme styles and the gorgeous demo sites for each product.
There is no question about it, Chris has a killer design style. If there was any doubt, Chris was the guy behind the Med Design Bubblegum styles. We’ve never received as many positive comments on our theme styles as we did with Bubblegum so clearly Chris has the touch.
We are looking forward to Chris’ help in the coming months. This now frees us up to work faster, harder and move forward with newer designs and greater updates. So welcome aboard Chris.
NEW THEME: Creamux with ExtraContent
Something old and something new… When we adopted the Varsis Studio theme library, one of the themes that was coming back home was the Creamy and Creamy Wide themes. When first looking at how to bring these two greats up to speed to todays RapidWeaver 4 standards I had a number of ideas in mind; combine the two, make it more flexible, add more features. Before long though, it became apparent that this wasn’t going to be a Creamy update, it was going to be a totally new theme, a complete rebuild from the ground up… it was going to be a complete redux… it’s seyDoggy Creamux!
We proudly present to you Creamux, our latest all new theme. Creamux is ExtraContent enabled, with width options, comprehensive color control, 10 custom headers (RWmultitool ready), background and header effects and font control. This theme stands out bold and pops to life with it’s excellent design and professional styling.
seyDoggy Creamux, is another Ultimate theme for RapidWeaver packed with many features. It includes numerous snippets, the custom headers used in the demo and the RWmultitool project files used to create some of the headers (which will help you create your own).
Features at a glance:
- 2 Extracontent Areas
- Multiple Widths
- RWmultitool Ready
- Logo Control
- 10 Custom Headers
- Sidebar Positioning
- Font control
- Highly Comprehensive Color Control
- and more…
NEW THEME: Neato from Varsis Studio
Neato Designer, from Varsis Studio, is a simple but elegant RapidWeaver theme that is lightweight and easy to use. First offered from Varsis Studio, seyDesign has taken the original Neato theme and expanded and improved upon it. Complete cleaned up, overhauled and tuned in, Neato is ready and stable for your most demanding challenges.
Features at a glance:
- 10 Custom headers
- RWmultitool Ready
- 6 background textures
- Sidebar position
- Choice of font style
- Color control
- and more…
NEW THEME: Varsis Studio Simplistic r2
Simplistic Pro, another Varsis Studio creation is a clean and simple RapidWeaver theme that is surprisingly flexible. Now under seyDoggy management, Simplistic Pro has been scrubbed clean and reworked from this inside out with more function, feature and flexibility.
Features at a glance:
- width variations
- background effects
- custom headers (RWmultitool Ready)
- tab spacing
- tab transparency
- title position
- sidebar position
- font control
- full color control
NEW(ish) THEME: Varsis Studio Fade
It’s a hole new Fade! Aptly named for the fade-in and fade-out effect of the “sidebar” content neatly hidden under the header image, this Varsis Studio original first made it’s debut on varsisstudio.com. However, with Chris turning more of his attention to RapidWeaver plugins, we were given the opportunity update and distribute the themes here on seyDesign.com.
We have spent the last few weeks bringing Fade up to RapidWeaver 4 standards as well as adding a great many features and functionality. Since this was our first time burying our heads in Fade’s code, we decided not to go too overboard… for now. That’s why we have decided to offer Fade as a Designer theme but keeping the door open for further development in the future.
New Features:
- added color picker ability
- added width options
- updated header graphic to accommodate width
- updated background options
- added keywords
- added font size options
Other changes and fixes:
- redefined conditional comments
- added release.txt to the list of included files
- consolidated scripts to “scripts” folder
- moved ie css files to css folder
- added handheld.css, print.css
- updated to be RapidWeaver 4.0 ready
- added large preview image
- updated small preview image
- added General Styles set
- changed font sizes to em’s
- updated header options to all custom
- added support for %logo%
- added %header% syntax
- changed javascript library responsible for slide effect
- moved js variable to slide.js file
- changes opentab.png to smaller icon for localization purposes
Download the free update installer [here].
Learn more about Fade Designer or see the live preview.
Gary speaks about the "Pro"
Gary from RapidWeaverThemes.com has just posted a commentary on what makes you a Pro when you call yourself a “Pro Theme Developer”. He hits the nail on the head, it’s NOT just those who do it exclusively for a living who can call themselves a Pro. It’s more than that. It’s all in how you conduct yourself and your business.
Some of the names you think of when you think of a “Pro Theme Developer” are myself (seyDoggy), RapidWeaverThemes.com, Elixir Graphics, RapidIdeas, BlueBall Design, Josh Lockhart, MultiThemes, Varsis Studio, THEME WEAVER… The fact of that matter is that only a few of us actually make themes and web designs for a living, exclusively, while others have day jobs, go to school and what not. But what makes them all worthy of the Pro title is their support and commitment their products, to RapidWeaver and to each other as a community of friends and developers.
For more on the subject go to Gary’s blog and read his full post .
CoverFlow in the spotlight
One of seyDesign’s finest, Chris from Varsis Studio, was recently interviewed by Ryan Smith for RapidWeaved.com. Chris gives some insight into the radical new approach to his development of his highly anticipated and very well received RapidWeaver plugin called CoverFlow.
If you have been living under a rock for the past month or so and were not aware of this plugin, this interview is a good introduction to both Chris and his incredible plugin. [ read it here ]
Birthday Sale
Today is seyDesigns 2nd Birthday! 2 years flying the seyDesign flag! 2 years of innovation, 2 years of continual improvement, 2 years of fresh ideas and new features. We can’t begin to tell you how honored we are to still be around and to be recognized as one of the premier theme developers. 2 years ago there weren’t many of us around, the market consisted of only a handful of us such as RWT (then owned by Dave Cantu), Med Designs, BlueBall and New Ending Studios. Now the field has grown to include the likes of Pioneer themes, Elixir, ADHD, Vortex, Multithemes, Bonsai, Varsis, RapidIdeas, THEME WEAVER, Butella, 2bitoperation, and the list goes on.
I want to thank all theme developers for our continual support of each other, our collaborations and our many exchanges. I want to thank all of our customers for believing in us and I want to thank the entire RapidWeaver community for being the greatest bunch of people on the planet.
In appreciation to all of you, seyDesign is having a 50% off appreciation sale for the next two days. Enter the code “birthday” to your cart and automatically get 50% off everything in the store. The sale ends at midnight on December 3rd.
