sandbox update

Assuming adding this post doesnt bugger it up, ive got my sandbox site (click me revert back from sandbox :-) - Its not really a separate site, more of a theme. Well OK, its not at all a separate site and most definitely a theme. I did it this way as then its _live_) up to a decent stage now. My last stumbling block with the filtering of posts I managed to fix by separating the content of index.php into home.php and archive.php which removed the need for all the is_home() and is_archives() conditionals so thereby simplified the files greatly, but meant duplication so means I have to edit more files - shame. This leads me nicely to a question. What exactly does index.php do if you are using archive.php, home.php, index.php etc? This useful page says

The elements you are already using can just be removed from the index.php file and moved into the appropriate file such as adding your sidebar contents to sidebar.php and your footer contents to footer.php, etc.

so Im _assuming_ that means that index.php can be empty. Well, this is mine and it seems fine atm.

So, my final quandary. Do I make this the active theme now, or see what else I can do? I think I shall leave as is for now. The danger being that 'as is' will probably continue for a while.

I should point out that the idea for the latest post more prominent than the older posts owes more than a little inspiration to Phu Ly's If..Else site.

A ha, Ive got it, with index blank, these pages go bonkers, well sort of, its the home.php file. WP uses index.php by default for this page so if index.php is blank it uses home.php. So Ill stick archive.php in there and hit refresh... :-D
Hmm, that didnt work .. entering debug mode.

exiting debug mode... adding this to the top of home.php if (is_paged()) { load_template(get_paged_template()); } else ...rest of home.php and then using the contents of archive.php in paged.php seems to work. Seems if you have home.php and paged.php, WP favours home.php *over* paged.php even if youre on a paged page for some reason.

6 Responses to sandbox update

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8828 Brendan 2005-04-06 08:59:41

The new theme f*ckin rocks!
The only niggle is the footer, you have more text than is room, maybe increase the footer div a little to accommodate all the extra text?
Rocks man.. it's depressing because now I feel like I need to update *my* site again. :)
8829 Matthew 2005-04-06 09:10:39

Cheers :-D The footer is due to the extra theme copy so ill have to look at tweaking my copy down there.
Once you get the hang of it its pretty good fun.
I think I still need to do some tweaking before making it live .. just a bit more..
8830 Brendan 2005-04-06 09:55:08

heh.. just a little more.. 6 months later almost there.. just a little more. :D
8831 Phu 2005-04-06 11:18:16

I have to say that it does look fantastic. By far the best implementation of a single column theme that I've seen.
As an aside, I've gone from 1 column to 2 cols to my current 3 col theme. Your design is tempting me to make a full circle switch:-)
8832 Matthew 2005-04-06 11:30:45

Thanks Phu, hi praise indeed :-)
Im really not a fan of 3 column layouts in general and If I can I like to keep just 1 column as I think the representation of content in columns side-by-side makes content which isnt equally important seems as though it is.
Although of course it isnt always possible to lose the multiple columns and ego determines that you just want to keep adding crap to the sidebars that most visitors wont be interested in, but hey, thats life.
And clearly 3 column layouts can be made to work, but my pet hate is 3 column layouts which go; small column : big content column : small column ; they just break the content up too much imo.
8835 Brendan 2005-04-06 15:54:07

I'm finding 3 columns to be less than intuitive as well.. I've found that my existing 3 column layout was just too messy, so I have jettisoned it in favour of a 2 column layout, with a wide sidebar..
Much easier to navigate. :D

somefoolwitha.com ...since 2002

6 Responses to sandbox update