I put the following code on top of my 404.php before get_header():

// @version 2011.12.23
// matches 'img.png' and 'img.gif?hello=world'
if ( preg_match( '~\.(jpe?g|png|gif|svg|bmp)(\?.*)?$~i', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ) )
{
    header( 'Content-Type: image/png' );
    locate_template( 'img/404.png', TRUE, TRUE );
    exit;
}

My 404 image is bright, eye-hurting red to let me see it easily during the tests.

License: WTFPL. Grab it while it’s red.

Also including comment-reply.js can be optimized. In the Theme TwentyEleven we can find it in header.php (Line 58):

if ( is_singular() && get_option( 'thread_comments' ) )
	wp_enqueue_script( 'comment-reply' );

That means, if "Enable threaded (nested) comments" in the Discussion Settings is activated and if it's on a single page, then load the script comments-reply.js.
But we also don't need the script on pages where there is no comment form and not on the homepage if it's a page. Neither do we need the script if comments are closed or not allowed.
Or easier to say: We only need it, if "Enable threaded comments" is activated and a comment form is displayed.

Using the example of TwentyEleven I show now how to do it better. First, we delete from the header.php the lines

if ( is_singular() && get_option( 'thread_comments' ) )
	wp_enqueue_script( 'comment-reply' );

In the functions.php we implement the enqueue function of the script

function xtreme_enqueue_comments_reply() {
	if( get_option( 'thread_comments' ) )  {
		wp_enqueue_script( 'comment-reply' );
	}
}

Now we get to the important part. We add to the function twentyeleven_setup() this line:

add_action( 'comment_form_before', 'xtreme_enqueue_comments_reply' );

The Hook comment_form_before is only there when the comment form is loaded and we are adding the enqueue function for the script. A positive side effect, the script is now loaded at the end of the document and does not hinder the loading of the site.
At best, you create a Child Theme, so the changes are protected against overwriting when you update WordPress the next time. Maybe the WordPress Dev team will use this approach in a future version of their default Theme TwentyEleven.

On 24th of September started the first WordPress Jeopardy Game Session. For that, the whole room was divided in two teams to battle each other. The points were counted, but nobody really knows who won.

The WPJeopardy was made with WordPress features. Every answer is a post with its postmeta as questions and points. First of all, there’s a german game-pad. In future there will be some more different pads for several skills. Also, there will be a download-area with the theme and the playable pads.

The Background

First of all, the website is just a simple and clean WordPress instance. There’s a self-made theme. For the game-pad, there’s a customized template, which is very easy. We need a list of the post-categories and the posts, which are in the given category:

<?php
$x = 1;
$cat_args = array( 'parent' => 0 );
$categories = get_categories( $cat_args );
foreach ( $categories as $category ) :

	// Display headline of the category here

	$y = 1;
	$post_args = array( 'category' => $category -> term_id );
	$posts = get_posts( $post_args );
	foreach ( $posts as $post ) :
		// Display post answer, question and points here

	endforeach;
endforeach;
?>

The rest of it is simple CSS and jQuery with an onClick event and some positioning stuff. Well, in all, it’s not magic. It’s not even hard to understand how Jeopardy works.

Besides many small changes under the hood, the new Widget System Extensions is one of the biggest innovation in Xtreme One.

• For multisite installations widgets can be declared as a side wide widgets, which means they appear on all existing and future blogs.
• Widget Manager to manage various features as well as turning on or off the widgets.
• Extremely comfortable widget filtering logic, see video: Different sliders for different categories including conditional editor with drag and drop and syntax check.
• Quick duplication of widgets for multiple use.
• Simple combining multiple widgets to a tabber, see video: Create a tabber from widgets.
• Scripts will only load when they are needed.

Also new are the jFancy Mediaslider and a Carousel Slider, which are available for posts and as a media slider. With the media slider you can just insert images from your media library instead of choosing an image of a post. You can link these images either to the attachment page, the corresponding article or a user defined link.

The Xtreme Social Widget added the new Google+.

Another feature are the subtitles for posts, pages and custom post format.

Xtreme One Framework supports post formats. Thus it is possible with any Childtheme, to operate a Tumblr-like blog.

The selectable positions of the navigation has been increased to 12.

Xtreme One costs only $79,95 and is available here.

How can you win a license?

We are giving away 5 licenses for the Xtreme One Framework with a Childtheme of your choice. One license will be given away among the commentators in our comment area. 2 more will be raffled among those who tweet with the Hashtag #xtremeonewpe about Xtreme One and two licenses will be raffled among all the bloggers who write about Xtreme One in their blog and leave a trackback here. The raffle will run until September 23rd 2011, 23:59:59 PST Time.

The winner will be announced on September 24th at the end of our Xtreme One session at the WordCamp Germany in Cologne.

Good Luck to everyone!

We just announced the winner of the licenses here:

Congrats to the winner!

Everybody else can grab a 20% discount for Xtreme One until October 3rd 2011 with the coupon code: WCK11

The second highlight is the new Xtreme Backup. Xtreme Backup enables you to save the complete configuration of your Childtheme and your Widgets as a XML file on your computer. Therefore you can develop local or on another server, create backups and use them right away on your live system. A matter of seconds!

These two new features, optional HTML5 output and infinitely different layouts and the userfriendly backend makes Xtreme One become the most innovative WordPress Framework. Xtreme One costs only $79,95 and can be purchased here.

Today, let’s look at something, that most professionals never see: empty searches. You offer a search input field, and someone hits the submit button unintentionally, without any term entered. The resulting URI looks like this: example.com/?s=. It shows the same content as your front page. In fact, it is the front page.

No one needs that.

Therefore, I have added a simple rule to my .htaccess:

# Catch empty searches
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^s=$
RewriteRule ^ /? [L,R=301]

Add these lines right after the RewriteBase directive.

Next, I wanted to save my visitors the unnecessary request. I have written a simple jQuery plugin:

/**
 * Stop empty searches
 *
 * @author Thomas Scholz http://toscho.de
 * @param  $ jQuery object
 * @return bool|object
 */
(function( $ ) {
   $.fn.preventEmptySubmit = function( options ) {
       var settings = {
           inputselector: "#s",
           msg          : "Don’t waste your time with an empty search!"
       };

       if ( options ) {
           $.extend( settings, options );
       };

       this.submit( function() {
           var s = $( this ).find( settings.inputselector );
           if ( ! s.val() ) {
               alert( settings.msg );
               s.focus();
               return false;
           }
           return true;
       });
       return this;
   };
})( jQuery );

I call it in my footer scripts:

jQuery( "#searchform" ).preventEmptySubmit();

Note that my search form element has an id attribute with the value searchform. Adjust the selector to match your current theme. To change the message, just add an option for it:

jQuery( "#searchform" ).preventEmptySubmit({ msg: "This won’t work!" });

You may use the script for other input elements too. Set the selector in the second option inputselector. Say, you have a form with the id discountcode and a field with the id dcodenumber:

jQuery( "#discountcode" ).preventEmptySubmit(
{
   msg: "No number, no discount, sorry!",
   inputselector: "dcodenumber"
});

Useful? Any hints?

xtreme-theme.com is a WordPress Multi-site installation and the support forum is a vBulletin 4.0 Forum, which is located in a separate directory and under the subdomain support.xtreme-theme.com. Currently we have 6 blogs plus the Childtheme demo blogs:

• xtreme-theme.com - English Xtreme Theme pages
• de.xtreme-theme.com - German Xtreme Theme pages
• dokumentation.xtreme-theme.com - German Xtreme One documentation
• documentation.xtreme-theme.com - Englisch Xtreme One documentation
• knowledgebase.xtreme-theme.com - English Knowledge Base
• wissen.xtreme-theme.com - German Knowledge Base

All blogs are powered by Xtreme One (what else?) and 3 Childthemes. The Childthemes have their own textual domains to be able to use 2 languages. There are the strings included that do not occur in the framework. We don't use a language Plugin. We write in English and German.

The themes, showcases and testimonials are Custom Post type with some additional custom fields, such as the Buy-Link, the price etc. . For the output of the testimonials I built a widget where I can display English or German. Since we are using on different subdomains some of the Xtreme One Widgets, such as the slider for the Childthemes, I modified the widgets a bit, so that they can execute multi-site queries. Via a selectbox I can choose which blog I want to query.

Every Childtheme Demo Blog runs on a separate subdomain. We wrote a small Plugin that creates the theme switcher. The Plugin adds in Super Admin at Sites, an extra box, with the demo blogs are selected. The data for the price and the purchase link will then be queried by xtreme-theme.com and generates the Switcher. If I add a new demo blog, I just have to check the checkbox and it's ready.

We wanted the main page, the documentation and the knowledge base to be in a different look. We realized it with 3 Childthemes, and up to a few small changes to the templates, we just changed the CSS and other graphics are used. The entire header with the two navigations are the same on all domains, so it keeps the same look and feel for the navigation for better usability. We use only the WP Menu, which I don't wanna miss again. For the flags in the navigation, we used the CSS classes en and de and styled accordingly. Such a thing was previously not so easy.

Integration of the many different layouts and sidebars was with the layout manager of Xtreme One only a matter of minutes. Select desired containers, set width, select sidebars and hit save. So all core functions of Xtreme One. Only for the integration of Google Analytics and a few little things that happen at all Subdomanis, I've written a Plugin to not do these things more than once.

It was and is an exciting project and there is much more to come.

/**
 * return post thumbnail inside style in head
 */
if ( !function_exists('fb_background_image') ) {

	function fb_background_image() {
		// only frontend
		if ( is_feed() || is_trackback() ) {
			return;
		}

		// default image, when no set an post thumbnail
		if ( !has_post_thumbnail($GLOBALS['post']->ID) ) {
			$style = '<style type="text/css">.banner {background-image:url(\'' . get_bloginfo('stylesheet_directory') . '/images/banner.jpg\');} </style>' . "\n\n";
		} else {
			// get post thumbnail
			$image = wp_get_attachment_image_src(
				get_post_thumbnail_id($GLOBALS['post']->ID),
				'banner' // size for image; defined via add_image_siz
			);

			$style = sprintf(
				'<style type="text/css">.banner {background-image:url(\'%s\');}</style>',
				esc_attr($image[0]),
				"\n\n"
			);
		}
		if ($style)
			echo $style;
	}

	// add functions
	add_action( 'wp_head', 'fb_background_image' );
	add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );
	add_image_size( 'banner', 980, 350, true );

}

Why another WordPress Framework?

My idea of a WordPress Framework starts where most of the others are given up - to give the user the complete control of his layout. That's why Xtreme One is worldwide the only WordPress Framework, which is able to create fixed, fluid and flexible layouts. Create in a matter of minutes your own desired website layout with just a few mouse clicks! Check out the video and get convinced by Xtreme One.

Focus on the most important thing – your vision!

Efficient functions enables you to work extremely fast, without writing code. Hence, you have more time to create your design.

It's the details that matter

• 6 layout variations in content area.
• Widths of sidebars flexible adjustable in px, em or %
• Free positionable navigations with 4 different stylesheets for WP Menus, page or categories
• Able to add teaser and footer with dynamical created widget areas in 28 layout variations and up to 5 columns.
• Layoutmanager  - different layouts and sidebars
• 12 additional widgets: 3 slider widgets, 5 widgets for column and row based output of your articles and pages, printable and accessible tabber, last tweets, newsletter and social links.
• 3 comment form layouts, additional text fields, adjustable avatar size and alignment
• Combining of stylesheets and stylesheet compression.
• Multisite and Localization ready, in English and German.
• Extensive documentation, support forum, knowledgebase, free updates
• and a lot more

Launch rebate until December 13th

To celebrate the launch of Xtreme One Framework, we will give you a $10 rebate until December 13th. Just type in LAUNCH in the Discount Coupon field when you check out.

And that's only the beginning!

In the coming months, we will come up with many more innovative ideas for Xtreme One and we will try to make Xtreme One the best WordPress Framework out there. I know it's tough goal, but we will try to deliver!

Buy it now for a limited time for $69,95 and receive free updates with even more features in the future. We hope you will enjoy Xtreme One!

We are looking forward to hear your feedback!

Change Logo

In the first code example I include the favicon, a fast and simple way. Alternatively you can include a logo of your Theme, therefore the 2nd code example. Each of the following example belongs into the functions.php of the Themes.

function fb_custom_login_logo() {
	$style = '<style type="text/css"> h1 a { background: transparent url(' . get_bloginfo('url') . '/favicon.ico) no-repeat 30px center !important; } </style>';
	echo $style;
}
add_action( 'login_head', 'fb_custom_login_logo' );

function fb_custom_login_logo() {
	$style = '<style type="text/css"> h1 a { background: transparent url(' . get_bloginfo('template_directory') . '/images/your-logo-image.png) no-repeat center top !important; } </style>';
	echo $style;
}
add_action( 'login_head', 'fb_custom_login_logo' );

Now we adjusted the logo, but the name at the hover effect is still not the one we want. Therefore is a hook available.

Change name

We correspond with the hook and deliver with the following code snippet the name of the blog, which lies in the database. Alternatively you can query static content or your own fields.

function fb_login_headertitle() {
	$name = get_option('blogname');
	echo $name;
}
add_filter( 'login_headertitle', 'fb_login_headertitle' );

Change link

Now we want to adjust the link, so a klick on the logo will send us to the frontend of the website. And again, there is a hook available.

function fb_login_headerurl() {
	$url = bloginfo('url');
	echo $url;
}
add_filter( 'login_headerurl', 'fb_login_headerurl' );

Three simple possibilities which should belong in almost every Theme. So that the login page perfectly fits to the website. It looks more professional and your customer will be thankful.