[theme-reviewers] Tutorial: Incorporating the Settings API in WordPress Themes

Fri Feb 18 13:26:52 UTC 2011

I'll probably cross the "file upload" issue down the road - though, likely,
*far* down the road (as my Theme currently has no need for any user-uploaded
files). Maybe I'll add a "custom favicon" option (though my personal
preference is for favicons to be Plugin territory, and not tied to a
particular Theme).

I love Justin Tadlock's Series Plugin; I've made some use of it in the past.
The problem here was that I found it difficult to break the content up
logically in a way that would facilitate separate Posts. So, I went with
simple pagination instead.

Now that it's done, perhaps I can go back and do some editorial work, and at
least provide some Heading anchors, if it would be helpful for linking?

And, I'm happy to take the time for something like this. I like to write
posts like these, especially when I can document something as I'm learning
how to do it - both for my own memory, and to pass on anything useful that I
may have learned. It probably cost me the equivalent time away from
performing some Theme reviews, but part of the mission of the Theme Review
Team is also to provide an educational resource for Theme developers. So
hopefully the review queue will forgive me. :)

Chip

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Rahul Bansal <rahul.bansal at rtcamp.com>wrote:

> Length is worth the info. Didn't get time to read in detail till now.
>
> For ease of navigation, you may break articles into entirely different
> pages/posts and bind them using a series plugin.
> Other reason for this suggestion is that article in series will have their
> own URLs that will have advantages like:
>
>    - We can refer people to particular subtopic by sharing a unique post
>    article
>    - permalinks will contain keywords like "Register Settings and Define
>    Form Sections/Fields" etc. This wil give better search engine visibility. I
>    am less concerned about traffic gain that wil result, but my intention is to
>    indirectly help Google give better article so developers can avoid following
>    "wrong" article.
>
> Series creation may require 1-2 hours of extra time from you!
>
> On sidenote, after taking quick overview, I felt that the article missed
> information about "file upload" box. (I searched "upload" keyword on "all"
> article page to crosscheck". Many times I find
> developers complaining register_settings has issues with file-uploads.
>
> Thanks again for taking so much time to write something like this. :-)
>
> --
> Rahul Bansal | Founder & CEO | rtCamp Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
> Skype: rahul286 | Twitter: @rahul286 | Web: http://rtcamp.com/
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 6:27 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> I was worried about the length of the article, but it didn't seem to make
>> sense to split it into multiple posts.
>>
>> Do you think it would be useful to do a more slimmed-down follow-up post,
>> that leaves out some of the advanced topics, like Settings page tabs,
>> contextual help, etc.?
>>
>> Chip
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 6:51 AM, Rahul Bansal <rahul.bansal at rtcamp.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Great article... :-)
>>>
>>> Added to - http://make.wordpress.org/themes/about/resources/ (comments
>>> section)
>>>
>>> Timing is good as well! 10 pages gives a lot to explore on weekend! ;-)
>>>
>>> --
>>> Rahul Bansal | Founder & CEO | rtCamp Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
>>> Skype: rahul286 | Twitter: @rahul286 | Web: http://rtcamp.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>>>
>>>> All,
>>>>
>>>> I have just published a tutorial: Incorporating the Settings API in
>>>> WordPress Themes <http://bit.ly/hHjo6n>:
>>>>
>>>>  While others such as Otto<http://ottopress.com/2009/wordpress-settings-api-tutorial/>
>>>>  and Ozh<http://planetozh.com/blog/2009/05/handling-plugins-options-in-wordpress-28-with-register_setting/> have
>>>> done yeomen's work in explaining how to implement the Settings API, I have
>>>> not yet come across anything that really put everything together, and
>>>> explained the process and implementation from beginning to end, in a way
>>>> that even the less-experienced Theme developers (like me) could easily
>>>> understand.
>>>>
>>>> This tutorial will attempt to fill that gap, by providing examples of
>>>> current (as of the pending release of WordPress 3.1) best-practice
>>>> implementation, not merely of the Settings API, but of Theme Options
>>>> implementation as a whole, including:
>>>>
>>>>    - Registering options in the database as a single options array
>>>>    - Initializing default options
>>>>    - Creating a single Theme Settings page (with tabs)
>>>>    - Defining settings page sections and fields
>>>>    - Validating and white-listing user-input form data
>>>>    - Adding Settings Page contextual help
>>>>    - Enqueueing custom CSS for the Settings page
>>>>    - Implementing settings in the Theme template files
>>>>    - Enqueueing front-end CSS
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Please give it a read; I hope it is helpful. Also, any feedback,
>>>> comments, corrections, criticism, etc. is welcome, so please comment!
>>>>
>>>> Chip
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wordpress.org/pipermail/theme-reviewers/attachments/20110218/9f9d1a66/attachment-0001.htm>