Independent Publisher v1.7

Independent Publisher v1.7 has been released. This release includes 8 bug fixes, 12 enhancements, and 7 new language translations (Indonesian, Dutch, Mongolian, Portuguese-Brazil, Chinese, Turkish, and Italian).

There have been 86 commits by 15 contributors since v1.6 was released almost 2 years ago! That brings the total number to 20 contributors since this project started in 2013.

Enhancement: Featured Images for Pages

Now Posts aren’t the only thing to support Featured Images and Full-Width Featured Images (i.e., Post Covers): Pages now support them as well!

Notable Bug Fixes in v1.7

Several bugs have been fixed in v1.7, most notably a bug that caused the post excerpts on the home page to use the Link Color instead of the Text Color. Another bug worth mentioning is one where only one category would appear above the title on the Single Post Page when more than one category was selected.

This update also includes a security fix for an XSS vulnerability in independent_publisher_replytocom().

Improved Link Post Format

Posts that use the Link Post Format now have the title shown and include an external link icon. Combining this post format with a plugin like Page Links To would make for a nice Link Format experience.

Support for WP-PageNavi

This release adds support for the popular WP-PageNavi plugin, giving you more control over pagination.

Webmentions, Microformats 2, and IndieWeb

Webmentions are a modern update to Pingback, created by the IndieWebCamp, which describes itself as “a people-focused alternative to the ‘corporate web’,” where your content is yours, you are better connected, and you are in control.

The IndieWeb philosophy aligns very nicely with why I started the Independent Publisher project in the first place and I’m thrilled that the Independent Publisher theme is now one of only a few WordPress themes to properly support Webmentions.

In Independent Publisher v1.7, Pingbacks and Trackbacks now show up collectively under a section titled “Webmentions” and the theme is now compatible with IndieWeb WordPress plugins.

Webmentions, pingbacks, and trackbacks now show up as a list at the bottom of the post:

Full Changelog for v1.7:

• Bug Fix: When using the Single-column Layout, there was an unnecessary margin between the top of the post content and the bottom of the featured image. This has been removed.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a missing closing </li> element in the Pings List function.
• Bug Fix: When “Show Avatars” was disabled, the Header Image would appear on all pages except the Single Posts (where the Author Avatar shows up). For Single-Author Blogs who want to disable Avatars for the comments section, this resulted in the Header Image (often set to the single author’s personal avatar) would show everywhere except on Single Posts. This was fixed by using the Header Image on Single Posts when Show Avatars is disabled and “Enable Multi-Author Mode” (in Appearance –> Customize –> General Options) was also disabled (i.e., the blog is a single-author blog). Props to @rmorabia for reporting this. See #187.
• Bug Fix: Fixed an erroneous closing </div> in inc/template-tags.php. Props to @poolghost. See #195.
• Bug Fix: Fixed an XSS vulnerability in independent_publisher_replytocom(). Props to @henryk. See #200.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the post excerpts on the home page would use the Link Color instead of the Text Color. Props @adamcroom and Jakub Kapusnak. See Issue #188.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug with changing Comment Form Background color in Customizer. Props @manishsuwal and @diogeneskelsen. See Issue #173.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where only one category would appear above the title on the Single Post Page when more than one category was selected; now all of categories appear. If you prefer the old behavior of only showing one category even when multiple categories have been selected, see Issue #196.
• Enhancement: Pages now support Featured Images and Full-Width Featured Images (i.e., Post Covers). See #171.
• Enhancement: Posts with a Gallery Post Format that include a Featured Image now display the Featured Image in Archive views (home page, date-based archives, category/tag-based archives, etc.). Props to @joch. See #178.
• Enhancement: Added RSS Icon support to Social Menu. You can now add menu items to the Social Menu that have URLs containing /feed and those will show the RSS Icon. See Issue #190.
• Enhancement: Theme Customizer CSS is now compressed and loaded via an external file. This increases page load time and cleans up the main HTML source. See #116.
• Enhancement: Deprecated the wp_title() function. The WordPress Core wp_title() function has been deprecated as of WordPress v4.1. See this post for more information.
• Enhancement: Optimized several escape and translation functions, replacing esc_attr( __() ) with esc_html_e(). Props @stevenatwork. See Issue #214 and Issue #215.
• Enhancement: Improved the Link Post Format style. The title is now shown and includes an external link icon. Props @iksa01 and @kOoLiNuS for feedback. See Issue #160.
• Enhancement: Added a new “Show Author Card on Single Posts” option to the Theme Customizer General Options. The default is enabled (the original behavior) but this can be disabled if you prefer not to show the author card at the bottom of Single posts. (Note that the author card only appears at the bottom of Single posts when using Single-Column Layout or when the browser resizes to less than 1200px wide.) See Issue #134.
• Enhancement: Added support for WP-PageNavi. Props @tarampampam. See Issue #179.
• Enhancement: Pings/trackbacks at the bottom of Single Posts are now shown even if the post has no comments. (Previously they only appeared when there was at least one comment.)
• Enhancement: Added support for Webmentions via the IndieWebCamp WordPress plugins. Props to @chrisaldrich, @dshanske, @raaphorst, @raumzeit77 for help and ideas. See Issues #201, #197, and #155.
• Enhancement: Added Microformats 2 markup. This includes a change to the classes applied to the content DIV on listings of posts: If an excerpt is being shown, the classes are entry-summary e-summary; if the full content is being shown, entry-content e-content is used. If you have a Child Theme with custom CSS targeting entry-content, you may need to update it to include entry-summary. Props @dshanske. See Issue #221.
• Translations: Added Indonesian language translation (props to @ekajogja). See #159.
• Translations: Added Dutch language translation (props to @raaphorst). See [#151]
  (https://github.com/raamdev/independent-publisher/issues/151).
• Translations: Improved Dutch language translation (props to @SpaceK33z). See #174.
• Translations: Added Mongolian translation (props @uugankhuu). See #175.
• Translations: Added Portuguese-Brazil language translation (props to @rmmartins). See #183.
• Translations: Added Simplified Chinese language translation (props to @iwillhappy1314). See #193.
• Translations: Added Turkish language translation (props @pekermert). See #207.
• Translations: Added Italian translations. (Props @kOoLiNuS).

If you installed the theme from WordPress.org, you should see a notification to update the theme from within your WordPress Dashboard (Dashboard → Updates). Otherwise, you can download v1.7 from WordPress.org.

If you need support, please visit the theme support forum.