Independent Publisher v1.8 was released on May 29th, 2017. This release includes 7 bug fixes, 9 enhancements, a new Armenian translation, an update to the Italian translation, and several other smaller changes.
There have been 53 commits by 6 contributors since v1.7 was released 1 year ago. That brings the total number to 24 contributors since this project started in 2013, which just so happens to be the same year that my daughter, featured in these release posts, was born. 🙂
As of this release of the theme, there are 340 stars and 88 forks on GitHub, 244 subscribers on the mailing list, 157 likes on Facebook, and 118 followers on Twitter.
Enhancement: Post Thumbnails for Excerpts
This release includes a new option that allows you to show the Post Thumbnail (i.e., the Featured Image for a post) right above the Post Excerpt on the Home Page and other Archive pages. An example is shown below, with Post Excerpts and the Generate One-Sentence Excerpts option enabled.
Full Changelog for v1.8:
- Bug Fix: Fixed bug where Microformats 2 support was not being loaded during theme setup. Props @Ruxton. See Issue #231.
- Bug Fix: Fixed CSS padding for WP-PageNavi integration that was breaking in Firefox. Props @johlym and @vskjefst. See Issue #229.
- Bug Fix: Removed an extra space after the opening parenthesis in the pagination page count on Archive Views, e.g., “( this is page 1 of 2)”. Props @vskjefst and @jimmymansaray. See Issue #263.
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where an empty parenthesis would be displayed when archive views have more than one item, but less than enough items to require pagination. Props @vskjefst and @Furgelnod. See Issue #249.
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where leaving a comment with a Site URL that contains a percent sign would generate a PHP Notice indicating “Warning: printf(): Too few arguments”. Props @mritzmann. See Issue #248.
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the
aria-labelattribute in the comment “Reply to” link contained a duplicate copy of the author name, which affected users with screen readers. Props to Alex for reporting. See Issue #252. - Bug Fix: Fixed a bug when using RTL mode that prevented the Customizer CSS from being applied. See Issue #230.
- Enhancement: Improved compliance with WP coding standards. Props @jeherve. See Issue #232.
- Enhancement: Added additional
if ( ! function_exists() )checks to allow overriding from a Child Theme. Props @jeherve. See Issue #232. - Enhancement: Moved “Related Tags” to its own function so that it could be easily overwritten with a Child Theme. Props @jeherve. See Issue #233.
- Enhancement: Added a new option to Show Post Thumbnails when displaying excerpts. By default, this option is disabled but if you have excerpts enabled and you want show the Post Thumbnail above the excerpt, you can enable this option in Dashboard → Appearance → Customize → Excerpt Options. See Issue #218.
- Enhancement: Added new option to Show Full Name in Comment Reply-to Link. By default, Independent Publisher only shows the First Name of the commenter in the “Reply to…” link below each comment. This new option lets you always show the Full Name (first name + last name), if available. Props @vskjefst. See Issue #237.
- Enhancement: Improved handling of Customizer default colors. Props @vskjefst. See Issue #240.
- Enhancement: Refactored code that outputs the
title=""attribute for Post Title and Post Thumbnail links. The functionsindependent_publisher_post_link_title()andindependent_publisher_post_thumbnail_link_title()can now be easily overridden in a Child Theme. Props @vskjefst. See Issue #241. - Enhancement: Upgraded Genericons to v3.4.1. Props @vskjefst. See Issue #245.
- Enhancement: Updated the Archive Page Template (
page_archive-template.php) to only show “Most Used Categories” list when there are more than one. Props @FokkeZB. See Issue #255. - Translations: Updated Italian translation. Props @kOoLiNuS. See this commit.
- Translations: Added Armenian translation. Props @hanumanum. See Issue #265.
- Validation: The Site Title and Site Description now use
div‘s instead ofh1andh2, which should be reserved for the post content. Props @PedroFumero. See Issue #261. - Deprecated:
independent_publisher_pings()has been deprecated in favor ofindependent_publisher_mentions(), which also supports Webmentions. See this commit - Removed: Removed Jetpack Sharing enhancements. These enhancements are no longer necessary as the Jetpack sharing output has improved since these were implemented. Any desired changes to the Jetpack Sharing buttons should now be applied on a case-by-case basis using a Child Theme. See this commit.
- New Filter: Added filter for the ‘Webmentions’ title section at the bottom of Single posts. This can now be filtered using
independent_publisher_webmentions_title. Also removedindependent_publisher_pingslist_*filters fromREADME.mdas those filters were removed when webmention support was added in v1.7. See this commit.
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 v1.8 from WordPress.org.
If you need support, please visit the theme support forum.
Thanks Raam! I really appreciate the work you put into this.
I just moved to this theme a short while ago after hunting for a good one – love it so far!
Thanks, Andy! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. 🙂
Congratulations on 1.8, Raam! Great work.
Thank you, Vegard! I love the “Review Score” you have in the sidebar for review posts on your site—very cool. 🙂 Also: Keep me away from Stellaris… that looks like something that could devour a large chunk of my life!
Hey Raam! Thanks for the great theme! I use it on my personal website https://viktorfonic.com
I want to add portfolio to the site. Is there any support for that in the theme?
Thanks,
Viktor
Hi Viktor,
This theme does not currently support any portfolio features.
Incredibly user-friendly theme. Very long chose, but stopped on this. Thank you Raam!
I’m glad you’re enjoying it, Roman! 🙂
Just looking for a Medium-like theme and really love this theme. So beautiful.
Thank you, Anh! I’m glad you’re enjoying the theme.
Hi Raam,
I love your theme! I’m trying to set up a blog with it, but I’m having an issue with text breaks automatically splitting words between lines and inserting hyphens (e.g. here: http://tomblagden.co.uk/about-tom-blagden/)
Is there an easy way to disable this? I’ve looked online and found various bits of code which I’ve tried pasting into a the Jetpack custom CSS module, but it doesn’t seem to be having an effect.
Thanks,
Tom
Hey Tom,
That’s part of the CSS defined for this theme. You can override that behavior to remove the auto-hyphens by using the following CSS (either in a Child Theme or using Jetpack’s Edit CSS feature):
.entry-content { -webkit-hyphens: none; -webkit-hyphens: none; hyphens: none; }Great work.
vielen Dank
Thanks, Alex!
Hello Raam, I am just dropping by to let you know I have installed your theme on my site. Very new to the IndieWeb but excited to see how it might broaden my horizons. I am sure you are very busy but do you expect that you will be providing future updates? Thanks again …
Hi David,
Apologies for the very delayed reply here! It looks like you’re not using the Independent Publisher theme anymore, but I wanted to let you know that I do plan to continue updating this theme in the future. If you’re still interested in the theme, I’d love to hear what sorts of features you’re looking forward to.
Hi! Thanks for this theme, it’s so simple and beautiful!
I want to add the ‘further reading’ section to every post but I don’t know how to do it.
Hi María,
I’m happy to hear you’ve enjoyed the theme!
If you still need help, can you please post your support question over here on the support forum: https://wordpress.org/support/theme/independent-publisher/
Do you have any plans to release a new version (since it’s been over a year since v1.8)?
Hey Robert! I apologize for the really late reply here. I do plan to continue updating this theme and I’d love to hear what sorts of updates you’d like to see.
Hello !
One year later can we expect a 1.9 release? Thanks !
Hey kOoLiNuS! Apologies for the really late reply here. I haven’t abandoned this project and I do plan to continue updating it. I’d love to hear what sorts of updates are you looking forward to.
Gutenberg support, update to the latest WP releases and PHP ones, maybe an Archive page template or some more options in the customizer? ie Fonts choice and colors to make more personal the website?
Just few ideas… the theme basically is everything’s needed to a (text) content based website/blog.
Thanks for the suggestions! Those sound like great ideas. I’d like to prioritize testing with the latest version of WordPress and PHP, and ensuring smooth Gutenberg support. If you have any other ideas, feel free to open a GitHub issue, as that’s where I’m keeping track of development. 🙂 Thanks for continuing to use the theme!
Hi Raam
I love your theme, but I’m having an issue with Author Page.
In my single Post, when I click to Author image, I switched to the home page, not Author Page.
How can I fix this problem?
Thanks,
Phuc
Hi Phuc,
Apologies for the delayed reply here. If you still need help with the theme, can you please post your support question over here on the support forum: https://wordpress.org/support/theme/independent-publisher/
Perfect theme！But it still has some issues for Chinese：
1. “read more”，surfacing as “继续阅读：%s →”;
2. can’t count Chinese characters.
Hope to check it, thanks a lot!
I’m happy to hear that you’ve enjoyed the theme! Thank you for letting me know about the issues with Chinese characters.
how to add a second widget on the right of the content?
Hi Steve,
Can you please post your support question over here on the support forum: https://wordpress.org/support/theme/independent-publisher/