• Add a page template for a page allowing comments.
• Rename page template files with tpl prefix.
• Restore Wallick/Sandbox credit oops.

Download Simplish version 2.1.9 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

Deleting your existing Simplish install directory and replacing it wholesale, rather than overwriting it, will help prevent any possible template conflicts resulting from the file rename.

We realize the list will be of use and interest mostly to developers, translators, and bug-reporters, so we will of course continue to announce new features, any problems, and new versions of the theme here on the blog.

This is significant in another way, because we usually host our own services, including lists, but I was feeling both lazy and experimental enough to take advantage of an external service for this, for now. We’ll see how it goes.

You can join by sending mail to simplish+subscribe@googlegroups.com, or by visiting the web interface for a more forum-like experience at http://groups.google.com/group/simplish.

• Add sv_SE localization files for Swedish. Thanks Clement Durand.
• Update el localization files for Greek. Thanks Demetris at op111.net.
• Switch most page-visible minus literals to – entities. Thanks Demetris at op111. (For compatibility, the minus convention is maintained in <title> elements.)

Download Simplish version 2.1.8 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

1. git [clone || pull] git://labs.utopian.net/simplish
2. simplish-2.1.8RC.tgz
3. simplish-2.1.8RC.zip
4. simplish.pot.zip (Just the .pot gettext template file.)

For inclusion in Simplish 2.1.8, send a git patch or the updated .po file for your language/region to josh@utopian.net, or put a link to your compressed .po file in the comments on this post.

Many thanks to the folks doing localizations of the theme!

The latest work on Simplish tried to scratch out the last un-gettext’d strings in the theme and finally generate a localization template (.pot file). The internationalization infrastructure is now in place, and Simplish is ready for translation into your language.

2.1.7 ships with a Greek (el) localization provided by Demetris from op111.net. To activate a translated version of the theme, follow these instructions to set your WPLANG and make WordPress run in your locale. If a .mo file for the locale exists in the simplish/languages subdirectory (true only for el right now), the theme will load it.

Download

Download Simplish version 2.1.7 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

Adding your own language to Simplish

To translate Simplish into your language, use the included languages/simplish.pot template to generate a .po file with the letter-encoding for your locale (e.g., fr_FR for the “French, France” locale). Then provide a translation for each string, saving the resulting .po and .mo files in the theme's languages subdirectory.

You can place a pointer to your translated .po file in the comments for inclusion in future versions of Simplish, or send them or a pointer via email. Given demand, we'll add features to the git repo available at git://labs.utopian.net/simplish to make for easier collaboration, but for now, git-format patches to add your translation will certainly be warmly received.

Farewell, valid Galleries

Unlike earlier versions, 2.1.7 uses the built-in WordPress gallery shortcode function instead of a custom version. This enables the settings for number of columns and other layout options that previously didn't work with the custom gallery implementation. Unfortunately, unlike the former sp_vallery() function in Simplish, the core WordPress gallery does not emit valid XHTML.

We expect WordPress's gallery shortcode will be changed to create valid XHTML at some point. Until then, any page/post including an image gallery will be invalid markup, unless a plugin or other workaround is used. The Cleaner Gallery plugin by Justin Tadlock has worked well for us.

Changes in version 2.1.7

• Move most view-bottom prev/next navigation out to an included template, prevnextnav.php.
• Delete the sp_vallery() function & don't filter WP core's gallery shortcode.
• Wrap user-visible strings with gettext _e() and __() macros.
• Change post byline to use a dash (-) to avoid issue with context of "at" in multiple languages, in absence of support in themes for gettext "contexts".
• Stop using CSS text-transform: uppercase in archive headings to avoid issue with accented characters in uppercase in many non-English languages.
• Add languages/ subdirectory and code to get locale files from there.
• Generate gettext .pot translatable strings template.
• Add el.^(po mo) localization files for Greek locale. Thanks Demetris at op111.net.

• Default sidebar Pages menu now honors admin panel page Order settings
• Footer text is once again properly aligned on the vertical

Note that any Simplish ≥ 2.1.5 is compatible only with WordPress versions ≥ 2.7.

Download Simplish version 2.1.6 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

• Auto-generated post classes (and “sticky” post support): Use post_class() everywhere but the page template
• Fix a dangling </a> that slipped into the 2.1.4 release (validation)
• Fix excess vertical spacing in content area ol / ul li elements (thanks Demetris @ op111.net)
• Eliminate some redundant or over-specified CSS rules for ol / ul li elements
• Switch to new table styling, derived from Gesso, and eliminate code adopted from Blueprint. Remove Blueprint license file and NOTICE note.
• Use new wp_logout_url() in sidebar logout link
• Replace manual includes with new get_search_form()
• Remove the ocomments.php file, and much compatibility code from functions.php (removes support for wp < 2.7)
• Replace wp_list_pages() calls with new wp_page_menu() to allow in-function “Home” link

Download Simplish version 2.1.5 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

• Support WordPress 2.7′s threaded comments.¹
• Add compatibility comments template for WordPress ≤ 2.6.5.
• Link to comments goes to heading of comments list (instead of to first comment in list).
• Fix silly feed:// typo in (default) sidebar syndication links (thanks eighty4.se).
• Fix “comments” id and class to not have same name (introduce “commentslist”).
• Use smaller 32×32 gravatar for comment author.

Download Simplish version 2.1.4 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

¹ – Threaded comment support has not yet been added to WordPress-mu, the software this blog and the Simplish Demo run atop. Until it is, you can check out Simplish’s rendition of threaded comments at a test site.

Version 2.1.3 is a tiny update that contains just one change: a contributed header background graphic (thanks to both Anonymous and Demetris) that’s 10x smaller than the original, down from ~2.7 Kilobytes to a super-slender 256 Bytes.

In other words, this update is definitely not a big deal. But it does trim the theme’s only image down to a size smaller than… most of your blog posts, and might help (a very little bit) with bandwidth or page load times if you’re using Simplish on a very-busy site.

Download Simplish version 2.1.3 here, or see it soon in the WordPress themes directory.

Demo

http://labs.utopian.net/who/josh/wp-svn/?p=1

Code

simplish-2.1.4RC.tgz

The demo shows a “jacob’s ladder” style for the comments/replies layout, where both left and right margins are indented per-thread-level. It’s an (experimental) attempt to ease the “comment chaos” feeling a deeply-threaded discussion can give.

A special thanks to Otto for his comments and his indispensable threaded comments getting-started doc.

Notes

For the theme, threaded comments support kicks off in functions.php: a function ocomments() checks if comment threading is available in your WordPress install (i.e., if wp_list_comments() exists; e.g., if it is running on version 2.7 or greater). If not, the theme loads the 2.6-compatible “old” comments template (ocomments.php), and comments look and work with no changes from previous versions. If your WordPress supports threading, the theme loads the new threaded comments template.

From there control of the feature moves to header.php. Simplish loads the comment thread JavaScript only when needed: only if threaded comments are enabled in wp-admin, and then only on single post views. The script is not loaded on multiple- and archive pages where comments are not displayed.

In this execution path, single.php runs next, and that script includes the comments.php comments template. If there are comments on the post, comments.php eventually calls wp_list_comments() to echo the comments loop, producing the threaded result.

The JavaScript enqueued previously by header.php powers the AJAX-ified reply buttons and comment form. (Comment threading will work without this client-side script, but less smoothly.)

Bugs

There may be a few issues with paging threaded comments and reversing order from ascending to descending that can break “pretty” permalinks, as the page number is not always passed into links on comments page one. This issue, if it’s not just ephemera, appears to be a bug in wp_list_comments() and most easily patched there. [Conners 2008-12-12]

Wp_list_comments() produces some hCard classes in its comment loop output, but overall, comment author hCards and comment hAtom are less complete in this testing version than in previous versions of Simplish. To re-add the additional microformat stuff, we’ll filter wp_list_comments(), but this work isn’t started yet.

One place you won’t see threaded comments for a while is here at the Simplish site/blog, nor at the “official” Simplish Demo. Both are hosted on our WordPress-mu-based Labs/Blogs project on the stable version of the multi-blog WordPress software, and MU generally trails wp.org releases and features by a few weeks at least.

Simplish 2.1.4 is planned for final release in conjunction with WordPress version 2.7 — “real soon now.”

Happy [U.S.] Thanksgiving!