Archive for tag 'wordpress'

Jan 30 2012

Update about the Arctica theme for WordPress

After being in the review queue for the official WordPress theme directory for more than three months, the Arctica theme was finally reviewed a day ago. Since it was based on the same code base as my two latest themes, Asokay and Lagom (which are both approved and published on wordpress.org), I expected the review of Arctica to result in an approval as well.

I was wrong. Arctica was turned down, with the only argument being that it "appears to be a copy of Toolbox with only minor style changes". With the approved Asokay and Lagom in mind, and knowing the amount of changes that I had to make to get those two approved, I disagree with that conclusion and have asked the reviewer to clarify why Arctica is treated differently than my previous two themes. Until I get a chance to understand the reason for the non-approval, Arctica will still be available from this site, just like before. It works well, but you will not get update notifications inside the WP-admin until the theme is approved and added to the wordpress.org theme directory.

By Andreas Viklund • General • 1 Tags: , ,

Jan 11 2012

How do WordPress plugins affect site performance?

One of the best things about building websites with WordPress is the flexibility you get from the wide range of WordPress plugins available. But every plugin that is added affects the performance of the website. If the number of installed plugins is high, the difference can be quite significant. Dev4Press has published a detailed test showing how 35 different plugins affect the performance of a WordPress website, and it is a really interesting post that provides a good point on optimization by simplification. In some cases, it may actually not be worth installing some plugins as the negative effect on performance is bigger tan te positive effect of the added feature. Check it out, and if you know about more tests similar to this, I'd be happy to know about them.

By Andreas Viklund • General • 2 Tags: , ,

Jan 3 2012

WordPress 3.3.1 released

Just a short note: A new version of WordPress has been released. WordPress 3.3.1 is called a "security and maintenance release", and it fixes a number of issues found in the recent v3.3 release. As always, updating to the latest release is highly recommended.

By Andreas Viklund • General • 4 Tags: ,

Jan 2 2012

Now available: The Arctica theme for WordPress

Since more than 80 days have passed since I submitted this theme to the official WordPress theme directory queue, and since the theme is marked as being under review since a number of weeks, I decided to make my next theme available on this site and keep it here until it shows up in the official theme directory. This means that you can now download the first version of the Arctica theme and try it out.

Arctica is a basic 2-column blog theme, built upon a HTML5 code base (derived from Toolbox) and enhanced by CSS3 and a custom webfont. It is classical, by some measures to a level getting close to being oldschool. But the feedback has been very positive so far, and it is a theme which I could very well end up using myself if I would launch a personal blog some time in the future.

Give it a try, and let me know what you think about it. Feature suggestions, bug reports and general feedback are always welcome. As always, you can preview the theme on my theme demo site.

To download the Arctica theme directly, use this link: Arctica theme for WordPress (.zip, 179 Kb).

By Andreas Viklund • Build • 4 Tags: , ,

Dec 12 2011

WordPress v3.3 ("Sonny") is released

After months of beta testing and three release candidates, WordPress version 3.3 has now been released. It has been given the name "Sonny" in honor of jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt, and as always it features a number of new additions and features. It can be installed through the administration area of existing self-hosted WordPress websites, or downloaded from WordPress.org. The WordPress themes from andreasviklund.com have all been tested with the release candidates and should work just fine. If, however, you run into any problem, please let me know and I'll make sure to fix it quickly.

By Andreas Viklund • Build • 5 Tags: ,

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